More arbitrary detentions

In the morning on 30 March armed people in camouflage uniforms abducted a local resident (his surname is being specified) in Agishbatoi, Vedeno District, Chechnya. The Council of Non-governmental Organisations says a group of armed people broke into a private house and brought away the master of the house.

Several days ago officers of Russian law enforcement / security agencies seized and brought away a local resident, Umar Abdulayev, 42, in Alkhazurovo, Urus-Martan district, Chechnya. Abdulayev is an ambulance worker. His relatives say he had nothing to do with military action in Chechnya. Their attempts to establish his whereabouts and further destiny were not a success. District law enforcement and security agencies say they have nothing to do with the abduction.

On 26 March officers of law enforcement / security agencies detained a local resident, Ibrahim Shishchkhanov, in Samashki, Achkhoi-Martan district, Chechnya. He is currently kept at the District Division of Internal Affairs, according to some information.

Three unidentified people in camouflage uniforms who introduced themselves as police officers abducted a local resident in Argun on 3 April, the Argun administration told Novosti news agency.

A local resident applied to the City Division of Internal Affairs with a statement of his brother's abduction. He said three unidentified armed people broke into his house at about 9.00 pm MSK on 3 April. "The criminals brought away his brother and stole his car. This fact is currently under examination," said the agency's interlocutor.

A group of armed people abducted a local resident, Vakha Dadakhayev, in Gekhi, Urus-Martan district, at about 6.00 pm on 3 March.

His relatives applied with verbal statements to the Urus-Martan District Division of Internal Affairs, as well as to the federal base in Khankala. However, the whereabouts and further destiny of Vakha Dadakhayev remain unknown.

Overall, three local residents were abducted last weekend in different areas in Chechnya. The abductors are practically in all cases armed people in camouflage uniforms.

At about 11.00 pm on 30 March armed people in masks brought away two local residents from their own homes in Achkhoi-Martan: Tagir Kulayev, resident at 42 Chapayev St.; and Khizir Isratov, resident at 10 Vostochnaya St. Tagir Kulayev was released the next day, 31 March.

According to the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship, Tagir's sister, Satsita, said several armed people in masks broke into their house. Three of them jumped into the room where Tagir was asleep, twisted his arms and took him out in underwear. According to Satsita, she and her mother tried to interfere, but were beaten.

The abducted man's relatives informed the local police department about the abduction. Several officers of the Achkhoi-Martan District Division of Internal Affairs came to the scene in an hour or so. They examined the witnesses, seized the three cases left after shots in the house and went away. "At about 8.00 am the next morning, 31 March 2005, a strange man brought Tagir home," says Tagir's brother, Shadita.

Shadita told the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship his brother said he had been interrogated and tortured. "The criminals were interested in the whereabouts of one of our fellow-villagers, a Wahhabi, whom Tagir had not seen for a long time," says Shadita Kulayev.

Tagir took part in military action on the side of Chechen separatists, according to Shadita. He gave himself up to Chechnya's law enforcement agencies in 2004 and was probably amnestied. Shadita also explained his brother had been shadowed because the abductors knew what the brothers were doing on that day.

The Society was able to find out that an order was given to the Samashki police station from the Achkhoi-Martan District Division of Internal Affairs at about 12.00 pm on 31 March 2005, to check a column of vehicles having entered the village. Four police officers tried to stop the vehicles that were leaving Samashki. The officers shot in the air trying to stop the vehicles, but automatic weapons were fired from the vehicles in response. The skirmish went on for 10-15 minutes. After that the armed people in the vehicles tried to disarm the Samashki police officers and began to talk to them for that purpose. As a result, it turned out those were vehicles of the Grozny Regional Department for Combating Organised Crime and Federal Security Service.

The law enforcement / security agencies said they were conducting investigative activities to capture rebels and those who tried to interfere with them would be destroyed. At the moment Kulayev and Isratov were in the boot of one of the vehicles, according to the Society.

• Local man abducted, found dead
• Arbitrary detentions continue

More about North Caucasus:

• Human Rights Practices in Russia's North Caucasus - 2004