Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [73]
The year 1997 led to the new war in 1999. Today’s arrangements cannot last long either. Another war in this land, which has already wept until it has no more tears to shed, is highly probable. Make a note in your diary: the elections take place in ten days’ time.
A VIDEO PREMIERE IN CHECHNYA
March 20, 2006
Last week that section of the Russian public which takes an interest in such matters was intrigued when a couple of photographs appeared on the Internet featuring Someone Resembling Ramzan Kadyrov (hereafter, in the interests of brevity, referred to as “SRRK”). The photographs were stills from a video made using a mobile phone. This was said to be in the possession of a Canadian Chechen website. In the image SRRK is embracing an attractive young brunette in a crimson bra, and making no secret of how humanly happy he is.
A scandal erupted. The guardians of morality railed, the Chechen Prosecutor’s Office managed a turn of speed not seen for a long time by announcing that very evening that it was opening a criminal case against the perpetrators of this impertinence. Not, needless to say, in order to establish the identity of SRRK.
Those two photos, however, were mere child’s play. The “Bathhouse Video’, as it was titled, is nothing compared with other videos featuring that same SRRK and his henchmen, also made with the aid of mobile telephones, which have come into the possession of Novaya gazeta.
Right, then: Scene 1. Chronologically the first video, this was also the first to arrive at our office. A typical Grozny street, evidently in late autumn 2005, probably November. A trivial local incident: a road accident involving a federal armoured personnel carrier (there are no non-federal APCs in Chechnya) and a car belonging to somebody from the so-called Chechen security forces. Numerous people in the uniform of the Kadyrov “Security Service” run in from off-camera. Among the crowd there are also members of the Highway Patrol Militia. The crowd is rushing over to where Russian soldiers are lying on the ground, evidently from the APC involved in the accident.
One federal who is still on his feet is pushed by men in Kadyrovite uniforms to where the others are lying. The mob crowds round. Flailing arms, fists, rifle butts. The one-eyed mobile phone follows what is happening.
A member of the Highway Patrol shouts in Chechen, “Stop beating them! Disperse! Aslanbek!” Those filming with the mobile phone say in Chechen, “They haven’t had enough yet” and in Russian add, “The bastards.” And again in Chechen, “We’ll show them not to disrespect Ramzan!”
Eventually the crowd parts. The bodies of the soldiers, sprawled on the wet, muddy shoulder of a Chechen road, are left lying motionless, face down in the mud. One of them gets his head stamped on. He does not react. Either they are dead or completely unconscious. One thing is clear, they have been thoroughly beaten up.
Scene 2. Possibly January this year, or maybe December last year. A dense crowd of men wearing a variety of combat fatigues in a market, either in Grozny or Gudermes. From the loudspeakers of a market booth pour the lyrics of a Russian pop song: “There is harmony in the world …” In the middle of the crowd SRRK is visible.
The filming is being done from a car window. The two people involved in the filming are speaking quietly in Chechen. “What’s he doing, shoving him in the boot?” “Yes.” “They’re shoving another one in.” “Yes, two of them.” “Do you see? It’s a Lada 10.” “Is Ramzan getting into the 10?” “I can’t hear what they’re saying because of you!”
The crowd of men in combat fatigues is churning about in Brownian motion. SRRK is directing the process from the middle of the mêlée. The paramilitaries are manhandling someone, who is not resisting, into the boot of a white Lada 10. Then they start shoving in a second man who is less willing. One paramilitary