Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [95]
We insist that there should at the very least be an internal inquiry focusing on the conduct of the generals at the Interior Ministry headquarters who decided to send the Khanties back to Chechnya. These generals are facilitating the ongoing committing of war crimes in Chechnya and their decision is tantamount to obstructing the course of justice. If this was simply the result of incompetence, we trust that an explanation to that effect will be forthcoming from the agencies whose job it is to plan deployments in Chechnya, together with an apology for their carelessness and for failing to appreciate the situation. Let it, nevertheless, be clear that this carelessness is criminal. Whoever was guilty of it, whether deliberately or not, is impeding investigation of the crimes of the Khanty-Mansiysk Combined Militia Unit.
MATERIAL EVIDENCE IS IN THE TRUSTWORTHY HANDS OF THE SUSPECTS
April 8, 2002
On March 11 we published a report, “Silencing the Witnesses,” about the ambiguous situation developing around Criminal Case No. 15004 in which one of the Khanties, Major Lapin, alias The Cadet, is charged with the torture and murder in January 2001 of a 26-year-old Grozny man, Zelimkhan Murdalov.
On March 11 we called upon the Interior Ministry immediately to withdraw the Khanty-Mansiysk Combined Militia Unit from Grozny and demanded that the witnesses in the case should be afforded protection by the state. Finally, we called for an inquiry into the conduct of those highly placed officials at Interior Ministry Headquarters who plan tours of duty in Chechnya.
On March 19, without unduly high hopes that the relevant issues of Novaya gazeta would have been read at Interior Ministry headquarters, the editors forwarded by hand a formal request to Boris Gryzlov, Interior Minister of Russia. The Memorial Human Rights Center also addressed the same demands to the country’s political leaders.
Unfortunately, Moscow is a long way from Grozny and that same week, between March 11 and 19, part of the Khanty-Mansiysk Militia was deployed without a hitch to Grozny. They moved faster than we did. While we were writing heartfelt appeals, trying to track down ministers and hand them indignant letters, and waiting anxiously for them to make some response at least, hoping that the next phone call would be from the office of Boris Gryzlov, on March 15 the Khanties paid a visit to the makeshift accommodation in Grozny where Zelimkhan Murdalov’s parents were living.
Only his mother, Rukiyat, was at home. Masked individuals drove up in a vehicle without registration markings (a trivial matter in Chechnya, no matter how often General Moltenskoy, the Commanding Officer of the Joint Military Command, pronounces on this issue), and warned Rukiyat to be more careful because the Khanties were back in town. They then left. What state is Rukiyat in? One is reluctant even to talk about it. You can imagine for yourself how it is living in the midst of ruins, in a lawless place where, if someone decides to kill you, no one will hear your cries for help.
There were reasons for the visit from the Khanties. Newly returned to the October District Interior Affairs Temporary Office, they observed their colleague The Cadet, now in custody in Grozny, starting to grass on his pals.
Firstly, he demanded the arrest of the officer who had inspired him to perform these feats, “Alex,” to use his Chechen code name, but known to the outside world as Major Alexander Prilepin.
Secondly, when taken to the crime scene, the grounds of the October Temporary Office, he at last pointed out the location of the pit where the Khanties threw the bodies of those they had tortured and killed.
Yet the anomalies get worse. The