Four residents of Roshni-Chu kidnapped in Chechnya

According to a local resident, in the end of last week, employees of unidentified power agencies kidnapped four residents of Roshni-Chu village, located in the foothill Urus-Martan District. The Chechen militia did not confirm the fact of kidnapping.

"The first kidnapping took place in Grozny, where employees of a local power agency forced away three young men: Khasam Masaev and his friends Sharip and Ramzan, whose surnames I don't know. On the following day, in Shalazhi village, unidentified persons in military uniform kidnapped Magomed Daurbekov," the resident of Roshni-Chu said.

"According to some sources, the guys are kept in the ROVD of the Urus-Martan District, while according to other ones - their whereabouts are unknown. Now, their relatives try to find out at least anything about their further fate and the reason of their detention. Earlier, three young guys had been taken away from our village; one of them after beatings and torture was released, and two are still in custody," the source continued and added that the detainees were forced to give confessional evidences.

Law enforcement bodies of the republic refused to confirm the facts of kidnappings. "Speaking about a kidnapping and holding any actions in this respect are possible only if a corresponding application from relatives has been received. As far as I know, no applications of this sort have arrived to law enforcement bodies in recent days. It's possible that someone from residents of Roshni-Chu was detained on suspicion of committing illegal actions; however, if a person is innocent, he or she will be released after respective checks," said a spokesman from power agencies.

At the same time, local human rights activists mark that it is not so easy to submit an application on kidnapping to Chechen power agencies. "As a rule, local law enforcers refuse to accept kidnapping applications for three days, asserting that if the person does not appear within these days, only then it will be possible to say that he or she was really kidnapped. During this time, the kidnapped person is already 'treated', demanding to confess of committing some crime. And if the poor guy 'confesses' under torture, he is then documented by a detainee by backdating," said a leader of one of local human rights NGOs and added that he had personally faced this sort of cases.

The source has also noted that in many cases relatives of kidnapped persons prefer not to disclose the fact. "Some people hope that they will manage to deal and 'pull out' the victim by using personal ties. Others are afraid to harm the victim in this way or other. Finally, there are such people, who don't trust the militia, Prosecutor's Office and the authorities, same as human rights activists," he has emphasized.