14 IMC doctors wanted by federal police

On September 20, 14 doctors from international medical organization "International Medical Corp" (IMC) turned to Nazran office of HRC "Memorial" for assistance in bringing authorities to investigate the fact that the police have issued a public call for information, connecting them to terrorist acts in Russia.

According to the doctors, in early march 2004, in public places of Moscow (airports Sheremetevo 1-2, at railway and police stations, in the supermarket "Stolichny", located in the south of Moscow) were posted leaflets with photos and names of 14 women. All of them were wanted by the police and suspected of terrorist activity, namely, contriving a terrorist act, similar to the explosion in Moscow metro of February 6, 2004. 

The head of IMC in Moscow recognized his employees from Nazran in the wanted women. All the 14 of them reside in Ingushetia and work for "International Medical Corp", a humanitarian organization, since 2000 providing medical aid to forced migrants from Chechnya. Scanned photographs used in the leaflet had been sent to Moscow from Nazran for creating personal employee files in the head office. Under each photo was the name of the doctor spelt in English and the date of her acceptance to work. In the leaflet issued by police the photos were reprinted with the original notes. Only under the photo of Anna Uzhakhova was an additional notice that she was the first wife of Shamil Basayev (Uzhakhova has no connection to Basaev, and is married to another man of whom she has 5 children)

Having learnt about these unfortunate developments, the anxious doctors turned to the Prosecution of the Russian Federation and Republic Ingushetia, to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, to FSB and MVD of the Russian Federation and Republic Ingushetia, to the Ombudsman of the RF and RI with written requests to carry out investigation on the grounds of their prosecution and urged the authorities to punish the persons responsible for disseminating libel. Interestingly, when the "wanted" doctors tried to visit the republican department of FSB, all of them were ousted from the territory of the department. An FSB officer asked women to choose four representatives to carry out talks.

From the correspondence with the officials the doctors learnt that "information concerning their possible involvement in terrorism together with the color photos arrived to the Center "T" at the Central Department for Combat of Organized Crime of MVD and FSB Russia; from there the photographs were delivered to the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs of Moscow for using them in the anti-terrorist investigating measures". An official source in FSB claimed that the list and the photos of the doctors were found in an weapon cache, belonging to Kh. Tazabaev - the head of a terrorist group, which actively involved women suicide bombers. 

Upon carrying out the investigation into the matter, the representatives of law enforcement assured the doctors that all the departments of Moscow militia had been ordered to eliminate leaflets with photographs. However, on September 16, two weeks after the tragic events in Beslan, a North Osetian weekly newspaper "Slovo" / Nykhas"/ # 96 (9433) again printed the information and photos of the 14 doctors from Nazran wanted by the police. This time the list was completed by names and photos of three other women, whose identity is unknown.

The doctors from IMC are seriously concerned about their situation.  In the conditions of increasingly frequent illegal detainments and disappearances in Ingushetia, they feel their lives are threatened.

The list of the "wanted" doctors is below:

1. Ausheva Ludmila, dermatologist
2. Malsagova Fatima – general practitioner
3. Yandieva Tamara - general practitioner
4. Albogacheiva Maddan – pediatrician
5. Dolgieva Khava – gynecologist
6. Mogushkova Motya - general practitioner
7. Shishkhanova Birlant - pediatrician
8. Yandieva Radimkhan - general practitioner
9. Uzhakhova Anna - pediatrician
10. Timurzieva Mariam – pediatrician
11. Batalova Zinaida - general practitioner, gynecologist
12. Mukhieva Fatima- general practitioner
13. Khutieva Madina - surgeon
14. Yusupova Marem - general practitioner