Purge in Noviye Atagi - details

On October 12-14, Russian soldiers conducted a large-scale purge with arrests of people and general searches in houses of locals in the village of Noviye Atagi, Chechnya's Shali district. Troops cordoned off Noviye Atagi in the morning. Armored vehicles were on all roads leading to the settlement. In defiance of all previous orders and directions of the military command, neither local law enforcers nor administration officials and village elders were allowed to take part in the "special operation". The last day of the purge, October 14, was the most terrible, locals say. "An armored personal carrier began to move along the village in the morning. All men between the ages of 14 and 60 were ordered to come to the outskirts of the village, where they were herded together behind the barbed wire. Many of the men were beaten and subjected to torture," Satsita, a 58-year-old woman living in Noviye Atagi, said. "My grandson was savagely beaten during that "filtration". They demanded that he should say who is a rebel in the village. But he's a school boy. How can he know them?"

The military men detained and took away in an unknown direction four locals, a village administration official said. Three of them have already returned. The fourth man's destiny is unknown so far. "Relatives of the people who were detained and beaten by the soldiers don't want their names be mentioned. They are afraid repressions will follow it. People are very scared. We don't even know what to tell them. 8 thousand people were held at submachine gun point for three days, all conceivable and unconceivable laws and constitutional norms being grossly violated. And then they [soldiers] just went away as if nothing had taken place," he said.

The Chechen president's staff have refused to give any comments on what happened in Noviye Atagi. "The president has commissioned the Chechen prosecutor's office to check all reports about violations that took place in the village of Noviye Atagi. Any conclusions can be drawn only when thorough investigation of all the facts is conducted," an official of the Chechen president's staff said.