19:00, 27 March 2009

Chechnya residents show a mass burial where Budanov's regiment was deployed

In Chechnya, fellow-villagers of Elza Kungaeva, for whose kidnapping and murder former Colonel Yuri Budanov was convicted, showed journalists a mass burial in Tanga-Chu village. The collective grave keeps remains of 23 persons.

Ombudsman of the Chechen Republic Nurdi Nukhazhiev has reported that local residents assert that soldiers from Budanov's regiment were involved in the crimes.

"The Ombudsman's Office has already received applications of local residents who accuse Budanov of new crimes, and we plan to send them to the Investigatory Department of the ICPO of the Russian Federation for Chechnya. We've also addressed law enforcement bodies to have this new mass burial officially registered," said Mr Nukhazhiev.

According to his story, villagers said that until now they scared to talk about Budanov's crimes and to disclose the data about the burial place, as they were afraid of prosecutions, which had forced the Kungaev family to leave the country. As the IA "Northern Caucasus" reports, the Ombudsman could not exclude new figurants in Budanov's case as a result of new inquiries.