Borozdinovskaya operation

Coordinates: 43°49′N 46°35′E / 43.82°N 46.59°E / 43.82; 46.59
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Borozdinovskaya operation
Part of
Special Battalion Vostok
soldiers
MotiveMurder of a Chechen Special Battalion Vostok member's father resident in the village

The Borozdinovskaya operation was a

Avar village of Borozdinovskaya, near the border with the Dagestan
. Representatives of the Russian federal authorities expressed outrage over the incident, and the commander of the unit responsible was convicted.

Background

The

War of Dagestan began when Chechen Islamists invaded the Russian state of Dagestan, but were defeated by the Russian military in a month. The War of Dagestan was used as a casus belli to trigger the Second Chechen War, when Russian federal troops entered Chechnya and ended its independence. By June 2000, the war had entered an "insurgency phase", where Russian troops would perform several day-long zachistka (Russian
: зачистка) operations in Chechen villages.

ethnic Chechen Spetsnaz unit of the GRU, the Russian foreign military intelligence agency, and operated throughout eastern Chechnya. Since then, residents claimed they began to be targeted by pro-Russian Chechen forces, and the inter-ethnic tensions escalated further when Chechen authorities began resettling displaced persons from Nozhay-Yurtovsky District in the village.[1][2][3]

Reportedly, "a series of murders and armed attacks" occurred in May and June 2005 in and around the village, including an incident on June 3 in which the father of a

Special Battalion Vostok serviceman was shot and killed.[4]

Operation

According to the official investigation, on June 4, 2005, around 80 Chechen soldiers of the Special Battalion Vostok, in two

armored personnel carriers, several trucks, and cars, arrived in the village at 3:00 PM to perform a zachistka "large-scale clean-up." Eyewitnesses stated the operation was led by Khamzat (Hamzat) Gairbekov,[citation needed] also known as "Beard," who was the Vostok unit's intelligence chief. Between 3:30 PM and 8:00 PM, the soldiers detained 11 people "suspected of having committed crimes": Abakar Aliyev, Magomed Isayev, Ahmed Kurbanaliyev, Magomed Kurbanaliyev, Eduard Lachkov (an ethnic Russian), Ahmed Magomedov, Kamil Magomedov, Said Magomedov, Shakhban Magomedov, and Martukh Umarov. None of them have been seen since.[5]

The

corpse of a 77-year-old man was later found, either gunned down or burnt alive, and about 200 men were also rounded up and herded into the local school's sports hall, where many were severely beaten. Four private homesteads were burnt down and cars, money, and other valuables were stolen from the village residents.[2][3][6]

Aftermath

The Vostok battalion raid had prompted a mass exodus of almost the entire population of the village and contributed to a political standoff in both Chechnya and Dagestan.[1][7][8] Most of the residents quickly packed up and crossed the border to Dagestan, where they set up a tent city near the town of Kizlyar.[1] There, they received support from the local Avar opposition and resisted attempts by the Dagestan OMON riot police to force them back into Chechnya.[8] The refugees eventually agreed to return to Chechnya after the pro-Russian Chechen government of Ramzan Kadyrov promised to search for the abducted villagers and to pay compensation for the damage caused by the Vostok battalion.[7][9] Dmitry Kozak, the Russian presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, met with the villagers and spoke about "an act of sabotage against the Russian state by extremists," promising an objective investigation to punish those responsible.[8][10]

Responsibility

At first, the pro-Moscow Chechen police officials said 11 separatist "sympathizers" were detained and two

Hero of Russia, Sulim Yamadayev.”[1]

On October 27, 2005, Mukhadi Aziyev, the company commander of the Vostok battalion, was convicted by Grozny Garrison Military Court of "exceeding official authority" and given a three-year

Russian Ministry of Defence was rejected.[11] In June 2007, the villagers held a 300-strong protest action in Dagestan.[12] In September 2007, the Caucasian Knot reported that more than 130 Borozdinovskaya refugees had begun to resettle in Kizlyar District.[13]

Sulim Yamadayev, now a Russian colonel and commander of the Vostok battalion, had at first denied that his subordinates were involved in the raid.[14] Later, he admitted his servicemen's guilt, but said that the operation had been conducted without his knowledge.[5] In 2006 and again in 2008, during the conflict between Ramzan Kadyrov and the Yamadayev clan, Kadyrov used the case as an example of the crimes of the Vostok unit in his attacks on the Yamadayev brothers.[15]

As a result, even some representatives of the

human rights violations by their forces.[9]

See also

  • Forced disappearance
  • Chechen-Russian conflict

References

  1. ^ a b c d e A Terrorized Village in Chechnya Crosses the Border, The St. Petersburg Times, June 28, 2005.
  2. ^ a b c Chechnya: Does Outrage Over Borozdinovskaya Sweep Presage Change Of Russian Tactics?, RFE/RL, June 24, 2005.
  3. ^ a b c Chechnya: Fleeing Villagers Protest, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, June 30, 2005.
  4. The Jamestown Foundation
    , June 30, 2005.
  5. ^ a b c d e Sentence for Borozdinovskaia passed in Chechnya Archived 2011-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, Caucasian Knot, October 27, 2005.
  6. ^ Whose side are you on?, The Guardian, September 16, 2005.
  7. ^ a b Kadyrov bribes refugees to return to Borozdinovskaya, Prague Watchdog, June 30, 2005.
  8. ^
    The Jamestown Foundation
    , June 30, 2005.
  9. ^ a b Russia: Officials Say Pro-Moscow Chechens Involved In Deadly Raid On Avar Village, RFE/RL, July 29, 2005.
  10. RFE/RL
    /GlobalSecurity.org, June 23, 2005.
  11. ^ Analysis: Russian Defense Ministry Postpones Ruling On Controversial Chechen Battalion, RFE/RL, April 25, 2008.
  12. ^ Borozdinovskaya refugees hold protest meeting in Dagestan[permanent dead link], Caucasian Knot, June 26, 2007.
  13. ^ "Caucasian Knot, 18 September 2007" (PDF). Russian Federation: Monitoring of IDPs and returnees still needed - A profile of the internal displacement situation. Internal Displacement Monotoring Centre. October 12, 2009. Archived from the original (pdf) on 25 September 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2012.
  14. The Jamestown Foundation
    , June 30, 2005.
  15. The Jamestown Foundation
    , April 20, 2006.
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