The killed were buried yesterday on Russian Christian Orthodox and Muslims cemeteries. So far, nobody knows where and when the terrorists would be buried. The authorities did not decide yet whether to give up their bodies to the relatives or not.
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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The Siege after The Storm
// The relatives of the dead insurgents demand their bodies
Events in Nalchik
Although the fighting in Nalchik was over last Friday (see details in Saturday’s Kommersant), the situation in Kabardino-Balkaria remains complicated. The relatives of the killed insurgents are demanding their bodies. They literally put the siege around the forensic morgue and the Republic’s prosecutor office. They also threatened authorities with new attacks. Kommersant special correspondent OLGA ALLENOVA reports from Nalchik.
The Threat of the Second War
The people are standing next to the morgue since Saturday; these are mostly women right now, but yesterday there were a lot of men. The women say that the men left because they didn’t want to be taken for vahabies and arrested.
“They are already arresting people all over the town,” Murat, one of the few remaining men said.
“They also started the ‘sweep’ operations in the villages,” Bela, a woman in long dress and a scarf, which covers her hair, agreed with Murat. “My relatives left yesterday to St. Petersburg. They said when it all be over they will return.”
I asked Bela what she is doing here next to the morgue.
“My husband is missing,” she responded simply. “He went to work and never returned.”
“Maybe he is not here?” I wondered.
“He is here,” Bela said. “I know. My friends told me that they have seen his body on the street.”
“My son is definitely here,” Emma, another woman, said. “He is my only one. I have three grandchildren left after him.”
I asked Emma how come her son ended up with the insurgents.
“The authorities were looking for him,” she answered calmly “He was fighting.”
We were keeping silence for some time. Then, Bela said that she has three children left and now she would have to take care about them by herself. She kept a silence for a moment and than said with unexpected anger: “I want his body back! I want to tell my children that their fighter died fighting, and not missing in action. Even dogs get burial!” She was almost screaming.
In the mean time Emma said calmly that the bodies will be delivered to Rostov and cremated in there.
“Why do they want to take them to Rostov?” she asked. “We have a crematorium here.”
“And if we won’t get the bodies back, they will get second war!” Bela said madly. “Nobody would forgive them that!”
Everybody supported Bela’s words and an hour after the women, who went to demand the bodies back, already chanted: “Give us the bodies for the burial if they don’t want to get another war!” Maybe this argument worked or maybe the authorities don’t want to ignite any more fire in the crowd, but the prosecution officers talked with the demonstrators calmly and even friendly.
Emma came out from the prosecution office with the words: “We need to go home. They say we need to write the missing person report. Then, they promise to let us into the morgue to identify the bodies. After that they will decide whose body to give to the relatives and whose not. But for now we have to write missing person report.”
“Yeah, sure, today I am going to write the missing person report and tomorrow they will tell me that he is a terrorist and won’t give his body to me!” Bela exclaimed angrily again.
“No, the prosecution officer on duty told us that they never held the bodies,” Asker, one of the relatives of the dead insurgents said. “He (the prosecutor – Kommersant) said that they will give the bodies back after some investigation.”
“Let them investigate, but let they put the dead bodies into the refrigerator!” Janna Chechenova demanded. “They are lying on the floor in the pile! It is so hot in there! The bodies will start to decay soon! And, then, we won’t be able even to lift them – they would fall apart!”
Several women were starting to get really hysterical.
“The authorities made them what they are!” Bela screamed “They are choking us! There are cops all around!”
“They promised to let us into the morgue to identify the bodies,” Asker was trying to pacify the women. “Don’t say these things right now – cops have children too.”
“They are all Muslims,” elderly woman named Zaira, almost whispered. “If they are considered to be terrorists just because they were Muslims, we will never get them back…”
“But they came out to fight,” I said to Zaira.
Bela heard me and turned to me: “Did you journalists ever asked why they came out to fight?! Everybody says they’re terrorists, vahhabies (strict Islamic sect, originated in Saudi Arabia. In the North Caucus the extremists are usually followers of vahhabism –Kommersant) they seized the town. But nobody says what made them to do so!”
Then, I asked Bela why her husband went to fight.
“Because they arrest ours, shock them with electricity, carving the Christian crosses on the back of their heads!” Bela answered. “They’re beating their fingers with a hammer. They’re sticking the needles under their fingernails. You ask anyone – if person came out from there he is not a man anymore.”
“They oppressing the Muslims,” Emma added.
“Ruslan Tsikoev was beaten to death in this precinct last year and they still did not find the guilty one and didn’t put in jail anybody,” Asker agreed. “It doesn’t matter what he is, but he still a human being. Why they treated him like an animal?”
“They all tried to live and work normally,” Emma said with even voice. “They were catching them, beating them, arresting their relatives and humiliating them. Then, cops were bragging how they beat the crap out some guy. After that, my son went into the underground. I told him: ’Don’t do that! Don’t take the arms –they will kill you!’ And he answered: ‘I better get killed than arrested by them.” And now I am happy that he is in the morgue and not in precinct.”
From the prosecution building the people went back to the morgue where the big refrigerated truck was already parked at the entrance – probably, to load up the bodies of the killed: there was not enough space in the local morgue. They were saying that there are more than 200 bodies in the morgue and there are more people were killed than authorities admit. They were also saying that there are many civilians among the dead.
On Saturday I asked Deputy Interior Minister Andrey Novikov how many civilians were killed and wounded.
“Count for yourself – there are about 100 wounded in the hospital and 85 of them are policemen,” General Novikov replied. “The rest of them were civilians.”
The Deputy Minister did not notice my question about the killed ones. Then I asked if it is true that there are a lot of people arrested in the republic after the attack.
The General answered: “There are 13 suspected participants arrested.”
“And how many non-participants?”
“Many more,” the Deputy Minister answered calmly. “We are checking people for their involvement. It is normal practice.”
“Is it true that more than 100 people were arrested?” I asked again.
“You have to understand this is investigation process,” he replied.
If to believe the vahhabies’ relatives, who said that the first attack was a result of mass repression, it is possible that the investigation might cause another attack. The policemen were also saying that there might be some terrorist acts possible but not in Nalchik but in other parts of the republic.
The Hostage Was Freed to Give a Birth
Several wounded were evacuated from Nalchik’s hospital to Moscow. One of the wounded was Timur Bazhaev, a traffic policeman. I talked with Timur and his relatives before he was moved to Moscow. He told me that he was next to the traffic police booth when the shooting started from the woods.
“I got hit on the chest and in the leg” Timur told me. “I crawled to the booth and emptied a whole clip. Then, I got hit in the other leg. In that point the blood started coming out of my mouth and I could not move anymore. I was laying there until I was picked up by ours. They took me to the hospital nearby.
Timur had an exit wound in the chest and because of that he was sent to Moscow. Next to the 1st Municipal Hospital I met happy women and men, who are harrying up to the maternity ward.
“My granddaughter was born! She was a hostage!” Fatima Kutogov said. “My daughter was released yesterday and gave a birth to the girl today!”
“My daughter was working in 3rd Police Precinct,” Muhammed Kutogov continues. “She was not working already because of the pregnancy. But yesterday we went with her to her precinct to receive my new passport. As soon as she entered the building the shots rang out. They were shooting from everywhere. One of the terrorist with assault rifle was taking cover behind our car. My wife laid on the floor of the car and I laid on the seat. We were lying like this for six hours. Then, the Federal snipers saw us from the roof and started to scream:” There are two civilians in the car, don’t shoot at the car!” Then, the Special Forces soldier crawled to us and open the car door. After that, four more soldiers came and covered us while we were crawling away.
“These guys are great!” Fatima complemented the soldiers. “It was so much shooting going on, and they literary dragged us to the save place covering us all the time. And Larisa was released only 24 hours after. Her water broke 12 hours after, but she was lying on the floor under the table for another 12 hours and holding on.”
Larisa’s lips were all bitten up and covered with dry blood, but her eyes radiated happiness. Her newborn daughter looked at us with serious eyes.
“I still can’t believe that I came out alive,” said Larisa, squeezing with emotions the hospital blanket. “It was so cold there on the floor, where I was lying. My Mama told me that I was born again that day and it was a miracle that my daughter survived. I called her Rada because of that. (Rada – in Russian means joyful.)”
As soon as Larisa walked into the precinct, the two police officers grabbed her and covering from the hail of bullets ran in one of the offices. They took their jackets and put it on the floor for me and said: “Lay here and don’t get up no matter what.” They were standing next to the metal door, which they locked behind themselves for all 24 hours.
“We had one pistol for everybody and few shells,” Larisa said. “But those, behind the door did not attempt to break the door for some reason. I guess, they thought that there are quite a few armed officers behind the door and decided not to take any risk. They saw me being dragged inside of the building and I heard them saying behind that door: Where is this girl with the belly? We need to get her and put her in front of us as a cover. They won’t shoot at pregnant…’ I heard how one terrorist said that he knew that I am cop. And another was saying that I just work here and I am not the cop. I was lying on the floor and listening to all this stuff. Then, I looked at the guys and they told me: ‘Don’t worry, girl, we will never give you up.’ If it wouldn’t be for the guys I would not survive. Then, the water broke and I was covering my mouth with my hands so the terrorists won’t hear me scream. And guys were trying to calm me down;’ hold on, Larisa, hold on, girl. Ours would be freeing us soon’. And finally, Alfa (Russian anti-terrorist unit, similar to American Delta – Kommersant) arrived. They carried me out. But I was almost lost the consciousness by then and don’t remember much.”
While SWAT Was Dying, Military Were Robbing Kiosks
On Saturday there was a morning in Kabardino-Balkaria. The funerals started at noon. The policeman Alexander Boev was buried in a new Christian Orthodox cemetery. His colleague, Major Igor Alexeenko , SWAT member from the “T” Center, was buried two hours later in the old cemetery. The SWAT team lost six men. They came to the cemeteries still dressed in fatigues and with weapons.
“Boev got killed on the center’s territory,” the SWAT members told me. “There was a sniper in the precinct building that they took. He was shooting from there to our center, but the insurgents were not able to enter the center. Another colleague, Ibragim Susaev was at home, when he received the phone call that there is an attack on our center. He jumped in the car and went straight to us. The sniper got him when he arrived to the center. Ibragim had a daughter and pregnant wife. They were hoping for the son this time…”
“And our Major was coming back from the White River, - the SWAT troopers told me about Igor Alexeenko. “He was coming back from the combat operation (this operation happened right before the attack –Kommersant) with Ahmad Ulbashev. They killed all the terrorists there and were coming back to the base. Igor called home and asked wife if his son is back from school already. She said that he isn’t. Igor ran to the 5th School right away – his son was a student there. The Major was a big guy and he ran without the cover so they got him. Ulbashev thought first that Alexxenko was wounded – he pulled out the pain killer and crawled to the Major, but sniper killed him there too. He was 32 and his mother was worrying that he is still not married. He was going to get married soon actually. They took him to his village for the burial. And the major was 30. We gave a salute when they were lowering him into the grave. His friends and colleagues were standing there with their fists clenched. And his wife was covering her face with her hands. His seven year old boy did not come to cemetery. Someone said he threw out of the window all his toy soldiers and tanks.”
In the same time two policemen were buried in the Muslim cemetery. I could not get their names because are women are not allowed in the Muslim funerals.
The cleaning already had started in the center of the city. The people were carrying out their belongings from the half destroyed building, where in the Souvenirs store terrorists were holding hostages. The semi-destroyed FSB building nearby was surrounded by red tape and two armored personal carriers were guarding the approach to the building. The owners of nearby kiosks were complaining to journalists that soldiers marauded their business by consuming all the food and drinks from kiosks.
“I have about 50,000 rubles worth of losses, Husein, a kiosk owner, complained. “My girls don’t want to work anymore.”
Beside the Husein and his two colleagues from the neighboring kiosks, nobody else showed up for work – the stores and cafes were closed. People on the streets were saying that it is not over yet and the attack on the city is just a beginning.
Olga Allenova, Nalchik
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 17, 2005
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