Novye Aldi massacre
Encyclopedia
The Novye Aldi massacre was a notorious crime in which Russian federal forces summarily executed
dozens of people in the Novye Aldi (Aldy) suburb
of Grozny
, the capital of Chechnya
, in the course of a "mopping-up" (zachistka) operation conducted there on February 5, 2000, soon after the end of the battle for the city. As a result of a deadly rampage by the special police forces at least 60 and up to 82 local civilian
s were killed and at least six women were rape
d. Numerous houses were also burned and civilian property was stolen in an organized manner.
The official investigation into the Aldi massacre established that the "sweep operation" there was conducted by the paramilitary police of OMON
from the northern Russian city of Saint Petersburg
(possibly also from the southern Ryazan Oblast
), yet as of 2010 the Russian authorities have failed to hold anyone to account for the crime. The guilt of the Russian state in the Aldi murders and the denial of justice to the victims has been formally established in two different judgements by the European Court of Human Rights
several years later in 2006-2007.
air strikes (among them three members of the ethnic Russian
Smirnov family killed when their house was hit in the last hours of the bombardment). Aldi itself was not a target prior to February 3 and the casualties appear to be have been inflicted by stray shells and rockets fired at neighboring areas such as District 20.
On February 4, after the bulk of the Chechen separatist forces had left Grozny, a delegation of Aldi village elders went under white flags to inform the Russian military command about the lack of a presence of Chechen fighters in the suburb. They had been fired on as they approached the federal military positions (one of them, an ethnic Russian, was injured in the shooting and later died), but eventually managed to successfully negotiate a cessation of the shelling. The initial Russian forces who had arrived in Aldi in the afternoon of February 4 (visibly battle-weary and typically very young conscript soldiers
in dirty uniforms), did not encounter any resistance and passed through the settlement without committing any illegal acts. Indeed, they warned the villagers they had encountered extremely severe ("like beasts") troops coming behind them. They advised the civilians to leave the cellars but to not leave the relative safety of their homes, and to prepare their identity papers.
(HRW), based on the fighting by the Russian human rights group Memorial
(HRW has been denied direct access to Chechnya by the Russian authorities), the "mop-up" forces came in the morning of the next day (February 5) in multiple groups advancing from the northern edges towards the center of Aldi, likely numbering in excess of one hundred men along with several vehicles (BTR armoured personnel carriers
, Ural trucks
and UAZ minibuses
). These new arrivals were much older than the conscripts, many were drunk, often bearded and with shaven heads. They wore a variety of either military-green or police-grey camouflage uniforms with balaclava
masks and headscarves. They were primarily members of Russia's heavily-armed OMON riot police, apparently with a number of mercenary
-like Russian short-term contract soldiers known as kontraktniki serving alongside or within the OMON detachments. A much smaller number of conscripts were also present. They distinguished themselves in a number of incidents, either warning residents of the imminent danger or saving the lives of civilians by their active intervention.
After entering the settlement, ostensibly to check villagers' internal passport
s and to detain suspected fighters who had been left behind, groups of Russian riot police officers and contract soldiers began beating and randomly shooting civilians in their homes and in the streets. Most of the deadly violence took place along Matasha-Mazaeva Street, where at least 24 people were killed as the attackers went from house to house, executing civilians. The first murder there was committed at No. 170, resulting in the death of the house owner, 50-year-old Sultan Timirov. His body was found decapitated and torn into several pieces by multiple bullet wounds and other injuries (his head was never found and might have been blown-off with a grenade fired from an underbarrel launcher). Most of the victims were middle-aged or elderly. The oldest victim was 82-year-old Rakat Akhmadova, who was gunned down at 162 Matasha-Mazayeva Street along with her 66-year-old cousin Gula Khaidayev and his 70-year-old neighbour Rizvan Umkhayev. Among other victims were an infant boy (one-year-old Khassan Estamirov, shot with at least two bullets to the head and then burned), at least six younger Chechen women (including the eight-months-pregnant 21-year-old Toita Estamirova, found with gunshot wounds to her stomach and chest), an elderly Russian woman (70-year-old Elena Kuznetsova, repeatedly shot in the face at point-blank range while leaving the cellar at 58 Second Tsimliansky Lane and then burned together with bodies of her Chechen neighbours, the Yakhiayevs) and a Ukrainian
man (40-year-old Victor Shiptora, whose body was found in Khoperskaia Street).
The killings were often accompanied by demands for money or other valuables, which served as a pretext for execution if the amount proffered was insufficient; other victims were killed because they lacked identity papers. At least three men were detained and subsequently executed; one was also used as a human shield
but later released. There were many incidents of Russian forces deliberately starting fires through the village, systematically torching civilian homes and property using canisters and bottles of inflammable liquid, in particular where they found people with no identity papers. Some of this seemed to be a primitive attempt to destroy the evidence of civilian killings. In one incident, the arson itself appears to have been a murder attempt. The killers were looting
houses and stealing jewelry and gold teeth
from dead bodies. Numerous civilians were also beaten and threatened with death while being robbed. At least six women were reportedly gang-raped, including the subsequent strangling of three of them and the attempted murder of another. Some of the survivors were forced to plead for their lives, a number played dead after they were injured by gunfire. Others survived by fleeing and hiding, avoiding contact with OMON and the contract soldiers. After dark on February 5, when the Russian forces had left, the residents went through the streets of Aldi putting out fires and picking up dead bodies.
At least five people were murdered on this day in the nearby neighborhood of Chernorechie, an adjacent Grozny suburb linked with Aldi by a road through the large reservoir
dam to the west. During the siege Chernorechie had been shelled much more heavily than Aldi and only a few people remained there during the events of February 5.
), but to instead keep the victims' bodies inside homes so their deaths could be documented. Following the massacre
, Russian forces returned to Aldi on numerous occasions to loot and to threaten residents with reprisals should they speak out about what they witnessed. While there was some plunder on February 5, systematic pillage on a massive scale first took place during the following week, including on February 10 when OMON returned to Aldi in large numbers and began rounding-up any Chechen males they could find, taking away 16 of them along with whole truckloads of looted items. (They were later returned alive.)
The initial Russian investigations, including one which established the operation was undertaken by OMON units from the city of St. Petersburg and Ryazan
province, had been accompanied by indignant public denial. Typical of this was the Russian military's reaction on February 24 to HRW's preliminary report on the killings, when a Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman declared that "these assertions are nothing but a concoction not supported by fact or any proof ... [and] should be seen as a provocation whose goal is to discredit the federal forces' operation against the terrorists in Chechnya". An eye-witness also said that investigators from the Federal Security Service told her the massacre was probably committed by Chechen fighters "disguised as federal troops". The residents expressed fear and mistrust of the Russian investigators in Aldi (three different teams on February 14 and 16 and on March 19), whose activities appeared to be an attempt to shift the blame on to the Chechen fighters and to intimidate the witnesses. Particularly frightening was the questioning as to whether they would recognize the perpetrators, which many regarded as a direct threat to their lives.
In spite of the weight of evidence and a host of enquiries by foreign and Russian journalists and by human rights organisations, no official investigation of the crime has ever been completed. For several years no-one had been charged in connection with the incident. This is not considered unusual, as a large number of civilians had been extrajudicially executed by federal forces in the course of the Chechen conflict and yet very few of the perpetrators have been brought to trial. Only in 2005 was one OMON officer, Sergei Babin
, charged with the murder of an elderly resident of Aldi; however he then went into hiding and the case against him was suspended. As predicted by HRW in 2000, "the Russian government to date has shown a clear lack of political will to vigorously investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of the Aldi massacre" and until "an international commission is formed, with the ability to recommend prosecutions, there remains little likelihood of the guilty ever being punished."
In 2004, a previously unknown and allegedly Chechen Sufi
group, Gazotan Murdash, claimed responsibility for the February 2004 Moscow metro bombing
which killed 40 people on the fourth anniversary of the Aldi killings. A statement signed by a man calling himself "Lom-Ali" called it an act of revenge. According to some media speculation, the bombing might have been the work of Musa Idigov, whose brother, also named Lom-Ali, had been killed in Aldi while shielding Musa from the blast of a hand grenade tossed into the cellar where they had been locked-in during the massacre. However, it is now widely believed that the bombing was organised by a Salafi militant group from the Russian republic of Karachay-Cherkessia
.
, (the killing of five members of the Estamirov family living in the house at 1 Podolskaia Street), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Russia guilty of serious human rights violations including indiscriminately targeting civilians and failing to adequately investigate their deaths. In July 2007, in the ruling in the case of Musayev, Labazanova and Magomadov v. Russia
, the ECHR awarded damages to relatives of another 11 people killed in the massacre.
). The film can be viewed online on the Prague Watchdog
website.
Summary execution
A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial or after a show trial. Summary executions have been practiced by the police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and...
dozens of people in the Novye Aldi (Aldy) suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
, the capital of Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
, in the course of a "mopping-up" (zachistka) operation conducted there on February 5, 2000, soon after the end of the battle for the city. As a result of a deadly rampage by the special police forces at least 60 and up to 82 local civilian
Civilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
s were killed and at least six women were rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
d. Numerous houses were also burned and civilian property was stolen in an organized manner.
The official investigation into the Aldi massacre established that the "sweep operation" there was conducted by the paramilitary police of OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
from the northern Russian city of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
(possibly also from the southern Ryazan Oblast
Ryazan Oblast
Ryazan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Ryazan, which is the oblast's largest city. Population: -Geography:...
), yet as of 2010 the Russian authorities have failed to hold anyone to account for the crime. The guilt of the Russian state in the Aldi murders and the denial of justice to the victims has been formally established in two different judgements by the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
several years later in 2006-2007.
Background
Novye Aldi (New Aldi) is a residential suburb to the south-west of the city and east of the villages of Alkhan-Yurt and Alkhan-Kala and the now-flattened Grozny oil refineries, next to the M-29 highway. Its population had been 27,000 people before the war, but most of the residents had fled the fighting in the last months of 1999, leaving behind approximately 2,000 people who were too old or otherwise incapable of the journey to safety. It appears that the suburb was not used by Chechen fighters in any way during the war and there are no reports of clashes with the Russian forces in Aldi. However, approximately 63 residents were killed between December 1999 and February 2000 by federal artillery and mortar fire in the course of the siege of the city. At least five of them died during the barrage of February 3–4 which included cluster bombCluster bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller sub-munitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill enemy personnel and destroy vehicles...
air strikes (among them three members of the ethnic Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
Smirnov family killed when their house was hit in the last hours of the bombardment). Aldi itself was not a target prior to February 3 and the casualties appear to be have been inflicted by stray shells and rockets fired at neighboring areas such as District 20.
On February 4, after the bulk of the Chechen separatist forces had left Grozny, a delegation of Aldi village elders went under white flags to inform the Russian military command about the lack of a presence of Chechen fighters in the suburb. They had been fired on as they approached the federal military positions (one of them, an ethnic Russian, was injured in the shooting and later died), but eventually managed to successfully negotiate a cessation of the shelling. The initial Russian forces who had arrived in Aldi in the afternoon of February 4 (visibly battle-weary and typically very young conscript soldiers
Conscription in Russia
Conscription in Russia is presently a 12 month draft, mandatory for all male citizens age 18-27, with a number of exceptions. The mandatory term of service was reduced from 18 months at the beginning of 2008.- Russian Empire and earlier times :...
in dirty uniforms), did not encounter any resistance and passed through the settlement without committing any illegal acts. Indeed, they warned the villagers they had encountered extremely severe ("like beasts") troops coming behind them. They advised the civilians to leave the cellars but to not leave the relative safety of their homes, and to prepare their identity papers.
Massacre
According to the June 2000 report by the Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
(HRW), based on the fighting by the Russian human rights group Memorial
Memorial (society)
Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....
(HRW has been denied direct access to Chechnya by the Russian authorities), the "mop-up" forces came in the morning of the next day (February 5) in multiple groups advancing from the northern edges towards the center of Aldi, likely numbering in excess of one hundred men along with several vehicles (BTR armoured personnel carriers
BTR-80
BTR-80 is an 8x8 wheeled armoured personnel carrier designed in the Soviet Union. Production started in 1986 and replaced the previous versions, BTR-60 and BTR-70 in the Soviet army. -Description:The Soviets based the BTR-80 on the BTR-70 APC...
, Ural trucks
Ural-4320
The Ural-4320 is a general purpose off-road 6x6 truck, produced at the Ural Automotive Plant in Miass, Russia for use in the Russian army. Introduced in 1976, it is still in production today....
and UAZ minibuses
UAZ-452
UAZ-452 UAZ-452 UAZ-452 («Bukhanka»("Loaf (of bread)"), "Tabletka"("Pill"), "Golovastik" ("Tadpole") is a family of unique off-road cars produced at the Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant.Serial production of the UAZ-452 started in 1965. The engine is from the GAZ-21....
). These new arrivals were much older than the conscripts, many were drunk, often bearded and with shaven heads. They wore a variety of either military-green or police-grey camouflage uniforms with balaclava
Balaclava
A balaclava , also known as a balaclava helmet or ski mask, is a form of cloth headgear that covers the whole head, exposing only part of the face. Often only the eyes or eyes and mouth are left exposed...
masks and headscarves. They were primarily members of Russia's heavily-armed OMON riot police, apparently with a number of mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
-like Russian short-term contract soldiers known as kontraktniki serving alongside or within the OMON detachments. A much smaller number of conscripts were also present. They distinguished themselves in a number of incidents, either warning residents of the imminent danger or saving the lives of civilians by their active intervention.
After entering the settlement, ostensibly to check villagers' internal passport
Internal passport
An internal passport is an identity document used in some countries to control the internal movement and residence of its people. Countries that currently have internal passports include Russia, Ukraine, China and North Korea...
s and to detain suspected fighters who had been left behind, groups of Russian riot police officers and contract soldiers began beating and randomly shooting civilians in their homes and in the streets. Most of the deadly violence took place along Matasha-Mazaeva Street, where at least 24 people were killed as the attackers went from house to house, executing civilians. The first murder there was committed at No. 170, resulting in the death of the house owner, 50-year-old Sultan Timirov. His body was found decapitated and torn into several pieces by multiple bullet wounds and other injuries (his head was never found and might have been blown-off with a grenade fired from an underbarrel launcher). Most of the victims were middle-aged or elderly. The oldest victim was 82-year-old Rakat Akhmadova, who was gunned down at 162 Matasha-Mazayeva Street along with her 66-year-old cousin Gula Khaidayev and his 70-year-old neighbour Rizvan Umkhayev. Among other victims were an infant boy (one-year-old Khassan Estamirov, shot with at least two bullets to the head and then burned), at least six younger Chechen women (including the eight-months-pregnant 21-year-old Toita Estamirova, found with gunshot wounds to her stomach and chest), an elderly Russian woman (70-year-old Elena Kuznetsova, repeatedly shot in the face at point-blank range while leaving the cellar at 58 Second Tsimliansky Lane and then burned together with bodies of her Chechen neighbours, the Yakhiayevs) and a Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
man (40-year-old Victor Shiptora, whose body was found in Khoperskaia Street).
The killings were often accompanied by demands for money or other valuables, which served as a pretext for execution if the amount proffered was insufficient; other victims were killed because they lacked identity papers. At least three men were detained and subsequently executed; one was also used as a human shield
Human shield
Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
but later released. There were many incidents of Russian forces deliberately starting fires through the village, systematically torching civilian homes and property using canisters and bottles of inflammable liquid, in particular where they found people with no identity papers. Some of this seemed to be a primitive attempt to destroy the evidence of civilian killings. In one incident, the arson itself appears to have been a murder attempt. The killers were looting
Looting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
houses and stealing jewelry and gold teeth
Gold teeth
Gold teeth are a form of dental prosthesis. They are sometimes used for cosmetic purposes.-Dental restoration:Dentists have used gold for filling cavities , for crowns, and for other purposes. Gold is malleable, nearly immune to corrosion, and hard enough to form a biting surface that can be used...
from dead bodies. Numerous civilians were also beaten and threatened with death while being robbed. At least six women were reportedly gang-raped, including the subsequent strangling of three of them and the attempted murder of another. Some of the survivors were forced to plead for their lives, a number played dead after they were injured by gunfire. Others survived by fleeing and hiding, avoiding contact with OMON and the contract soldiers. After dark on February 5, when the Russian forces had left, the residents went through the streets of Aldi putting out fires and picking up dead bodies.
At least five people were murdered on this day in the nearby neighborhood of Chernorechie, an adjacent Grozny suburb linked with Aldi by a road through the large reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
dam to the west. During the siege Chernorechie had been shelled much more heavily than Aldi and only a few people remained there during the events of February 5.
Aftermath
The villagers collectively decided not to bury the bodies immediately (as demanded by Muslim traditionIslamic funeral
Funerals in Islam follow fairly specific rites, though they are subject to regional interpretation and variation in custom. In all cases, however, sharia calls for burial of the body, preceded by a simple ritual involving bathing and shrouding the body, followed by salah...
), but to instead keep the victims' bodies inside homes so their deaths could be documented. Following the massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
, Russian forces returned to Aldi on numerous occasions to loot and to threaten residents with reprisals should they speak out about what they witnessed. While there was some plunder on February 5, systematic pillage on a massive scale first took place during the following week, including on February 10 when OMON returned to Aldi in large numbers and began rounding-up any Chechen males they could find, taking away 16 of them along with whole truckloads of looted items. (They were later returned alive.)
The initial Russian investigations, including one which established the operation was undertaken by OMON units from the city of St. Petersburg and Ryazan
Ryazan
Ryazan is a city and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Oka River southeast of Moscow. Population: The strategic bomber base Dyagilevo is just west of the city, and the air base of Alexandrovo is to the southeast as is the Ryazan Turlatovo Airport...
province, had been accompanied by indignant public denial. Typical of this was the Russian military's reaction on February 24 to HRW's preliminary report on the killings, when a Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman declared that "these assertions are nothing but a concoction not supported by fact or any proof ... [and] should be seen as a provocation whose goal is to discredit the federal forces' operation against the terrorists in Chechnya". An eye-witness also said that investigators from the Federal Security Service told her the massacre was probably committed by Chechen fighters "disguised as federal troops". The residents expressed fear and mistrust of the Russian investigators in Aldi (three different teams on February 14 and 16 and on March 19), whose activities appeared to be an attempt to shift the blame on to the Chechen fighters and to intimidate the witnesses. Particularly frightening was the questioning as to whether they would recognize the perpetrators, which many regarded as a direct threat to their lives.
In spite of the weight of evidence and a host of enquiries by foreign and Russian journalists and by human rights organisations, no official investigation of the crime has ever been completed. For several years no-one had been charged in connection with the incident. This is not considered unusual, as a large number of civilians had been extrajudicially executed by federal forces in the course of the Chechen conflict and yet very few of the perpetrators have been brought to trial. Only in 2005 was one OMON officer, Sergei Babin
Sergei Babin
Sergei Babin is a former Russian police officer who had served in the OMON detachment sent from Saint Petersburg and an accused war criminal....
, charged with the murder of an elderly resident of Aldi; however he then went into hiding and the case against him was suspended. As predicted by HRW in 2000, "the Russian government to date has shown a clear lack of political will to vigorously investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of the Aldi massacre" and until "an international commission is formed, with the ability to recommend prosecutions, there remains little likelihood of the guilty ever being punished."
In 2004, a previously unknown and allegedly Chechen Sufi
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
group, Gazotan Murdash, claimed responsibility for the February 2004 Moscow metro bombing
February 2004 Moscow metro bombing
The February 2004 Moscow metro bombing occurred on 6 February 2004 when a male suicide bomber killed 41 people near Avtozavodskaya subway station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line in Moscow...
which killed 40 people on the fourth anniversary of the Aldi killings. A statement signed by a man calling himself "Lom-Ali" called it an act of revenge. According to some media speculation, the bombing might have been the work of Musa Idigov, whose brother, also named Lom-Ali, had been killed in Aldi while shielding Musa from the blast of a hand grenade tossed into the cellar where they had been locked-in during the massacre. However, it is now widely believed that the bombing was organised by a Salafi militant group from the Russian republic of Karachay-Cherkessia
Karachay-Cherkessia
The Karachay-Cherkess Republic , or Karachay-Cherkessia is a federal subject of Russia . Population: -Geography:*Area: *Borders:**internal: Krasnodar Krai , Kabardino-Balkar Republic , Stavropol Krai ....
.
European Court judgements
In October 2006, in the case of Estamirov and Others v. RussiaEstamirov and Others v. Russia
Estamirov and Others v. Russia was an European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of the February 5, 2000, Novye Aldi massacre in Chechnya, which unanimously held Russia responsible for violations of Articles 2 and 13 of the European Convention of Human Rights...
, (the killing of five members of the Estamirov family living in the house at 1 Podolskaia Street), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Russia guilty of serious human rights violations including indiscriminately targeting civilians and failing to adequately investigate their deaths. In July 2007, in the ruling in the case of Musayev, Labazanova and Magomadov v. Russia
Musayev, Labazanova and Magomadov v. Russia
Musayev, Labazanova and Magomadov v. Russia was the July 26, 2007, ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of the February 2000 Novye Aldi massacre in Chechnya, which unanimously held Russia responsible for violations of Articles 2 and 13 of the European Convention of Human Rights...
, the ECHR awarded damages to relatives of another 11 people killed in the massacre.
Documentary
Aldy: A Past That Cannot Be Forgotten is a 2010 half-hour documentary film based on home video footage taken by the residents on February 9, 2000, and on eyewitness interviews recorded in January-February 2009 by members of the Memorial human rights center (including Natalia Estemirova, who was kidnapped by the men in uniforms of security forces in Grozny on July 15, 2009, and executed on the same day in IngushetiaIngushetia
The Republic of Ingushetia is a federal subject of Russia , located in the North Caucasus region with its capital at Magas. In terms of area, the republic is the smallest of Russia's federal subjects except for the two federal cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg...
). The film can be viewed online on the Prague Watchdog
Prague Watchdog
Prague Watchdog was an English, Czech and Russian-language Prague-based on-line service that collected and disseminated information on the crisis in Chechnya and reporting on the conflict in the North Caucasus, focusing on human rights, humanitarian situation, media access and coverage, and the...
website.
See also
- List of massacres in Russia
- Alkhan-Yurt massacreAlkhan-Yurt massacreThe Alkhan-Yurt massacre was the December 1999 incident in the village of Alkhan-Yurt near the Chechen capital Grozny involving Russian troops under command of general Vladimir Shamanov...
- Samashki massacreSamashki massacreThe Samashki massacre was an incident which occurred on April 7–8, 1995, in the village of Samashki, at the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. Numerous villagers died at the hands of Russian paramilitary troops, many of them reportedly drunk or drugged, under the command of Gen. Anatoly Kulikov...
- Staropromyslovski massacre
Further reading
- -- February 5: A Day of Slaughter in Novye Aldi (the report by HRW on the UNHCR website) Новые Алды: убийства мирных жителей (the report by Memorial in Russian)
External links
- Chechens Tell of Murderous Rampage by Russians, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, February 22, 2000 - Russians accused of Grozny massacres, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, February 23, 2000 - 3 Massacres In Chechnya Are Described, The New York Times, March 2, 2000
- Civilian Massacre Fits Pattern Of Earlier Human Rights Abuse, The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, June 2, 2000 - Report Describes Massacre of Chechen Civilians, The St. Petersburg Times, June 6, 2000
- Genocide Watch: Chechnya, United States Holocaust Museum, February 1, 2001
- The long road to justice, The Guardian, June 12, 2006
- European Court of Human Rights holds Russia responsible for summary execution in Novye Aldi, Prague WatchdogPrague WatchdogPrague Watchdog was an English, Czech and Russian-language Prague-based on-line service that collected and disseminated information on the crisis in Chechnya and reporting on the conflict in the North Caucasus, focusing on human rights, humanitarian situation, media access and coverage, and the...
, October 12, 2006 - European Court Rules Against Russia In Chechen Deaths, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, July 26, 2007
- Russia: European Court Rules on Chechnya Massacre, ReutersReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
/AlertNet, July 27, 2007 - Kremlin is condemned for Chechen massacre, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, July 27, 2007 - Chechen Massacre Survivors See Justice, Institute for War and Peace ReportingInstitute for War and Peace ReportingInstitute for War & Peace Reporting is an international media development charity, established in 1991. It runs major programmes in Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Iran, Iraq, the Balkans, Congo DRC, Tunisia and Uganda...
, August 9, 2007 - Novye Aldy – before and after, Prague Watchdog, February 5, 2010