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"We know that there are bodies buried near the building and in the court and elsewhere," Estemirova said. |
GROZNY — Chechens held by Russian occupation forces in a notorious prison in the bombed-out Oktyabrsky district of Grozny are still haunted by nightmarish years of torture and abuses.
"On the first day, they let the German shepherd dogs loose on me," Alavdi Sadykov remembered in documents released by the Russian human rights group Memorial on torture counts given by Chechens, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Monday, June 12.
Then "they cut off my ear," recalled the former school teacher who was held for three months for alleged possession of explosives — a charge he says was fabricated by Russian investigators.
"They humiliated us -- it gave them pleasure," said Sadykov.
International human rights watchdogs said in a recantjoint statement that rape, torture and extrajudicial executions by Russian troops have become everyday occurrences in Chechnya.
Thousands of Chechens have also been abducted and never seen again.
Human Rights Watch said that the wide-scale "forced disappearance" of Chechens with the full knowledge of Russian authorities is a crime against humanity.
The small mountainous republic of Chechnya has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, with just three years of relative peace after the first war between Russian forces and Chechen fighters ended in August 1996 and the second broke out in October 1999.
At least 100,000 civilians and 10,000 Russian troops are estimated to have been killed in both wars, but human rights groups have said the real numbers could be much higher.
Thousands of refugees from war-torn Chechnya live in battered tent camps in neighboring Ingushetia and refuse to return home because of continuing insecurity.
Torture for All
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| Human rights groups say thousands of Chechens have been abducted by Russian forces and never seen again. |
Sadykov said he saw up to 40 prisoners — both men and women — during his detention in the building.
"There were four cells in this cellar, one of which was a big room called the 'special room' where the torture and beating of prisoners took place," he added.
"When commissions came to inspect the prison, they would take us to another cell."
Memorial said former detainees are beginning to speak out about the abuses that took place at the facility and the organization has gathered documentation on eight people who were held here and then disappeared.
"Every prisoner held there was tortured," said Natalya Estemirova, head of Memorial's Grozny office.
She said her organization had spoken to at least 20 people who were held in the facility and who have told tales of abuse similar to Sadykov's.
"We know that there are bodies buried near the building and in the court and elsewhere."
A Russian interior ministry unit was based in the building — a former institute for deaf children that became a heavily-guarded compound surrounded by barbed wire during the war — until it was abandoned last month, Memorial campaigners said.
Today, builders are refurbishing the building and the floors of the cellar are covered in rubble.
But just before builders moved in, traces of the hidden hell remained visible — graffiti etched on the walls with names, dates and supplications.
"Heaven for the martyrs -- hell's flames to the non-believers," read one. "The day of reckoning is near," said another.
One inscription read simply: "Everything has passed and this too will pass."
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