Widows of Chechnya purged by Russians

`Potential suicide bombers' are vanishing, reports Julius Strauss in Katyr Yurt

8 April 2004

IT WAS 2am when masked Russians broke in and took away Milana Ozdoyeva, a 21 year-old widow. Her three-year-old daughter, Sara, was shoved away as she tried to grab her hand. Her son, Magomed, less than a year old, simply stared uncomprehendingly.

"They were wearing masks and camouflage," her mother, Lyubov Dubas, recalled. "They forced us all to the floor at gunpoint. Milana was too terrified to speak. She just looked at me and mouthed the word `mama'.

It was the last time any of us saw her." The young woman is one of many Chechen widows who have vanished in recent months after being seized from their homes.

Evidence suggests that they are the victims of a purge by Russia's FSB security service, formerly the KGB. Human rights workers say the kidnappings are a ham-fisted attempt to stem the tide of potential suicide bombers - so-called Black Widows - who have targeted civilians in Russia.

Natasha Yestemirova, of the Russian human rights group, Memorial, which reported 10 such abductions in January alone, said: "They do this because they think they might become suicide bombers."

The case of Milana Ozdoyeva, who was seized from her home in the western Chechen village of Katyr Yurt, is particularly cruel. Last November, her husband, Batyr, died in the neighbouring north Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, allegedly while being tortured by the FSB.

Still breast-feeding, Mrs Ozdoyeva, returned to the family home in Chechnya with her children. She had barely got there when FSB officers arrived to question her.

"They said she wanted to be a suicide bomber," said her mother. "She told them that was nonsense - that she was the mother of two small children; that she wanted to live."

The security men returned a second time, this time claiming that someone had travelled to Russia on the young widow's passport. She denied it. Ten days later, she was kidnapped. "I know they were from the FSB because I had seen them at the local administration where I work," said her mother.

"I went to the FSB base to ask about her, but the commander said he knew nothing. "What can I say to Sara when she asks where her mother is?" Mrs Dubas added, sobbing.

In the suburbs of the Chechen capital, Grozny, Madina, 11, also wonders where her mother has gone. Liza Moussayeva, 29, was one of four women - three sisters and their mother - taken from the family home by masked men.

"I was asleep when they banged on the door," said Madina. "When my mum unlocked it, they barged in and told everyone to get dressed. They were wearing military clothes and swearing at us. Then they took all the grown-ups away."

The men left behind six children, ranging in age from four to 18. They are now being looked after by neighbours and cousins. But there has been no word of their mothers' fate.

Local people say they are unlikely to be alive. Since the second Chechen war finished four years ago, thousands of local men and women have been killed or "disappeared".

Sometimes their bodies turn up in deserted buildings or shallow graves. Often they are never found. One brutal incident was documented by the groups Human Rights Watch and Memorial. Two brothers, Valid and Aslan, were taken from their home by Russians on February 16 last year.

Valid, 31, was shot dead during interrogation. Aslan, 25, was tortured. When the Russians had finished with the pair, they threw them on a lorry and took them to an abandoned factory in Grozny where they pushed them into a hole in the ground and connected them to explosives.

A soldier shot Aslan in the head. But extraordinarily, he survived with a flesh wound, unstrapped the bomb and managed to escape, carrying his brother's body with him. He later made it to Ingushetia.

Aminat Khumaidovna, a Chechen lawyer in Grozny who represents many of the victims' families, said: "I've lost a brother, a son and many friends to the Russians. They beat their kidneys and pull their teeth out. I've sent over 120 cases of torture to the prosecutor, the FSB and even [President Vladimir] Putin. But there is no response.

"I've seen people who couldn't open their eyes from beatings, people whose legs are swollen up like balloons, and people whose backs are permanently crooked.

"But you in the West - in America and England - you do nothing. To you, we are just terrorists."