July 26, 2001

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Units of the Russian army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs approached the northern outskirts of the village of Alkhazurovo. They occupied the territory of the destroyed livestock farm and by the evening blocked the settlement from all sides. On the morning of July 27, a “cleansing operation” began, which was more targeted. The military had lists of local residents who, apparently, were considered unreliable. Their passports and other documents were checked, and searches were carried out in their homes.

The military, as a rule, did not introduce themselves. The searches were not authorized by the prosecutor's office, and witnesses were not present. According to their results, protocols were not drawn up. Separate household items and valuables were confiscated from local residents, however, acts that would give this process at least some sign of legality were not drawn up.

Upon completion of the "cleansing" residents of Alkhazurovo found that they had lost various things. For example, Khamsat Bursagova, who lives at Beregovaya St., 9, complained about this. The military arrived at her house in an armored personnel carrier and a Ural car. She didn't see their numbers. The arrivals did not begin to explain anything, dispersed throughout the yard and began to inspect residential premises and outbuildings. No documents authorizing the search were presented to the hostess. Witnesses were also absent.

At home, Khamsat Bursagova was alone. She could not keep track of the military, who were simultaneously in the rooms, and in the chicken coop, and in the garden. Therefore, she was afraid that something would be planted on her or, on the contrary, stolen. It turned out not in vain. Together with a group of military men, the woman was on the second floor of the house when they called from below to open the chest, threatening otherwise to break it open. In it, among other things, the woman kept money, 2 thousand rubles. Taking them, the mistress of the house again went upstairs, where the search was still going on. What happened on the ground floor, she no longer saw.

The military left. The husband, who returned soon after, learned that the house had been searched and asked if she had taken $700 from the chest. The money has disappeared. The Bursagovs are convinced that they were stolen by those who carried out the search. In addition, stating that it was “military property”, they took away a 60 m2 tarpaulin, bought in a pool about 20 years ago, on which the villagers prayed during the funeral. Declaring "state property", the military took with them a factory-made welding machine, and took a set of kitchen knives from the house. These actions, of course, were not documented, which, according to the lawyers whom Khamsat Bursagova turned to, allows them to be characterized as robbery (Article 161 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Unauthorized searches were also carried out in the homes of other residents of Alkhazurovo. Zhansari Govdakhanova, who lives on Kavkazskaya Street, did not lose anything. But the military scattered all the things in the rooms, turned the furniture over. Using dogs, they inspected the garden. The greatest interest was manifested in all kinds of documents and photographs. Their military looked through very carefully.

From the house of Saydan Kursaev, who lives on Beregovaya Street, the military took away a tarpaulin and a tape recorder.

In the courtyard of the Magomadovs there was a car GAZ-3307 (Volga), owned by Zelimkhan Khamzatovich Chataev, a resident of Grozny. He lived in Alkhazurovo as a forced migrant during the period of active hostilities in the republic. Then he returned home. The Volga needed repairs (there was no battery, the tires needed to be replaced). Therefore, the car was left in the village along with the registration certificate. And it was confiscated by the military under the pretext that the owner was absent and the number plates had not been exchanged. With flat tires, it was towed to Urus-Martan.

Young men who lived in those houses where searches were carried out were taken by the military to the farm. By that time, a temporary headquarters for the operation had been set up there. After taking fingerprints, they were then released. In the village, no one disappeared and no one was detained.

By the evening of July 27, the searches in Alkhazurovo were completed. The military confiscated five vehicles of various brands. In the following days, two of them were returned to their owners. Three other vehicles, as of August 9, 2001, remained on the territory of the former repair and technical enterprise in the city of Urus-Martan, where one of the divisions of the Russian law enforcement agencies is stationed.

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At about 11 p.m. in the village of Pervomaiskaya, the Russian military, who arrived in armored vehicles, captured and took away 13 young men in an unknown direction. The next day, relatives of the abducted and fellow villagers split into groups and began searching for them.

Around noon, a large group of women left for the village of Znamenskoye, where V. Kalamanov's office is located, with a complaint about the actions of the military. Some of the local residents, whose relatives were captured as a result of a night raid on the village, went to Gudermes, intending to meet there with officials from the administration of Akhmad Kadyrov.

From the book "People Live Here", Usam Baisaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006