Group Says Chechens Were Executed

After months of devastating artillery strikes, then mine explosions and looting, Chechen civilians have been gripped by another kind of terror: People abducted by gunmen wearing military uniforms are turning up dead, their bodies dumped in fields or forests.

In one of the most chilling discoveries, more than 50 bodies -- up to 80, by some accounts -- have been uncovered just outside Russia's main military base of Khankala near the Chechen capital, Grozny.

The heavily guarded area also served as a detention center for suspected rebels, and the respected Russian human rights group Memorial says the bodies were those of Chechen men and women seized by the military and summarily executed.

"We have all seen for a year how people have been brought to Khankala,"said Alexander Cherkasov of Memorial. "Now we know where to look for them."

Fifty bodies were laid out for identification Monday at an abandoned warehouse in Grozny, a building that now belongs to the local branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry. At least four other bodies have been identified and taken away by relatives, Memorial chairman Oleg Orlov said.

An official in Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, speaking on condition of anonymity, put the total
number of bodies at 80.

Russia is trying to stamp out resistance by independence fighters in the Caucasus Mountains region. Large-scale fighting stopped months ago, but raids by small bands of insurgents have prompted federal troops to sweep through towns and villages seizing fighting-age men and sometimes women.

Many have been released after days in grim detention facilities; others have been charged with a crime. But scores have disappeared without a trace -- or have turned up dead.

"People have been vanishing, and now more and more often the graves of people seized by federal forces are being found," said Tatyana Kasatkina, one of Memorial's leaders.

The fear of arrest keeps most Chechens in their homes after dark, residents say. As the sun begins to set, the streets of the Chechen capital grow deserted except for military patrols.

Several mass graves of people allegedly detained by federal forces have been uncovered in recent months, Memorial has charged, but the burial ground outside Khankala seems the biggest yet.

Most of the bodies scattered around the ruined summer cottage neighborhood of Zdorovye, also known as Dachny, bore execution-style gunshot or stab wounds, according to Memorial experts.

At a news conference Monday, Memorial leaders displayed photographs of bodies lying in the makeshift Grozny morgue, showing what appeared to be the blindfolded faces of victims with slashed throats and hands tied behind their backs.

Some were scalped or were missing ears -- an apparent reflection of a grisly souvenir-collecting practice.

An initial forensic examination indicated that the bodies were dumped over a perioof about a year, with the latest arriving perhaps six weeks ago, officials said.

Government statements have been conflicting, with officials suggesting that the bodies were those of rebels killed in fighting.

But some of the bodies identified by relatives are those of people detained as recently as December, Memorial said in a statement, calling the official account "absurd."

Pro-Russian authorities in Chechnya announced the discovery of the bodies Feb. 25. But news of the burial site apparently spread days or weeks before, and families have started to go to Khankala in search of missing relatives.

Odes Metayev was detained Dec. 12. Last month, his family found his body at Dachny "in a half-ruined summer cottage, lying by the front porch," his brother Abdurashid said.

"When I stumbled on him, he was lying on his stomach, with his hands tied behind his back," the brother said in comments reported by Memorial. "His ear was missing, and there was a blindfold on his eyes. His ear was cut off while he was still alive, because his face was covered with blood."

Chechen civilians and human rights activists say the military has perfected a practice of selling bodies to grieving relatives through a network of Chechen intermediaries -- a corrupt commerce flourishing amid the mutual hatred of the war.

"The trade in detained people and in corpses has acquired a mass nature in Chechnya," Orlov told the news conference. "You have a relative missing they will display bodies ... If you see one of your (relatives) pay and take him away."

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