26 October 2005, 21:25
Police violence raging in Kabardino-Balkaria
A large-scale operation for the search of participants in the armed attacks on buildings of law enforcement and security agencies in Nalchik is under way throughout Kabardino-Balkaria. A description of the developments in the capital exposes the unsightly seamy side of the special operation though.
Detained on 23 October, Ramazan Tembotov, a member of the local legislation in Khasania and a member of the United Russia party, was released from the 6th division of the Nalchik Department for the Combating of Organised Crime after 24 hours of humiliation. Riot police detained him in the afternoon on Sunday and delivered to the Organised Crime Combating Department without giving any explanations. Before that, the lawmaker managed to phone some friends from the Federal Security Service, which Mr Tembotov thinks saved him, according to GZT.ru.
"People in masks pounced on me and put me down like a criminal, using bad language. It's a shame for me; after all, attitudes towards a lawmaker are special, everyone knows me in the village," says Ramazan Tembotov.
"One could say they did not beat me, comparing with others. They were bringing me to offices and basements, showing what was being done to other detained people: those were tortured like in the Gestapo," Mr Tembotov continues. "No lawyers, no interrogations, just beating to death until they confess and report others."
Clean-ups in Nalchik are under way. At least 2,000 have been arrested, according to the lawmaker's information — this is the number of applications which mothers have filed to the republican prosecutor's office. No one is examining these applications, Mr Tembotov thinks.
Clean-ups are carried out using so-called lists. According to Mr Tembotov, these lists include both "Wahhabis" and those who have simply attended religious services at mosques or have been made note of by law enforcement and security agencies for a large variety of reasons.
So-called Islamic objectors have also been among those detained. Around 1,000 Muslims from Kabardino-Balkaria addressed President Vladimir Putin with a request to let them emigrate earlier this year. In September, in their address to the world community 400 Muslims asked for asylum in any country around the world, accusing republican law enforcement and security agencies of many years' pressure.
Now, around 600 of these "objectors" are among those arrested, according to Mr Tembotov's information and that of local human rights defenders.
Everything linking to Islam makes law enforcement and security operatives especially embittered. "When fast was already over and I asked for water at about 9.00 p.m., they promised me: you will be drinking blood of your beastly friends," says the lawmaker.
Mr Tembotov has not been able to date to find out the whereabouts of some of his fellow villagers who were also arrested on Sunday: Rasul Nogerov, Zeitun Sultanov, Zeitun Gayev, Tstsrase Etizov, Rasul Khalaikhanov, and Anatoly Gazhonov.
Mr Tembotov believes that local police forces are convinced of their own impunity. He thinks that they are making haste to gain the favour of their chiefs and "achieve high crime exposure rates" using such methods.
Human rights defenders are raising the alarm over mass arrests and torture in republican internal affairs divisions. A survey of Nalchik residents who witnessed the developments on 13 and 14 October has enabled the human rights organisation Memorial to conclude that police abuse and impunity was the principal cause of the events in the republican capital.
The police in Kabardino-Balkaria have lately been conducting sweeping "pre-emptive activities" accompanied with numerous human rights violations, a Memorial release says. In the opinion of experts of the human rights centre, "fight against Wahhabism has developed into persecution of Muslims in general."
"The police in Kabardino-Balkaria have become an odious institute by far not only for extremists, not only for Muslims, but also for the majority of the population, it has 'got' to everyone," the release says.
