VICTORY DAY OF GRACHIOV AND YERIN

by Viktor Silchenko

Twenty refugees from Chechnia arrived to Ukrainian town Irpen late at Sunday night. Before they went to bed, tired people came to me. Two weeks did I know nothing about fate of my 17 years old daughter Nastia who went to Chechnia with pacifists' group. I knew only that she was in Samashki, and I saw on TV that Samashki was overtaken by federal forces with many dead among peaceful residents. Refugees brought me a letter. "It is necessary to tell people what's happening there", they said.

"Dad,

I ask you very much to publish this letter. All happened in Samashki is horror. Federal Anti-Intelligence Service declared, that according to their information, 263 submachine guns, 3 machine guns and one military vehicle were stored in Samashki. Many forces gathered near Samashki, including infantry squad and many special squads. They called elder men and told them: "You hand us over all weapons before the morning, or we attack the town." But there was no such amount of weapons in Samashki. Elder men demanded local militia to go to the forests, because peaceful people could suffer because of a fight. After they left, there were no weapons in the town at all.

About 600 women and children left Samashki in time; after that Russian forces blocked up ways out of the town and vehicles rushed at Samashki. They drove to every house and shot at it. If somebody tried to escape -- woman, or man, or a child -- submachine gun fire caught him or her up, and they burnt the dead body with a flame thrower. In such a way they moved from house to house. They threw anti-tank grenades into basements or shot flame throwers. A smallest rustle -- and there was no house at all.

Infantry fighters kicked an old man on the street. Fourteen year old girl ran out to protect him, and they burnt her down with a flame thrower. They pulled out a child from a woman's hands and shot him, his mother looking at that. She asked them: "Why? We are not fighters!" They replied: "You are Chechens. That's enough." Ten children were hung up at the railway station, then two more schoolchildren in a school. They drove women, children and old men to a corn store. Men, about 130 of them, were shot.

Seventy per cent of village buildings were demolished. Those were even not ruins, but just a smooth places. A half of people were taken out to the filtration camp in Mozdok. Two days they didn't allow anybody, even International Red Cross, to get into the town, and people died even of light wounds without any medical aid. Vehicles ran over dead bodies, preventing relatives to bury them. Wounded were taken aside and killed.

In two days they allowed women to go into Samashki, and they went by foot. Those who ran through the fields were killed. A couple of people left alive in the town, about 100 wounded. All this is not testimonies of Chechens themselves. All this I saw from the opposite bank of the river.

In the filtration camp they also beat people like wild things. We met our "lost" Chechen driver Shakhab Khupiyev: they kept him 8 days. They kicked him and tortured with electricity. When they brought him and 9 more people by a helicopter, they threw three of them down.

In a camp in Osinovka, beholders say, 20-25 people sleep in one room on a cold concrete floor. There are also pits with walls and floor covered with iron. They keep people there for three days, and give a mug of water for five people. When somebody of captives tried to take off ropes from his hands, they cut off his hands. If somebody tried to take off black bandage from his eyes, they cut out his eyes.

One man with a woman and a child ran away from Osinovka. Military vehicle caught them up on a highway. Husband told his wife to run away and left himself with the child in his hands. Two soldiers from the vehicle told him: "Take a spade and dig a grave for your little girl." The man cried. Then the third soldier came out from the vehicle, maybe, their chief (a Cossack from Rostov), and let the man go. He walked toward a control post and waited a shot at his back...

All this is only a part of what I have learnt here. I have to bring a group of orphans to Kiev, then I'll tell you the rest.

Kisses,

Nastia."

Translated into English by A.Prishchenko, April 27, 1995