Report by Jaromir STETINA, journalist, Agency Epicentrum, Czech Republic

Moscow, March 18th, 1996

On the morning of March 16th, 1996 I visited the west-Chechnyan village of Sernovodsk. That day at about 11 a.m. local time, the Russian troops started to bombard the village of Samashki, which lies about 5 km from here. In Sernovodsk there are practically no men. Only very old men, women and children remain. Approximately 60 per cent of Sernovodsk has been destroyed by the bombing. There is danger of an epidemic breaking out because hundreds of heads of dead cattle are lying about in the village, mainly cows killed by shrapnel. According to the testimony of the local inhabitants the army entered the village after preliminary artillery fire and started on the systematical robbing of the deserted houses of the village from which about 14 thousands people had managed to flee. I entered about 20 empty, deserted houses, chosen at random. They had obviously been robbed, from some even water pipes were missing, wash-basins etc. The local inhabitants advised me to visit

the building of the Technical School, where the Russian soldiers had taken all the stolen material. Two rooms still held the remains of damaged television sets, torn carpets, cooking utensils, all these objects obviously damaged when being brought there, which was why the Russians left them.

In the afternoon of March 16th, 1996 I walked to the outskirts of Sernovodsk towards Samashki. Samashki is clearly visible from this point: the village was on fire with a large cloud of black smoke hovering above it. I arrived at the Russian atation no.13 on the road between Sernovodsk and Samashki, where I bacame witness to how the Russian soldiers armed with machine-guns pulled all the men out of the crowd and pushed them into URAL trucks. There were 14-year-old boys among them and in two cases the soldiers dragged 12-year-old sons away from their mothers; while firing their machine-guns into the air they literally flung these boys onto the truck. At the time several thousands of people managed to walk to Sernovodsk and from Sernovodsk on to the village of Slepcovsk in Ingushetia. Most of them fled fromtheir homes inadequately dressed, wearing their house slippers, with small children wrapped in rags or towels, some of them drove their wounded cattle alongside.

This was the one group that managed to leave Samashki that day and the next. According to several independent witnesses, the inhabitants had to collect 50 million roubles which they gave to the Russian soldiers to alloww them to leave the village. Some 5 to 6 thousand people remained in the village under artillery attack. The soldiers have not allowed representatives of international organizations not journalists to enter either Sernovodsk or Samashki. I managed to get through in disquise. The soldiers refuse to cooperate with any international organization - for example IMO/MOI - the International Organization for Migration - had made an arrangement with the soldiers that they would take out 17 buses full of refugees from Samashki, but in the end the soldiers did not permit it. According to the report by Memorial, the Organization for the Protection of Human Rights, and the observation committee of Sergei Kovalyov, which is working near Samashki, only civilian buildings are being

bombarded in Samashki - schools, mosques and hospitals. According to Memorial, at least 85 inhabitants have been held at Russian army station 13; they were loaded onto trucks and taken to quarry on the northern boundary of the village. From there helicopters take them to the village called Assinovka, and the filtration camp, or to Russian army headquarters in Grozny.

Today (March 18th, 1996) about half the original number of inhabitants - originally 12 000 - are in the village under incessant bombardment.

It is to be presumed that Sernovodsk and Samashki are the first in a series of purging operatins, totally blocked are also the villages of Kutar Jurt, Zakon Jurt and Achkhoy Marton which received an ultimatum from the federal troops to hand over to the Russian army the armed Chechnian men from these villages. This is a condition the villagers are not able to fulfil because most of the armed men in these villages are the local men, the so-called home guard, who are determined to protect their houses. According to numerous observers similar unrealizable demands from the Russian army will follow in the case of 20 to 30 villages throughout the region. The danger that this area of about 700 square kilometres will be cleared of civilian inhabitants and destroyed by heavy artilllery is very imminent, it could come about within the next few weeks. The ratio of armed Chechnian citizens and unarmed Chechnians is roughly several hundred to several tens of thousands.

In early March a new stage began in mass infringement of human rights by the Russian Federal Army. Russian command started out on a powerful punitive operation against the civilian inhabitants. During the coming days and weeks about 120 to 150 thousand people will be in direct danger on a territory of approximately 30 X 25 kilometres to the north of the mountain village of Bamut, held by the soldiers of the army of the Chechnya republic of Ichkeria.

The "purging" operations undertaken by units of the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of thee Interior of the Russian Federation involve heavy rocket, artillery, tank and air fire concetrated on the villages, the civilian inhabitants not having been given the chance to leave these villages. Russian command justifies the destruction of the villages by the presence of Dudayev partisans in these villages.

The extermination operation in western Chechnya began on March 3rd in the village of Sernovodsk and then continued with the village of Samashki from March 13th onwards.

The inhabitants who managed to flee from the villages handed over to me letters adressed to the Council of Europe.

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LETTER FROM THE INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGE OF SERNOVODSK

TO THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

From the inhabitants of Sernovodsk

Sunzhensky district

Chechnian Republic

Since September 30th, 1995 the station Sernovodskaya, in the Chechnian Republic of Ichkeria lies surrounded from all sides by Russian federal troops which approached to a distance of 500 metres in the north. The village inhabitants - 15 000 in number - set out to face the army and held a meeting in which they expressed the request for innocent people not be killed and for the troops to retreat to a greater distance from the village. The result of the two-day negotiations was that the troops retreated to a distance of 2 km. The meeting then continued in Sernovodsk till February 1996. People demanded that the war stops, they wanted peace talks, free democratic elections in the Chechnian Republic of Ichkeria. These demands did not please the federal troops nor the pro-Moscow powers in Chechnya. The inhabitants of Sernovodsk did not vote for the new Chechnya government, but they stated that the village had voted. (Note: what is meant are the falsified elections organized by

the highest representative of Chechnya, the former communist chief of the Chechnya-Ingush Republic, Doka Zavgayev. These elections were "held" on December 14th-17th, 1995).

On March 3rd at about 7 a. m. the federal troops started bombing Sernovodsk without any warning. 70 per cent of the houses were destroyed, 90 per cent were damaged. There were many wounded, about 50 people, 40 people were killed.

We turn to the European Council to help stop this war, not to permit the utter destruction of the Chechnian nation which is part of the world civilization, to support the demands of the Chechnian nation in the matter of defending human rights.

March 17th, 1996, signatures of the inhabitants,

rubber stamp of the Sernovodsk administration

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LETTER FROM THE INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGE SAMASHKI

TO THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

From the inhabitants of Samashki Achkhoy

Martanovsky Region

Chechnian Republic

On March 13th and 14th, 1996 the village of Samashki was encircled by federal troops. On March 15th from 8 a. m. till 10 a. m. a corridoor was left open for the inhabitants towards the village of Sernovodsk. At Russian Army station no. 13 between Samashki and Sernovodsk, the Russian soldiers held back male inhabitants of 14 and older. The crowd of refugees fell into a panic. The federal troops the closed the way out with armoured transporters and blocked the refugees in. The Russians started bombing Samashki from all types of heavy artillery weapons. The air force supported the fire from the air. For the second time they started the physical liquidation of the village. (Note: the village of Samashki was bombed and then occupied and robbed by the Russian army for the first time in April 1995, when, on April 7th the Russian soldiers murdered about 120 civilian inhabitants.) 70 per cent of the village inhabitants did not manage to leave and many of them remain

ed outdoors. The federal power representatives started making arrests. 98 men aged 14 to 45 were held. The refugees who had managed to flee from Samashki left for the Sunzhen Region of the Republic of Ingushetia.

Today, on March 17th, Samashki is being bombed for the third day running from heavy artillery weapons and airbound helicopters. Neither the Red Cross, the Ministry for Extraordinary Situations nor the heads of the administration were permitted to enter the village. Yesterday, March 16th, one inhabitant left the village and reported that there is a true hell inside. There are dead and wounded.

The inhabitants have no medical aid. The Russian troops refused to reopen the corridoor and over 60 per cent of the inhabitants are still inside. A second filtration is taking place in Samashki.

We turn to all the governments and to the non-governmental organizations of Europe and world with the plea, would they support our following demands on all levels:

1. An immediate and unconditional end to all military operations on the territory of Chechnya

2. To help make an end to the crimes against humanity and the war crimes being perpetrated in the village of Samashki and the whole of Chechnya.

Signed by the Chief of the Administration of Samashki, Abdul Hadzhiyer

March 17th, 1996

Enclosed are the signatures of the village of Samashki,

stamped by the Samashki Administration rubber stamp.