Children killed in clean-ups, says Versiya

Versiya newspaper has investigated two "special operations to capture rebels" in which two children have been killed in Dagestan: Sumaya Abdurashidov, 6, and Kerim Tadzhutdinov, 3.

Two men came to Ruslan Abdurashidov on 14 February this year. His wife, Zulpa Abdurashidov, invited them to stay for a night at their place, the newspaper says.

At night, Zulpa woke up because she heard military two-way radio sounds. She says armed people in camouflage uniforms broke into the room. Zulpa remembers Ruslan asking the armed people not to fire because there were children in the house. However, the policemen opened fire exactly on the nursery. The police also used explosives, according to Zulpa.

Sumaya died of a shrapnel wound in the head. Her father, Ruslan, was arrested at the same time, charged under Article 316 of the Russian Criminal Code for resetting rebels who it was explained to Zulpa the people were who had stayed for a night at her place.

After numerous grievances to the district, republican and federal prosecutor's offices and personally to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the Abdurashidovs received a notification that read, "Your complaint has been sent to the Khasaviurt district prosecutor's office." However, they did not know what conclusions the prosecutor's office arrived at.

District prosecutor Rezvan Gajimagomedov agreed to talk to Versiya and said an examination of the six-year-old girl's death had already been conducted. However, it turned out no separate investigation into the child's killing had been carried out, but Sumaya's death had been treated as an episode in the investigation into the destruction of the two rebels. The prosecutor's office made a conclusion the girl was killed by an F-1 grenade one of them threw.

The prosecutor added that the "rebels were especially dangerous" and that they had one handgun with them, aside from two grenades. However, according to Versiya's information, even 2.5 months later an examination of the place where Sumaya had died gave an understanding of what had happened: the place where Sumaya's bed had stood was right opposite a breach in two adobe walls, each 0.5 m in diameter. A grenade could not have caused such breaches. The weapon that killed the girl was more powerful and the rebels had no such weapon, in the newspaper's opinion.

The publication emphasises there are no reasons to believe the policemen killed the child deliberately. Sumaya died because they conducted a usual military clean-up instead of an adequate detention operation. Prosecutor Gajimagomedov agreed the qualification of the police officers was insufficient, but he also said, "Those rebels, Salman and Ruslan Yangisbiyev, had killed police lieutenant Magomedov on 31 December. Now the dead child's parents weep, but what did they think about when they let them in?"

In the opinion of the prosecutor, Abdurashidov knew that rebels stayed at his place that night. "These people had more than once stayed at the imam's," prosecutor Gajimagomedov maintains, "he has confessed he knew everything well."

"We also have some other evidence: the Yangisbiyevs killed and robbed a police officer. They sold his mobile phone to a resident of Solnechnyi, Khasaviurt district. We found that resident and seized the phone, but we had nothing to arrest him for. So it was him who told the imam then that the phone he had bought from his friends Yangisbiyev turned out to have belonged to the killed policeman," the prosecutor added. Thus, the "especially dangerous rebels and terrorists" turned into usual robbers, Versiya says.

A similar case occurred in Khasaviurt on 5 April, the newspaper says. Three-year-old Kerim Tadzhutdinov was killed in a special operation. A bullet hit him in the head, while his mother was wounded in her leg.

It became known later local Dagestani police in cooperation with their Chechen counterparts had been storming a flat opposite Said Tadzhutdinov's flat where rebels had been reported to stay. The words "Police, open up!" led to someone shooting from that flat through the door. The police officers opened fire in response, too. The gunmen were destroyed in several minutes, but three-year-old Kerim from the opposite flat was killed with them.

The fact of Kerim's death is investigated by the city, not district, prosecutor's office, but no separate case has been opened. Instead, it is examined as part of the case of the destroyed rebels. The investigation is not finished yet, so the city prosecutor refused to speak about its results.

However, the lawyer to whom Said Tadzhutdinov has applied, a former police officer himself, has told Said, "The case has actually been closed, they have decided your son was killed by a bullet the bandits fired which broke through their door and your door and hit Kerim. The examination led to establishing the police officers had not fired in the direction of your flat."

Three bullet holes can be seen on the balcony of Said Tadzhutdinov's flat. These bullets were fired from the yard of the house where the police were. The rebels did not get into the yard, they were destroyed right in the flat. Said says these bullets were fired at him when he called for help, Versiya reports.

These were not the only shots from the yard. Bullet marks can be seen in the entrance hall starting from the second floor. This means the police did not simply fire at the windows of the rebels' flat, but also at the entire entrance hall. However, Kerim was killed in the anteroom where bullets could not hit from the street.

In January this year, a special operation to capture rebels was conducted in the capital of Dagestan, Makhachkala, during which tanks destroyed two houses where the rebels were hiding and partially destroyed another 20 buildings nearby. The owners were promised compensations. The republican Ministry of Emergencies was in charge.

The owner of house no 65 in 3rd Magistralnaya St, Magomedrasul Akhmedkhanov, says he was offered 10,000 roubles as compensation. He refused to take this amount because the windowpanes alone he had to replace cost 60,000 roubles.

Those whose houses were destroyed completely received 800,000 roubles each. This is approximately $25,000. They can now reconstruct the foundation and a part of the ground floor for this money.

Dagestan's Ministry of Emergencies says they have compensated everything "according to the established standards in state prices as of 2000."

• High-profile killing in Dagestan

More about Russia's North Caucasus:

• Human Rights Practices in Russia's North Caucasus - 2004