Minibus driver beaten cruelly

Officers of Chechen law enforcement / security agencies beat the driver of a minibus going to Ingushetia on the federal motorway Kavkaz ("Caucasus") on 2 October.

This is what a Grozny resident said, indicating that the incident had occurred in the daytime in the presence of numerous eyewitnesses and officers of Ingushetia's Internal Affairs Ministry.

"A minibus which carried 15 people, including me, was stopped for examination at the Kavkaz-1 checkpoint (near the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia) on the Rostov-Baku road in the afternoon yesterday. At the moment, several people in camouflage uniforms drove up in a jeep and shouted at the driver using extremely abusive language and demanding that he should clear the way for a column of cars they were convoying. The driver swore back and told them that he was not to blame because the military men had stopped him there. After that, the strangers drove round our minibus, swearing wildly, and rushed towards Ingushetia," says Vakhid, 45.

"However, when we approached the Ingush checkpoint, it turned out that the jeep and another vehicle, a 99th model Zhiguli, were waiting for us there. The 'military men' demanded that the driver should get out the minibus, and then three of them started to beat him. The man tried to resist. Then they hit him several times on his head with the grip of a handgun and on his face with the butt of a submachine gun. We tried to interfere and stop that abuse, but the 'military men' threatened weapons. Officers of the Ingush police saw everything that was going on, but none of them took any steps," says the interlocutor.

He added that the unknown Chechen "military men" had then gone back towards Chechnya, while the driver, in spite of his rather grave condition, had still carried his passengers to Nazran, Ingushetia. "Like the other passengers of that ill-fated minibus, I am seriously afraid for his security because anything can be expected from those persons," he believes.