Memorial Human Rights Center
Moscow, 1996
Head of the Observer Mission: S. Kovalyev
This report was written by A.Blinushov, A.Guryanov, O.Orlov,
Ya.Rachinsky,
and A.Sokolov.
N.Bogatikova, V.Borshchev, Yu.Bulakh, A.Cherkassov, T.Kasatkina, S.Kovalyev, I.Lipkin , V.Lozinsky, Yu.Mityukhina, V.Molokoedov, N.Petrova, Yu.Rybakov, S.Sirotkin, O.Trusevich, and M.Zamyatin also participated in the preparation of this report.
Translation by R.Denber.
«...to use all means available to the state to guarantee state security, lawfulness, rights and freedoms of citizens, the guarding of public order, the fight against crime, the disarming of all illegal armed formations.»
From a Decree of the President of the RF
on Measures to Stop the Operation
of Illegal Armed Formations
on the Territory of the Republic of Chechnya
and in the Ossetian-Ingush Conflict Zone,
issued December 9, 1994.
Abbreviations
OM — Observer Mission of Human Rights and Public Organizations
in the Conflict
Zone
MVD — Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ministerstvo Vnutrennykh Del)
RF — Russian Federation
APC — armored personnel carrier
GUOSH — Main Department of MVD Operations Headquarters (Glavnoe Upravlenie Operativnykh Shtabov MVD)
ICRC — International Committee of the Red Cross
EMERCOM — Ministry for Emergency Situations
NTV — Independent Television (Nezavisimoe Televedenie)
OMON — Special Task Militia Units (Otryad Militsii Osobogo Naznacheniya)
FPS — Federal Border Troops (Federal’naya pogranichnaya sluzhba)
FSB — Federal Security Service (Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti)1
FSK — Federal Counterintelligence Service (Federal’naya sluzhba
Kontrarazvedki)
All times indicated in this report are Moscow time.
We used the term «servicemen» or «soldier» whenever victims and witnesses were not able to distinguish Internal Ministry troops, soldiers and officers from OMONs and other police divisions.
The authors of this report wish to thank:
— The Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation for their support of the OM;
— WPS, a monitoring agency, for their gratis information services;
— television companies and agencies which provided gratis video recordings: Oktober Film (Great Britain) and EFE-TV (Spain).