As Russian forces held back from an all-out attack on Grozny, disturbing allegations have emerged of a massacre of Chechen civilians.
According to refugees arriving in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, more than 20 people who resisted looting by Russian soldiers were summarily executed in the village of Alkhan Yurt, about 10 miles south-west of the Chechen capital.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) organisation, which has a team of workers based near the Chechen border, has been given accounts of the alleged massacre by three different residents of Alkhan Yurt.
Two men interviewed by the organisation said they had been sent to Ingushetia by village elders who had instructed them to go to "the United Nations, the OSCE, to journalists, to military procurators, to let them know that soldiers are abusing them and humiliating them".
One of the men, given the fictitious name "Omar Ilayev" by HRW, said Russian troops entered Alkhan Yurt on December 1st following three days of artillery bombardment. Since then, he added, the troops had been looting houses and killing those who resisted.
On December 8th, he said, troops entered the house of Hanpasha Dudayev, a man in his 60s, and killed him when he protested. They then burned down his house with his body inside.
"Ilayev" also named Hamid Hasuyev (60), Isa Muradov (45) and Musa Gelkhayev (25) as having been killed in their homes by looting soldiers while Alimpasha Assuyev (25) and another unidentified man were executed after being beaten by soldiers in a cellar.
A list of 17 further names of people reported by their relatives as killed was given by "Ilayev" to representatives of HRW. He also claimed that there were other killings in the village but that he had been unable to interview the relatives of the dead.
HRW said a man it called "Adam Deniyev" (not his real name), who was interviewed independently from the village emissaries, had confirmed the killing of Hanpasha Dudayev, who was his neighbour.
"The shocking events in Alk han-Yurt should serve as a wakeup call for Russia and the inter national community," said Ms Holly Cartner, executive director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia division. "The abuses in Chechnya are mounting at an alarming rate. This kind of conduct is banned by the Geneva Convention, to which Russia is a party."
Russian sources have consistently denied allegations of massacres by Federal Troops such as that at Alkhan Yurt.
"The worse the guerrillas' situation gets, the more treacherous their response becomes," a Defence Ministry source said. A senior Russian officer confirmed yesterday an attack on Grozny was not imminent. Gen Vladimir Shamanov, who is in the field in Chechnya, said it would be at least "two to three weeks" before any assault would be made.
Seamus Martin can be contacted by e-mail at: seamus.martin@russia.com
