RAID ON REFUGEE CAMP

Earlier this month, Chechen residents of a refugee camp in Narzan, Ingushetia, experienced a “zachistka” security sweep of the sort more usually associated with Chechnya itself. Leila Lileva of the Russian Prima news service reported that armed men with six armored vehicles entered the camp on June 3 and began to beat the male residents with the butts of their assault rifles. The intruders dragged their victims outside and forced them to lie on the ground face down. They also made video films of them and–oddly–of their passports as well.

The intruders also seized items such as a package of humanitarian relief supplies from the room of camp commander Ruslan Arsaev. An hour after entering the camp they drove off with four captives–the commander Arsaev, plus Khavazhi Tashukhadzhiev, Umar Muzaev and Khasein Movlaev.

Three of the four were found the next day in the Chechen town of Argun. Movlaev, seriously injured, said that he had been beaten and tortured with an electrical current. Nothing is known about the fate of the camp commander, Arsaev.