Russian troops killed at least 62 civilians during a bloodthirsty rampage through a suburb of Chechnya’s capital, an international human-rights group said yesterday.
It was the worst massacre of the Chechen war, Human Rights Watch said.
“We are absolutely shocked by this evidence. It’s the worst case documented so far,” spokesman Malcolm Hawkes said.
He said interviews with survivors revealed that about 100 soldiers systematically robbed and killed civilians in Aldi, a suburb of Grozny, on Feb. 5-6.
Survivors said the Russian troops also committed several rapes and hurled grenades into basements where residents were trying to hide.
The troops also threatened revenge against survivors who talked about the massacre, Hawkes said.
The rampage came a few days after most rebels fled the city, and Russian troops were moving to flush out the holdouts.
Hawkes said Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York, had “convincing evidence” of 82 murders in Aldi, of which 62 had been documented.
He said the group would release the list of victims and full details later this week after it checks the remaining 20 cases.
The massacre in Aldi was the third mass killing of civilians that Human Rights Watch has documented.
The previous killings were a massacre of some 40 civilians in the village of Alkhan-Yurt in early December and a rampage in Grozny’s Staropromyslovsky region in which 41 people died.
That report came early this month, and the government hotly denied it.
“While they were busy denying reports about killings in Staropromyslovsky, an even worse massacre was occurring,” Hawkes said.
Vladimir Kalamanov, who was appointed last week as Russia’s human-rights commissioner for Chechnya, promised to check all allegations that civilians were being murdered, but refrained from discussing specific cases.
“If the authorities abused their position, they must be punished,” he said.