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gazeta.ru
March 26, 2002
Military Lose a Soldier per Day in Chechnya
By Artyom Vernidoub
It transpires that the military forces have been losing a soldier a day on Chechen battlefields. Yet, on some days the casualties are considerably higher. For instance, on Monday 10 soldiers of the federal forces and 7 special-purpose OMON policemen were wounded in a clash with the rebels. One soldier died immediately of heavy wounds. The rebels, too, incurred serious losses as combat aircraft attacked a gang of 50 men, Interfax reports.
Citing its sources in the Defence Ministry Interfax has published unofficial data on losses incurred by the federal forces during the second counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya (August 1999 – March 2002). According to Interfax sources, 2331 military servicemen died from the hands of Chechen separatists, a further 5898 were wounded and 26 are officially considered missing in action.
Those numbers concern only the military servicemen of the Defence Ministry and do not reflect losses among the Interior Troops servicemen, policemen, FSB officers and prosecutor’s office employees.
The same Defence Ministry source, quoted by Interfax, said that in the near future the federal forces might suffer more losses. “Given the increasingly frequent attempts of abducted military servicemen to escape from Chechen captivity rebels are set to shoot those who are still in their hands. According to some reports, one more group of military servicemen, who had been held in rebel captivity, escaped on March 17-18”.
In the opinion of a deputy interior minister Ivan Golubev, 80% of federal losses are due to lack of combat experience in young soldiers.
The latest official data on losses of the federal forces was published on November 1 last year by the presidential information directorate run by Sergei Yastrzhembsky. Kremlin report said 3438 servicemen were killed and 11 661 wounded during the second war in Chechnya. Among those perished 2136 were the federal army servicemen (Defence Ministry), 703 Interior troops, 493 policemen, 106 servicemen of other paramilitary agencies.
According to the leak from the Defence Ministry, the total number of military servicemen killed in the 2nd Chechen war is 2331. The latest official report provided by Yastrzhembsky five months ago suggests that the number is 2136. Thus, it transpires that beginning November 1st 168 army servicemen died in Chechnya. In other words, approximately a soldier a day.
On Tuesday Yastrzhembskys’s office refused to comment on the data provided by sources in the Defence Ministry. “Maybe, we will release summary data soon,” Gazeta.Ru correspondent was told. However, judging by daily reports from the Chechen front line, it appears that the numbers provided by the military officials are somewhat under-stated.
The military estimate the current situation in Chechnya as relatively stable. However, only in the past 24 hours 3 federals were killed in the republic. A major clash occurred in the settlement of Tsotsin-Yurt, frequently mentioned in human rights report after a series of ruthless security sweeps conducted here last December.
According to the latest military reports, on Monday, March 25, Federals killed twelve armed Chechens in Tsotsin-Yurt. Operational headquarters have reported that on Monday morning rebels opened fire at policemen of Tsotsin-Yurt police department. Policemen were Chechen nationals. Russian Interior troops and policemen of the Interior Ministry’s department stationed in the settlement on a temporary basis rushed to help their colleagues. In this connection it is worth nothing that Chechen officials have many times complained to Gazeta.Ru that the federals prefer not to interfere into clashes between Chechens.
“In the course of the shooting one military serviceman died, three military and one policeman were wounded. The rebels were encircled. To complete the operation OMON fighters arrived in Oktyabrskoye (Russian name of Tsotsin-Yurt – Gazeta.Ru). One of the armoured personnel carriers that had brought OMON fighters hit the radio-detonated mine. Whereupon a shooting began in the settlement. 7 OMON fighters and 6 Defence Ministry’s military servicemen were wounded. 12 bandits were killed in the clash,” the Operational headquarters reported.
Yet, Russians could have incurred much higher losses in that clash. For comparison, in August last year 6 soldiers were killed in Tsotsin Yurt, after a military convoy of two trucks and an armoured personnel carrier was ambushed and the rebels opened heavy fire at the federals.
Lately Tsotsin-Yurt is often remembered in connection with a ruthless clean up operation, conducted by the federal forces throughout the Kurchaloi district (to which the settlement belongs) at the end of December 2001. Counter-terrorist headquarters reported on elimination of over 100 rebels, whereas human rights activists said several dozen young residents of Tsotsin-Yurt were killed through summary executions. Crackdowns in Tsotsin-Yurt were also mentioned in the US Congress’ report on Human Rights Practices in Russia. The authors of the report referred to data provided by Human Rights Watch.
It is also worth noting that on Monday Russia said its forces had killed more than 12,000 rebels in separatist Chechnya since August 1999. In response, HRW and other human rights groups called the figures grossly exaggerated. Diederick Lohman, head of the HRW Moscow office aid: "Even if the figure includes civilians, it is very high... I would be very skeptical." Oleg Orlov at human rights group Memorial said: "These figures have no link to reality, they are pulled out of a hat". "They said there were only 1,500 rebel fighters left last September. Since then, official announcements of Chechen deaths total 1,224. That would leave only around 300 rebels in all of Chechnya."
In the meantime Russian forces continue to exercise zeal in restoring the constitutional order in Chechnya. On Monday Federal Su-24 frontline bombers hit a group of up to 50 rebels in a mountainous region of Chechnya.
Federal forces continue to sweep Chechen capital Grozny. According to Interfax, early in the morning on Tuesday the military blocked off the central market in Grozny. The marketplace was encircled by armoured vehicles, and salesmen were not allowed access to their stalls.
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