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Russian soldiers refuse to admit shelling village of Chechen-Aul

By Umalt Chadayev

CHECHNYA - In Chechnya an investigation is continuing into a long-range shelling of the village of Chechen-Aul, located in the Groznensky district.

The investigation of the incident, which occurred on the night of December 16, is being dealt with by an investigative team of the military prosecutor's office. As a result of the shelling three private houses in this populated area were partially destroyed.

Local residents are convinced that the village came under fire from Russian soldiers stationed in the vicinity of the town of Shali. However, the soldiers say that the projectiles fired at Chechen-Aul were not live ammunition.

“There was no shelling of Chechen-Aul,” the office of the republic’s military commandant claims. “These were 50 and 150 mm calibre illumination shells of an uncased type, which cannot be called live shells. An operational-investigative group is presently working on the site, and it will explain all the circumstances of what took place.”

"The military simply doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened,” a Chechen human rights defender says. "According to the information given us by local residents, three artillery shells exploded in Chechen-Aul, on Argun, Kirov and Kalinin Streets. Fragments of the shells seriously damaged three houses: windowpanes were knocked out, holes were made in roofs, gas pipes, and so on. If only illumination shells had been used, the village would not have suffered such damage. It’s fortunate there weren’t any human casualties."

This is now the second such incident to have taken place in Chechnya during the past two months. On November 9, Russian soldiers shelled the heavily populated village of Starye Atagi, also located in the Groznensky district. Then six local residents, including an eight-year-old girl, were seriously injured, and eight apartment houses were destroyed. The Chechen military prosecutor’s office opened criminal proceedings against the Russian officer responsible for this bombardment under the legal statute on violation of the regulations concerning the handling of weapons.

On December 16, Chechnya’s pro-Moscow leader Alu Alkhanov announced at a meeting in Grozny with the heads of the law enforcement agencies that severe measures would be taken to curtail the shelling of populated areas by Russian soldiers. "Our task is to completely eliminate such incidents, and we will combat the depraved practice of shelling populated areas", he said.

(T/MD)

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