Journalists are shown the new Chernokozovo
By Ruslan Isayev
CHECHNYA – On Wednesday the notorious Chechen prison in the village of Chernokozovo opened its doors to journalists, including foreign ones. A large group had come specially to Chechnya to visit detention centres and labour colonies for convicts.
Accompanied by representatives of the Federal Russian Penal Service, the journalists were given a rare opportunity to see for themselves the conditions under which detainees and convicts in the republic are held. On Tuesday, the first day of their tour, they visited a detention centre (SIZO) in Grozny, and on Wednesday they were taken to a labour colony in the village of Chernokozovo in the Naursky district of Chechnya.
The Chernokozovo colony is divided into three sections – a maximum security zone, a general-regime zone, and a colony-settlement. At present 734 convicts are serving there sentences in it, 74 of whom are there for taking part in the armed resistance. In the maximum security zone there are also 7 women convicted of fraud and drug trafficking. The convicts in the zone are mostly there for theft, robbery, drug trafficking and other serious crimes. The average length of sentence served by prisoners is 5 years.
The journalists were shown the prisoners’ living conditions. Each of the rooms in the newly refurbished barracks house 10-12 men. The rooms are more like the large rooms of TACs than prison cells. There is a television room with DVD, a prayer room, a shower, a kitchen, and volleyball in the evenings.
The prisoners’ only complaints were about their uniforms and the strictness of the regulations. Many of the men in the prison believe they have been sentenced unlawfully, and they serve their terms without guilt.
Despite the harshness of life in the camp, many of the prisoners are glad they are serving their sentences in Chechnya. "Compared to the Russian colonies I’ve been in, this one is like a pioneers’ camp," said an inmate.
The Chernokozovo prison complex is free of the thieves' culture that operates in Russian camps. The Chechen prisoners expect that once they have served their time they will be able to start life anew and not engage in actions that may lead them back behind bars.
It is possible that in the near future all Chechens serving time in Russian prisons will be transferred to Chechnya, where they will "live out" the remaining years of their sentences. At any rate, that is the desire of the Chechen authorities, and there is already preliminary agreement from the federal centre. All that remains is to build another zone for women and juvenile offenders.
The colony in the village of Chernokozovo, which was built in the Stalin era, attained notoriety after the beginning of the second Chechen war. Eyewitnesses and human rights activists say that the prison, which operated under the complete control of the federal forces, was the scene of torture and other unlawful methods of handling prisoners. In those days the relatives of detainees held spontaneous protests outside the prison complex. According to available data none of those who tortured and abused the prisoners have ever been brought to justice.
(T) RELATED ARTICLES:
· "Welcome to Hell" - Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Extortion in Chechnya (HRW, 26.10.2000)
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