3. The Disappearances, 2002– 5

Abstract

Destroying the insurgents under the cover of night is the most eff ective strategy in this war. Th ey are scared of it. And they don't feel safe anywhere-neither in the mountains nor at home. -Russian offi cer I was in the kitchen. I quickly opened the window and saw that he was being dragged into the car by his collar. . . . Th ere were four of them, without masks, Chechens. -Chechen civilian witness I want to know where my son is detained and why. . . . I don't even know where he is and how he is. It's winter, my child went out in a T-shirt and barefoot. -Rashan Alieva, December 2000the visual hallmarks of the second chechen war manifested in the zachistka-the sealed villages, trucks laden with looted property, and temporary fi ltration points on the outskirts of villages-began to diminish by the summer of 2003. Under growing pressure from the Council of Eu rope, the Rus sian government was forced to ease the large-scale sweep operations in an eff ort to rein in the impunity. Th e worst appeared to be over. But this picture of growing calm was highly misleading. Large-scale sweep operations were gradually replaced by an increasing number of targeted sweeps (adresnaia zachistka), nighttime abductions, and disappearances. 1 As one military intelligence offi cer admitted in the pages of Izvestiia, "Large operations are no longer necessary. We need night operations, directed and Brought to you by | Stockholms Universitet Authenticated Download Date |