Soldiers gouge out eyes

last updated 8 January 2015

Nazran, Russia

Russian soldiers swarm through Chechen villages, torturing the men unless they pay huge bribes, Chechen refugees told The Washington Post last week. Villager Kuslum Savnykaevna told of a raid in May when soldiers surrounded the village of Mesker Yurt for three weeks. She said many of the Chechen men who survived had their eyes gouged out, or were missing most of their fingers, or had been doused with alcohol and set on fire. Russian Gen. Vladimir Moltenskoi said his troops had simply conducted a proper “cleansing operation” in a “pro-bandit village.” But the human-rights group Memorial said it had mounting evidence that Moltenskoi’s soldiers had been torturing and murdering civilians.