The Novye Aldi massacre was the

mass murder Mass murder is the violent crime of murder, killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more ...

of Chechen civilians on February 5, 2000, in which Russian forces went on a cleansing operation ( zachistka), summarily executing dozens. The village had been cluster-bombed a day prior to the massacre, and local residents urged to come out for inspection the next day. Upon entering the village, Russian forces shot their victims with automatic fire at close range. The killings were accompanied by

looting Looting is the act of stealing, or the taking of goods by force, typically in the midst of a military, political, or other social crisis, such as war, natural disasters (where law and civil enforcement are temporarily ineffective), or rioting. ...

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

and

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

. As a result of the deadly rampage by Russian forces, up to 82 civilians were killed in the spree. Houses of civilians were burnt in an attempt to destroy evidence of summary executions and other crimes. Looting took place on a large scale and organised manner.European court assails Russia over killings in Chechnya
, ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...

'', July 26, 2007 The official investigation into the Aldi massacre established that the "sweep operation" there was conducted by the

paramilitary police Paramilitary police may refer to: * Auxiliaries, support personnel that assist the military or police but are organised differently from regular forces * Constabulary, a form of police force used in various jurisdictions * City guard, local militia ...

OMON OMON is a system of military special police units within the Armed Forces of Russia. It previously operated within the structures of the Soviet and Russian Ministries of Internal Affairs (MVD). Originating as the special forces unit of the So ...

from the northern Russian city of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

(possibly also from the southern

Ryazan Oblast Ryazan Oblast (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Ryazan, which is also the oblast's largest city. Geography Ryazan Oblast ...

). As of 2016 the Russian authorities had failed to hold anyone to account for the crime. The guilt of the Russian state in the Aldi murders and the denial of justice to the victims was formally established in two different judgements by the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

in 2006–07.

Background

Novye Aldi (New Aldi) is a residential suburb to the south-west of the city and east of the villages of Alkhan-Yurt and Alkhan-Kala and the now-flattened Grozny oil refineries, next to the M-29 highway. Its population had been 27,000 people before the war, but most of the residents had fled the fighting in the last months of 1999, leaving behind approximately 2,000 people who were too old or otherwise incapable of the journey to safety. It appears that the suburb was not used by Chechen fighters in any way during the war and there are no reports of clashes with the Russian forces in Aldi. However, approximately 63 residents were killed between December 1999 and February 2000 by federal artillery and mortar fire in the course of the siege of the city. At least five of them died during the barrage of February 3–4 which included

cluster bomb A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehi ...

air strikes (among them three members of the ethnic Russian Smirnov family killed when their house was hit in the last hours of the bombardment). Aldi itself was not a target prior to February 3 and the casualties appear to have been inflicted by stray shells and rockets fired at neighboring areas such as District 20.February 5: A Day of Slaughter in Novye Aldi
, Human Rights Watch, 2000 On February 4, after the bulk of the Chechen separatist forces had left Grozny, a delegation of Aldi village elders went under white flags to inform the Russian military command about the lack of a presence of Chechen fighters in the suburb. They had been fired on as they approached the federal military positions (one of them, an ethnic Russian, was injured in the shooting and later died), but eventually managed to successfully negotiate a cessation of the shelling. The initial Russian forces who had arrived in Aldi in the afternoon of February 4 (visibly battle-weary and typically very young conscript soldiers in dirty uniforms), did not encounter any resistance and passed through the settlement without committing any illegal acts. Indeed, they warned the villagers they had encountered extremely severe ("like beasts") troops coming behind them. They advised the civilians to leave the cellars but to not leave the relative safety of their homes, and to prepare their identity papers.

Massacre

According to the June 2000 report by

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

(HRW), based on reports of the fighting by the Russian human rights group

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

(HRW has been denied direct access to Chechnya by the Russian authorities), the "mop-up" forces came in the morning of the next day (February 5) in multiple groups advancing from the northern edges towards the center of Aldi, likely numbering in excess of one hundred men along with several vehicles ( BTR armoured personnel carriers,

Ural trucks The Urals Automotive Plant, an Open Stock Company, (Russian language, Russian: ''Ура́льский автомоби́льный заво́д, УралАЗ''; translit. Uralskiy Avtomobilnyi Zavod, UralAZ) is a major Russian manufacturer of off ...

and UAZ minibuses). These new arrivals were much older than the conscripts. Many were drunk, often bearded and with shaven heads. They wore a variety of either military-green or police-grey camouflage uniforms with balaclava masks and headscarves. They were primarily members of Russia's heavily armed OMON

riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police officers who act in the role of riot police in particular situations, or they may be separate unit ...

, apparently with a number of

mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

-like Russian short-term contract soldiers known as ''kontraktniki'' serving alongside or within the OMON detachments. A much smaller number of

conscript Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

s were also present. Conscript soldiers, according to Human Rights Watch, distinguished themselves in a number of incidents, either warning residents of the imminent danger or saving the lives of civilians by their active intervention. After entering the settlement, ostensibly to check villagers'

internal passport An internal or domestic passport is a type of identity document issued in a passport-like booklet format. Internal passports may have a variety of uses including: # An ordinary identity document produced in a passport format (such as the modern ...

s and to detain suspected fighters who had been left behind, groups of Russian riot police officers and contract soldiers began beating and randomly shooting civilians in their homes and in the streets. Most of the deadly violence took place along Matasha-Mazaeva Street, where at least 24 people were killed as the attackers went from house to house, executing civilians. The first murder there was committed at No. 170, resulting in the death of the house owner, 50-year-old Sultan Timirov. His body was found decapitated and torn into several pieces by multiple bullet wounds and other injuries (his head was never found and might have been blown off with a grenade fired from an underbarrel launcher). Most of the victims were middle-aged or elderly. The oldest victim was 82-year-old Rakat Akhmadova, who was gunned down at 162 Matasha-Mazayeva Street along with her 66-year-old cousin Gula Khaidayev and his 70-year-old neighbour Rizvan Umkhayev. Among other victims were an infant boy (one-year-old Khassan Estamirov, shot with at least two bullets to the head and then burned), at least six younger Chechen women (including the eight-months-pregnant 21-year-old Toita Estamirova, found with gunshot wounds to her stomach and chest), an elderly Russian woman (70-year-old Elena Kuznetsova, repeatedly shot in the face at point-blank range while leaving the cellar at 58 Second Tsimliansky Lane and then burned together with bodies of her Chechen neighbours, the Yakhiayevs) and a Ukrainian man (40-year-old Victor Shiptora, whose body was found in Khoperskaia Street). The killings were often accompanied by demands for money or other valuables, which served as a pretext for execution if the amount proffered was insufficient; other victims were killed because they lacked identity papers. At least three men were detained and subsequently executed; one was also used as a human shield but later released. There were many incidents of Russian forces deliberately starting fires through the village, systematically torching civilian homes and property using canisters and bottles of flammable liquid, in particular where they found people with no identity papers. Some of this seemed to be a primitive attempt to destroy the evidence of civilian killings. In one incident, the arson itself appears to have been a murder attempt. The killers were

houses and stealing jewelry and gold teeth from dead bodies. Numerous civilians were also beaten and threatened with death while being robbed. At least six women were reportedly gang-raped, including the subsequent strangling of three of them and the attempted murder of another. Some of the survivors were forced to plead for their lives, a number played dead after they were injured by gunfire. Others survived by fleeing and hiding, avoiding contact with OMON and the contract soldiers. After dark on February 5, when the Russian forces had left, the residents went through the streets of Aldi putting out fires and picking up dead bodies. At least five people were murdered on this day in the nearby neighborhood of Chernorechie, an adjacent Grozny suburb linked with Aldi by a road through the large

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

dam to the west. During the siege Chernorechie had been shelled much more heavily than Aldi and only a few people remained there during the events of February 5.

Aftermath

The villagers collectively decided not to bury the bodies immediately (as demanded by Muslim tradition), but to instead keep the victims' bodies inside homes so their deaths could be documented. Following the

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

, Russian forces returned to Aldi on numerous occasions to loot and to threaten residents with reprisals should they speak out about what they witnessed. While there was some plunder on February 5, systematic pillage on a massive scale first took place during the following week, including on February 10 when OMON returned to Aldi in large numbers and began rounding-up any Chechen males they could find, taking away 16 of them along with whole truckloads of looted items. (They were later returned alive.) The initial Russian investigations, including one which established the operation was undertaken by OMON units from the city of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

and

Ryazan Ryazan (, ; also Riazan) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the banks of the Oka River in Central Russia, southeast of Moscow. As of the 2010 C ...

province, had been accompanied by indignant public denial. Typical of this was the Russian military's reaction on February 24 to HRW's preliminary report on the killings, when a

Russian Ministry of Defense The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Commander-in-Chief of the forces ...

spokesman declared that "these assertions are nothing but a concoction not supported by fact or any proof ... ndshould be seen as a provocation whose goal is to discredit the federal forces' operation against the terrorists in Chechnya". An eye-witness also said that investigators from the

Federal Security Service The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation �СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...

told her the massacre was probably committed by Chechen fighters "disguised as federal troops". The residents expressed fear and mistrust of the Russian investigators in Aldi (three different teams on February 14 and 16 and on March 19), whose activities appeared to be an attempt to shift the blame on to the Chechen fighters and to intimidate the witnesses. Particularly frightening was the questioning as to whether they would recognize the perpetrators, which many regarded as a direct threat to their lives. In spite of the weight of evidence and a host of enquiries by foreign and Russian journalists and by human rights organisations, no official investigation of the crime has ever been completed. For several years no-one had been charged in connection with the incident. This is not considered unusual, as a large number of civilians had been extrajudicially executed by federal forces in the course of the Chechen conflict and yet very few of the perpetrators have been brought to trial. Only in 2005 was one OMON officer, Sergei Babin, charged with the murder of an elderly resident of Aldi; however he then went into hiding and the case against him was suspended. As predicted by HRW in 2000, "the Russian government to date has shown a clear lack of political will to vigorously investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of the Aldi massacre" and until "an international commission is formed, with the ability to recommend prosecutions, there remains little likelihood of the guilty ever being punished." In 2004, a previously unknown and allegedly Chechen

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

group, Gazotan Murdash, claimed responsibility for the

February 2004 Moscow Metro bombing The February 2004 Moscow metro bombing occurred on 6 February 2004 when a male suicide bomber killed 41 people near Avtozavodskaya subway station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line in Moscow. Up to 250 people were injured in the incident, some of ...

which killed 40 people on the fourth anniversary of the Aldi killings. A statement signed by a man calling himself "Lom-Ali" called it an act of revenge. According to some media speculation, the bombing might have been the work of Musa Idigov, whose brother, also named Lom-Ali, had been killed in Aldi while shielding Musa from the blast of a hand grenade tossed into the cellar where they had been locked-in during the massacre. However, it is now widely believed that the bombing was organised by a

Salafi The Salafi movement or Salafism () is a fundamentalist revival movement within Sunni Islam, originating in the late 19th century and influential in the Islamic world to this day. The name "''Salafiyya''" is a self-designation, claiming a retu ...

militant group from the Russian republic of

Karachay–Cherkessia Karachay-Cherkessia (), officially the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus. It is administratively part of the North Caucasian Federal District. As of the 2021 census, Karachay-Cherkessia has a popul ...

European Court judgments

In October 2006, in the case of '' Estamirov and Others v. Russia'', (the killing of five members of the Estamirov family living in the house at 1 Podolskaia Street), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Russia guilty of serious

human rights violations Human rights are universally recognized moral principles or norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both national and international laws. These rights are considered inherent and inalienable, meaning t ...

including indiscriminately targeting civilians and failing to adequately investigate their deaths. In July 2007, in the ruling in the case of '' Musayev, Labazanova and Magomadov v. Russia'', the ECHR awarded damages to relatives of another 11 people killed in the massacre.Case of Musayev and Others v. Russia
, European Court of Human Rights, July 26, 2007

Documentary

''Aldy: A Past That Cannot Be Forgotten'' is a 2010 half-hour documentary film based on home video footage taken by the residents on February 9, 2000, and on eyewitness interviews recorded in January–February 2009 by members of the Memorial human rights center (including

Natalia Estemirova Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova (, ; 28 February 1958 – 15 July 2009) was a Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian Human rights in Russia, human rights organization Memorial (society), Memorial. Estemirova was abducted ...

, who was kidnapped by uniformed members of the security forces in Grozny on July 15, 2009, and executed on the same day in

Ingushetia Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country o ...

). The film can b
viewed online
on the Prague Watchdog website.

References

External links

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', February 22, 2000
Russians accused of Grozny massacres

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, February 23, 2000
3 Massacres In Chechnya Are Described
''The New York Times'', March 2, 2000

, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', June 2, 2000
Report Describes Massacre of Chechen Civilians
'' The St. Petersburg Times'', June 6, 2000
Genocide Watch: Chechnya
United States Holocaust Museum, February 1, 2001
The long road to justice
''The Guardian'', June 12, 2006
European Court of Human Rights holds Russia responsible for summary execution in Novye Aldi
Prague Watchdog, October 12, 2006

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

, July 26, 2007
Russia: European Court Rules on Chechnya Massacre

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

AlertNet Thomson Reuters Foundation News, formerly known as Alertnet, is a worldwide news service that provides free access to smaller media outlets and non-governmental organizations across the globe. It operates under the auspices of the Thomson Reuters ...

, July 27, 2007
Kremlin is condemned for Chechen massacre
{{cbignore, bot=medic ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', July 27, 2007
Chechen Massacre Survivors See Justice

Institute for War and Peace Reporting The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is an independent nonprofit organization that trains and provide publishing opportunities for professional and citizen journalists. IWPR is registered in the UK as a charity (charity reg. no: 1027201, ...

, August 9, 2007
Novye Aldy – before and after
Prague Watchdog, February 5, 2010 2000 fires in Europe 2000 in Chechnya 2000 mass shootings in Europe 2000 murders in Russia 20th-century mass murder in Russia Arson in 2000 Attacks on buildings and structures in 2000 February 2000 crimes in Europe February 2000 in Russia Gang rape in Europe Looting in Russia Mass shootings in Russia Massacres committed by Russia Massacres in 2000 Massacres in the Chechen–Russian conflict Police brutality in Russia Police brutality in the 2000s Rape in the 2000s Residential building arson attacks in Russia Robberies in Russia Russian war crimes in Chechnya Sexual violence in the Chechen–Russian conflict War crimes of the Second Chechen War