War comes to Ingushetia

The border of Chechnya and Ingushetia used to mark the line between war and peace. Now the shootings, torture and disappearances have begun.

By Tanya Lokshina for openDemocracy/polit.ru

It used to be peaceful here. The border of Chechnya and Ingushetia marked the line between war and peace. Crossing this line, returning from war to peace, you sighed every time: "Now everything will be fine. It's safe here..." Of course, there's poverty, dirt, corruption, but people don't get killed, shot or kidnapped here. There it's part of everyday life.

When did this all change? It happened gradually. The realities which only used to exist "across the border," in Chechnya, seeped slowly into Ingushetia. The kidnappings began in 2002, though it's true that at first the Ingush themselves were not affected - only the Chechen refugees.

At the time, there were 150,000 of them in Ingushetia, equal to around half the population of this small republic. Militants from Chechnya began coming at night. They broke into the homes of refugees, grabbed their victims, put them into vehicles and drove them back to Chechnya.

Those kidnapped usually disappeared without trace. Numbers increased and soon they started taking Ingush as well, who also "disappeared." And they were tortured too. But until June 2004 this was a rare occurrence...

That "black June" was the turning point - war came into Ingushetia. ...