Maaja
5th June 2002, 14:02
"Leave town or be exterminated along with the guerrillas" - an ultimatum given to the people of Grozny by Russian commanders at the start of both Chechen wars.
GROZNY- NOVEMBER 2000
Meet some young inhabitants of Grozny who suffered during the "anti-terrorist" war: children who witnessed the bombing of the city, children who saw the killing of their neighbors, children who lost their parents, children who lost their homes and their toys. These children show where they used to live and they speak about what happened to them and about the things that they like.
Khazbulat Bazayev (7 years old)
Used to live at: 4th Mikrorayon, Yoseliani 13, apartment 15, Grozny
"I used to live in this apartment, but it has been destroyed. The soldiers destroyed it. No, not Chechens, but "the" soldiers. I have done nothing to them - I swear. I had lots of toys, but the soldiers broke them. Also, my toy-car and a teddy bear. I can tell the war is still going on because they are still shooting. Ours ("Ours" is a local title indicating Chechen fighters) and the soldiers are fighting. During the first war Ours won, now, the soldiers have won. I hear the gunfire very well when they are shooting at night. Of course, if a missile falls on our house where we live right now, we'll die. Grandmother said that the soldiers would leave by the New Year. But I do not know. I love my grandmother most of all. I live with her, Grandfather, my brother and my uncle. When I grow up I would like to be a Chechen surgeon."
* Note: Recently Chechen children as young as 6 have been stopped by the Russian authorities from receiving foreign medical treatment. The authorities insist on lengthy bureaucratic checks to ensure that these children are not rebels.
Khazbulat's mother was killed in uncertain circumstances in 1997. His father was killed in a car accident in 1993 two months after Khazbulat was born. The boy lives with his grandparents. His grandma makes sauerkraut at home and then she sells it at the Central Market. This is the only way to feed her family.
Khava Shamayeva, (3 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Radishcheva 6/2, Grozny
Four months ago Khava didn't speak or walk properly for her age. Unfortunately she will never speak properly. She has suffered some psychological trauma. Originally, doctors suggested that Khava should simply be loved and not given any challenges that she might not manage. However, today Khava runs and is able to speak a few words. Her psychological condition might be associated with a bad burn she received on her hand when she was three months old. Khava lives with her 24-year-old relative Raisa. Khava's mother left her when she was 3 months old and her father died in 1999. Today, Khava and Raisa live in the ruins of what was once their cozy home.
Raisa remembers:
"When Khava's mother gave her to me, she said that she didn't want this disabled child. Khava had no clothes, she was very skinny, she was wet and covered in boils and terribly scared of water. Today, she is no longer scared of having a bath, but she is scared of helicopters. Our house was bombed on January 24th, 2000. Nowadays, we live in a half-destroyed summer kitchen (vremjanka) with my mother and father - all in one room."
Khava thinks Raisa is her mother. Khava likes to eat a lot. However she is not putting on any weight.
Malika Kantayeva (8 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 12/30, Grozny"
"A Zemlya-Zemlya" (surface-to-surface missile) fell on our house. This happened a long time ago (1999). The soldiers sent the bomb and it fell on us. Before the war we lived there. I live with my mum and grandma, my sister, two brothers, and my aunt. My aunt can't walk. She is an invalid. Mum was at home when the bomb struck. She was cleaning the house. My brother and I were playing on the street. I can barely remember what happened. We were screaming but I think we wanted to run home when it hit. There was shrapnel flying everywhere. Grandma was hit by six pieces. We took three bits out, but three stayed in. One of our neighbors was sitting in his car; the bomb cut his head off.
We ran home, but the house wasn't there anymore. Mum survived and we did too. We were lucky. Then we moved to a cellar (podval). I felt terrible there, it was too dark, and mum didn't let us go out on the street. When the bombing increased in our "poselok" (district) we moved to another cellar. Everyone says it was the Russians who were shooting. Why - I don't know. Whoever gets hit... gets hit. Eventually, we escaped to Ingushetia during the winter. At first, we lived in the tent-refugee camp. Later on, we moved to a railway carriage. I'm glad we have returned to Grozny. For the time being we live with our neighbor Babzina. She has only two rooms that are not damaged. Mum, my brother Deni, Babzina's granddaughter Marina, and myself - we all sleep in one room and Babzina sleeps in the other. I sleep on the floor - I have no bed.
Before the war, I had toys, but somebody stole them when I wasn't there. When we escaped from Grozny, I wanted take at least my postcards of the towns of the USSR, but Mum didn't let me return to the house to get them. I didn't want to leave the cards behind, but they pushed me into the car. My doll that talked, and my stuffed doggy, a pink one, were also lost. When I came back I looked for them in my room, but there was no roof and a wall was missing and all the toys were gone.
The person I love most in the world is my mum. And my biggest wish is to have roller-skates and a bicycle. When I grow up I will be a gynecologist and help sick children before they are born."
Brothers Actually, Rustan (9 years old) and Tamerlan (10 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Darvina 23, Grozny
Rustan: "We used to live in the big white house. My uncle's house was next to ours. His house was big too. Now, both of them have no roof. We live with our uncle at his house which is partly destroyed."
Tamerlan: "When the war began, our uncle drove us out of town. Planes were flying and bombing us. When they bombed the mosque, the bomb hit our house too."
Rustan: "I used to have my own room in our three story house. I left all my toys in my room and they all burned. I wish I had a bicycle, and I love my mum the most"
Tamerlan: "When I grown up I want to be a taxi driver."
Rustan: "And I will be a translator; I will translate the Kalmyk language to Chechen."
Tamerlan and Rustan have another three brothers. Their mother used to work as a translator before the war. Their father passed away when he was 44 years old in 1997.
Savakh (2 years old) and Liza (4 years old) Shamsadov
They live at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 60/24, Grozny
Liza dreams about a toy-jeep with a remote control...
"I love my mum the most of all, my dad and Snickers. I might also like the sea, but I have never seen it. I haven't seen my father for a long time because he died when a bomb hit our "poselok". I remember it very well. He and his friend were in the car. He wanted to take our things and clothes to the village. His friend's head was blown off."
Seven months after their father's death their baby brother Zaur was born.
Markha Ibragimova (8 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Grozny
"It's not a big house. It isn't ours. It's somebody else's. Our apartment is destroyed. It was on Bogdan Khmelnitski Street. The drugs men and the soldiers destroyed it - not only ours - they destroyed lots of apartments. The soldiers still shoot during the night and in the morning. Where? I don't know. I just hear the shooting. Sometimes bullets hit our backyard, but so far, at least for several weeks, nobody has been killed. When they shoot I'm always afraid that it will hit our home. Mum is afraid too, but my father isn't.
If there is a big war, my father will be afraid too. When the last war started we had to run away to Ingushetia - a neighboring republic and we had to live in a train carriage. When we returned to Grozny nothing was left. I still only have one pair of socks.
There will be another war, and we will go away once more. Mum says that the best thing would be to go to Baku and then go to Germany."
Markha has five siblings, the fifth one was born in January 2001. Markha speaks very little; she prefers to be by herself or with her mother. All her family is malnourished and the children's clothes are very dirty and ragged. The clothes they have on are the only ones they own.
Ema (11 years old) and David Naumkin (10 years old)
Used to live in: Oktyabrskiy rayon, Grozny
Ema: "Today, we live in a boarding house. A bomb destroyed our house. I do not know who did it. Probably the war, I guess. The soldiers were fighting and shooting ...and one missile hit our house. The war is over, but they are still shooting. They shoot from the check-posts. I don't have many dolls today. I used to have lots of them. But they got lost. I love my grandma a lot. I would love my mum too, but they killed her. Well, I do not know who did. It happened a long time ago - in November 1999.
When I grow up I'm going to be a singer. I would like to live in a boarding house, I like that place a lot. All my friends live there, we sing and dance every evening. My biggest wish is to have a beautiful, white dress."
David is Ema's cousin. He speaks very little and when he does he often slurs his words. David's mother is a heavy drug user and no one knows where his father is. Ema's mother is dead - the death certificate says she died of shotgun wounds to the skull and multiple pieces of shrapnel deep inside her chest.
Ema's grandma, who looks after the children, says that Ema's father was never around even before the war. She is trying very hard to take care of the kids, but she drinks. Sometimes, she doesn't have the strength to look after them properly.
Said-Khasan Daudov (6 years old)
Lives at: Kalinin poselok, Turgenyeva 4, Grozny
"I live in my house, but the house has been destroyed. A bomb fell on our neighbor's house. I do not know who did it. I only know that it dropped from a plane. I didn't see it myself, because during the big war I was in Nazran, Ingushetia. When we returned home to Grozny, our house was already destroyed. We have been repairing it for a long time, but the house is still in terrible shape. There is a check-post not far from our house. I hear shooting and explosions during the night. Everything trembles in the house. It is the Russian soldiers who shoot.
The person I love most in the world is my mother. And father too, but I have not seen him for a long time. He is in a village somewhere. My biggest wish is to have a toy car called a Kamaz. Now, I have no toys. They were here before the war, but the soldiers took them all. When I am big, I will be a bodyguard and I will have a machine-gun. A machine-gun is very important for a bodyguard; people and soldiers steal everything, and if you don't have a machine-gun they might kill you too... they even took the cast-iron bath from our house. There is no electricity in the town, because people took down the electrical wires and sold them. The only thing I'm afraid of is bears, but I have never seen one."
Said-Khasan is the youngest of four children. He doesn't know that their father was killed by a land mine when driving his car on March 3rd 2000. He had been on his way to a nearby natural gas line to see if he could repair it and reestablish gas for the district's heaters and stoves. Said-Khasan's mother was sitting in the car too, but she survived. She has recurring, vivid nightmares of people looking through the wreckage for pieces of his body so as to bury them properly according to Muslim tradition. Said-Khasan has been told that his father is looking for a job elsewhere in the country. However, he does know that his grandfather was killed on July 12th, 1995 when a Russian armored car crushed his Grandpa's car.
Deni Kantayev (4 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 12/30, Grozny (Malika's younger brother)
"I also remember when the bomb exploded. I was out on the street; I wanted to hide in the house under our bath. But I didn't make it. Some shrapnel hit Grandma. After that I lived in different cellars. It was scary inside. One uncle told me if I didn't stop crying that he would pull me out and make me stay out during the bombings. The Russian soldiers in uniforms bombed us. Now, I live at my other grandma's.
One of my biggest wishes is to have chocolate and bananas. Sometimes I go to our broken house. Once, I found one of my toy cars. The Russian soldiers took the rest. All my toy cars were taken away. Or they were burned - I don't know.
I love my sister Marina best of all, but she does not live with us anymore. I don't like those who have destroyed our house. When I'm an adult? ... I would like to be a Podvalshchik - a person who repairs cellars. Today, cellars are very important and necessary for people because they protect them against flying shrapnel."
Malika, Deni and their mother Tamara Kantayeva live with their neighbor. Every day they walk by their house and think how they could fix it. However, there isn't enough money to repair it.
The children's father has been missing for a long time; no one knows what happened to him. Deni was born on August 24th, 1996 during the first war. He was born at the same time as the Russian commanders gave the people of Grozny the ultimatum to leave town or be exterminated along with the guerrillas. That day Deni's mother Tamara paid the last of her money to the local hospital staff to help her give birth. Both, she and the doctors were under great stress - everyone was thinking of one thing - how and when they might escape Grozny.
When Deni was 7 months old, he had his first attack. He had an attack of spasms - he kept screaming and could not sleep; he still has problems sleeping today. He never goes far from his mother and rarely lets her out of his sight. He often cries without reason, especially since a large ground-to-ground missile fell near their home on October 21st, 1999.
Seda Shamsadova (7 years old)
Lives at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 53, Grozny
"We used to have two houses. Both burned. The summer kitchen ("vremyanka") survived the bombing and we live in it. But most of the time we sleep at our neighbor's. The "Vremyanka" is too cold and there isn't enough room.
They say that the soldiers burned our house. They lived in it and when they left they set fire to the house. The roof fell down. The garage burned too. The soldiers stole our gas stove and now we have no stove to cook on. We would like to repair our house but we do not have enough money. My mother tries to work, it's hard, she sells clothing in the Central Market, but it is not enough for a new roof. We took all my toys to the village so that they would not be burned or taken by the during the mopping-up operations (zachistki) That is the check-up on civilians by armed and masked soldiers. The soldiers are looking for weapons and money.
At night they shoot, but it is hard to tell what they are shooting at."
Seda is lucky she has both parents. However, her father is an invalid. He is 44 years old.
Ilyas Mazayev (10 years old)
Lives at: Kalinin poselok, Michurina 100, Grozny
"Half our home is destroyed. The second half survived the bombing and my two brothers, grandma, my sister, my mum, and I live in it. Mum can't walk, and grandma is 70 years old. They destroyed our house during the big war, when an enormous bomb hit it. I was in the village. Russians fought with our guerrillas and that is why there was a war. At the beginning, Yeltzin clashed with Basayev, then all the rest joined in the quarrel. Then Ours blew up Moscow and then the Russians blew up everything over here in Chechnya. Also they blew up our house.
There will be a war again in the summer. Everybody says that. If there really will be a war, we will hide in cellar. We will not leave Grozny. This is what Mum said; she can't go away, she can't stand up, she can't walk. They are still shooting, but this is a small war. If there will be a big war, it will be worse. Luckily, they haven't hit us yet, though my brother was wounded once in his hand. I said to my mum, if there is going to be a big war, we have to go away. I could help her, but she doesn't want to, she will soon get her pension. We need money for our meals. That's why Mum doesn't want to leave Grozny.
There will be a war again I think so too.
Ours want to get into the town, and the Russians do not want to let them in. Ours are hungry. There used to be lots of apricots, but the Russians didn't want to share them. That is why Ours have been hungry. Today, they even eat grass.
There is no electricity in the town, because they shot down all transformers. If I had money I would buy boots and a computer game. It isn't so important that there is no electricity and that I don't have a computer. I would wait for it. What is important is to at least have the game. I like Grozny, but nowadays it is a little sad. I have no TV at home. I have never seen an ocean, well, only the sea of Grozny, but this is not a real one. Most of all I love going to school, bread with butter, and Muslim my brother.
But I love my mum the most in the world."
Ilyas' father died in 1994. His mother is paralyzed.
Aza Bakhayeva (10 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Zhukovskaya 161, Grozny
"Dad was injured by shrapnel. The Russian soldiers were shooting randomly from an armored car and they killed two women and my father. Our house was destroyed. We live at a neighbor's. They let us live with them. They are very nice people. They have given us one of their rooms. There are five of us: my three sisters, mum, my aunt and I.
The war started because of the fight between the Russian soldiers and the Wahabbi Muslims. The Wahabbis are very bad people, the Russians are bad too. My father wasn't Wahabbi, and the Russian soldiers killed him. I'm afraid, because they shoot so much. Yesterday, bullets hit our backyard. I was at home. I was scared, but I didn't hide. They say that another war will begin again.
I love my mum the best of all and my sisters too. We do not have any electricity, because the town is destroyed. Also people have stolen all the wires. I still remember when Grozny was full of lights. I was five years old; the trams were still running then.
I love to sing and paint."
Aza is a very talented girl; she is an excellent singer and a painter. Her father died after he was wounded in his chest.
Ghabrail (2 years old), Zalina (11 years old) and Zarina (9 years old) Ibragimov
Live at: Staroprumyslovski rayon, Zhigilyovskaya 12, Grozny
The history of these three children is not clear. No one knows exactly what happened to them and to their closest relatives during the war. Everything here is conjecture. The girls' ideas about their parent's death is also confused. Ghabrail is too small to remember it. It is possible that he is a cousin rather than their brother. All three live under terrible conditions in a bombed out apartment building that is empty except for one other family.
Markha, a twenty two-year-old girl who says she is Zalina and Zarina's sister, looks after the kids. However, Markha is rarely home, and when she is, she is never sober or alone.
The ceiling in the room where the children sleep is likely to fall down soon; the roof and the apartment above theirs are missing. Zalina and Zarina say that they remember their parents. Both say that their mother and father were shot along with other people when the Russian army took over Grozny. Their parents were hiding in a cellar of a building in the Staropromyslovskiy district...
Ghabrail's mother was killed too. His older brother brought him to Zalina and Zarina not long after their parent's death. He said that somebody had stabbed his mother with a knife and that she was lying in a pool of blood back at her apartment. Markha, Zalina and Zarina rushed to the apartment. They buried her.
Ghabrail stayed with the girls and his older brother went away. Ghabrail's father disappeared too and no one knows where he is.
Zalina and Zarina are very calm girls despite their experiences. Ghabrail is a normally developed boy but he suffers from chronic bronchitis. He has a terrible cough that tortures him all the time.
Zarina and her sister like school, they like painting and drawing. Neither of them likes Sundays, "because our school is closed".
[See pictures of the children at: www.watchdog.cz]
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GROZNY- NOVEMBER 2000
Meet some young inhabitants of Grozny who suffered during the "anti-terrorist" war: children who witnessed the bombing of the city, children who saw the killing of their neighbors, children who lost their parents, children who lost their homes and their toys. These children show where they used to live and they speak about what happened to them and about the things that they like.
Khazbulat Bazayev (7 years old)
Used to live at: 4th Mikrorayon, Yoseliani 13, apartment 15, Grozny
"I used to live in this apartment, but it has been destroyed. The soldiers destroyed it. No, not Chechens, but "the" soldiers. I have done nothing to them - I swear. I had lots of toys, but the soldiers broke them. Also, my toy-car and a teddy bear. I can tell the war is still going on because they are still shooting. Ours ("Ours" is a local title indicating Chechen fighters) and the soldiers are fighting. During the first war Ours won, now, the soldiers have won. I hear the gunfire very well when they are shooting at night. Of course, if a missile falls on our house where we live right now, we'll die. Grandmother said that the soldiers would leave by the New Year. But I do not know. I love my grandmother most of all. I live with her, Grandfather, my brother and my uncle. When I grow up I would like to be a Chechen surgeon."
* Note: Recently Chechen children as young as 6 have been stopped by the Russian authorities from receiving foreign medical treatment. The authorities insist on lengthy bureaucratic checks to ensure that these children are not rebels.
Khazbulat's mother was killed in uncertain circumstances in 1997. His father was killed in a car accident in 1993 two months after Khazbulat was born. The boy lives with his grandparents. His grandma makes sauerkraut at home and then she sells it at the Central Market. This is the only way to feed her family.
Khava Shamayeva, (3 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Radishcheva 6/2, Grozny
Four months ago Khava didn't speak or walk properly for her age. Unfortunately she will never speak properly. She has suffered some psychological trauma. Originally, doctors suggested that Khava should simply be loved and not given any challenges that she might not manage. However, today Khava runs and is able to speak a few words. Her psychological condition might be associated with a bad burn she received on her hand when she was three months old. Khava lives with her 24-year-old relative Raisa. Khava's mother left her when she was 3 months old and her father died in 1999. Today, Khava and Raisa live in the ruins of what was once their cozy home.
Raisa remembers:
"When Khava's mother gave her to me, she said that she didn't want this disabled child. Khava had no clothes, she was very skinny, she was wet and covered in boils and terribly scared of water. Today, she is no longer scared of having a bath, but she is scared of helicopters. Our house was bombed on January 24th, 2000. Nowadays, we live in a half-destroyed summer kitchen (vremjanka) with my mother and father - all in one room."
Khava thinks Raisa is her mother. Khava likes to eat a lot. However she is not putting on any weight.
Malika Kantayeva (8 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 12/30, Grozny"
"A Zemlya-Zemlya" (surface-to-surface missile) fell on our house. This happened a long time ago (1999). The soldiers sent the bomb and it fell on us. Before the war we lived there. I live with my mum and grandma, my sister, two brothers, and my aunt. My aunt can't walk. She is an invalid. Mum was at home when the bomb struck. She was cleaning the house. My brother and I were playing on the street. I can barely remember what happened. We were screaming but I think we wanted to run home when it hit. There was shrapnel flying everywhere. Grandma was hit by six pieces. We took three bits out, but three stayed in. One of our neighbors was sitting in his car; the bomb cut his head off.
We ran home, but the house wasn't there anymore. Mum survived and we did too. We were lucky. Then we moved to a cellar (podval). I felt terrible there, it was too dark, and mum didn't let us go out on the street. When the bombing increased in our "poselok" (district) we moved to another cellar. Everyone says it was the Russians who were shooting. Why - I don't know. Whoever gets hit... gets hit. Eventually, we escaped to Ingushetia during the winter. At first, we lived in the tent-refugee camp. Later on, we moved to a railway carriage. I'm glad we have returned to Grozny. For the time being we live with our neighbor Babzina. She has only two rooms that are not damaged. Mum, my brother Deni, Babzina's granddaughter Marina, and myself - we all sleep in one room and Babzina sleeps in the other. I sleep on the floor - I have no bed.
Before the war, I had toys, but somebody stole them when I wasn't there. When we escaped from Grozny, I wanted take at least my postcards of the towns of the USSR, but Mum didn't let me return to the house to get them. I didn't want to leave the cards behind, but they pushed me into the car. My doll that talked, and my stuffed doggy, a pink one, were also lost. When I came back I looked for them in my room, but there was no roof and a wall was missing and all the toys were gone.
The person I love most in the world is my mum. And my biggest wish is to have roller-skates and a bicycle. When I grow up I will be a gynecologist and help sick children before they are born."
Brothers Actually, Rustan (9 years old) and Tamerlan (10 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Darvina 23, Grozny
Rustan: "We used to live in the big white house. My uncle's house was next to ours. His house was big too. Now, both of them have no roof. We live with our uncle at his house which is partly destroyed."
Tamerlan: "When the war began, our uncle drove us out of town. Planes were flying and bombing us. When they bombed the mosque, the bomb hit our house too."
Rustan: "I used to have my own room in our three story house. I left all my toys in my room and they all burned. I wish I had a bicycle, and I love my mum the most"
Tamerlan: "When I grown up I want to be a taxi driver."
Rustan: "And I will be a translator; I will translate the Kalmyk language to Chechen."
Tamerlan and Rustan have another three brothers. Their mother used to work as a translator before the war. Their father passed away when he was 44 years old in 1997.
Savakh (2 years old) and Liza (4 years old) Shamsadov
They live at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 60/24, Grozny
Liza dreams about a toy-jeep with a remote control...
"I love my mum the most of all, my dad and Snickers. I might also like the sea, but I have never seen it. I haven't seen my father for a long time because he died when a bomb hit our "poselok". I remember it very well. He and his friend were in the car. He wanted to take our things and clothes to the village. His friend's head was blown off."
Seven months after their father's death their baby brother Zaur was born.
Markha Ibragimova (8 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Grozny
"It's not a big house. It isn't ours. It's somebody else's. Our apartment is destroyed. It was on Bogdan Khmelnitski Street. The drugs men and the soldiers destroyed it - not only ours - they destroyed lots of apartments. The soldiers still shoot during the night and in the morning. Where? I don't know. I just hear the shooting. Sometimes bullets hit our backyard, but so far, at least for several weeks, nobody has been killed. When they shoot I'm always afraid that it will hit our home. Mum is afraid too, but my father isn't.
If there is a big war, my father will be afraid too. When the last war started we had to run away to Ingushetia - a neighboring republic and we had to live in a train carriage. When we returned to Grozny nothing was left. I still only have one pair of socks.
There will be another war, and we will go away once more. Mum says that the best thing would be to go to Baku and then go to Germany."
Markha has five siblings, the fifth one was born in January 2001. Markha speaks very little; she prefers to be by herself or with her mother. All her family is malnourished and the children's clothes are very dirty and ragged. The clothes they have on are the only ones they own.
Ema (11 years old) and David Naumkin (10 years old)
Used to live in: Oktyabrskiy rayon, Grozny
Ema: "Today, we live in a boarding house. A bomb destroyed our house. I do not know who did it. Probably the war, I guess. The soldiers were fighting and shooting ...and one missile hit our house. The war is over, but they are still shooting. They shoot from the check-posts. I don't have many dolls today. I used to have lots of them. But they got lost. I love my grandma a lot. I would love my mum too, but they killed her. Well, I do not know who did. It happened a long time ago - in November 1999.
When I grow up I'm going to be a singer. I would like to live in a boarding house, I like that place a lot. All my friends live there, we sing and dance every evening. My biggest wish is to have a beautiful, white dress."
David is Ema's cousin. He speaks very little and when he does he often slurs his words. David's mother is a heavy drug user and no one knows where his father is. Ema's mother is dead - the death certificate says she died of shotgun wounds to the skull and multiple pieces of shrapnel deep inside her chest.
Ema's grandma, who looks after the children, says that Ema's father was never around even before the war. She is trying very hard to take care of the kids, but she drinks. Sometimes, she doesn't have the strength to look after them properly.
Said-Khasan Daudov (6 years old)
Lives at: Kalinin poselok, Turgenyeva 4, Grozny
"I live in my house, but the house has been destroyed. A bomb fell on our neighbor's house. I do not know who did it. I only know that it dropped from a plane. I didn't see it myself, because during the big war I was in Nazran, Ingushetia. When we returned home to Grozny, our house was already destroyed. We have been repairing it for a long time, but the house is still in terrible shape. There is a check-post not far from our house. I hear shooting and explosions during the night. Everything trembles in the house. It is the Russian soldiers who shoot.
The person I love most in the world is my mother. And father too, but I have not seen him for a long time. He is in a village somewhere. My biggest wish is to have a toy car called a Kamaz. Now, I have no toys. They were here before the war, but the soldiers took them all. When I am big, I will be a bodyguard and I will have a machine-gun. A machine-gun is very important for a bodyguard; people and soldiers steal everything, and if you don't have a machine-gun they might kill you too... they even took the cast-iron bath from our house. There is no electricity in the town, because people took down the electrical wires and sold them. The only thing I'm afraid of is bears, but I have never seen one."
Said-Khasan is the youngest of four children. He doesn't know that their father was killed by a land mine when driving his car on March 3rd 2000. He had been on his way to a nearby natural gas line to see if he could repair it and reestablish gas for the district's heaters and stoves. Said-Khasan's mother was sitting in the car too, but she survived. She has recurring, vivid nightmares of people looking through the wreckage for pieces of his body so as to bury them properly according to Muslim tradition. Said-Khasan has been told that his father is looking for a job elsewhere in the country. However, he does know that his grandfather was killed on July 12th, 1995 when a Russian armored car crushed his Grandpa's car.
Deni Kantayev (4 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 12/30, Grozny (Malika's younger brother)
"I also remember when the bomb exploded. I was out on the street; I wanted to hide in the house under our bath. But I didn't make it. Some shrapnel hit Grandma. After that I lived in different cellars. It was scary inside. One uncle told me if I didn't stop crying that he would pull me out and make me stay out during the bombings. The Russian soldiers in uniforms bombed us. Now, I live at my other grandma's.
One of my biggest wishes is to have chocolate and bananas. Sometimes I go to our broken house. Once, I found one of my toy cars. The Russian soldiers took the rest. All my toy cars were taken away. Or they were burned - I don't know.
I love my sister Marina best of all, but she does not live with us anymore. I don't like those who have destroyed our house. When I'm an adult? ... I would like to be a Podvalshchik - a person who repairs cellars. Today, cellars are very important and necessary for people because they protect them against flying shrapnel."
Malika, Deni and their mother Tamara Kantayeva live with their neighbor. Every day they walk by their house and think how they could fix it. However, there isn't enough money to repair it.
The children's father has been missing for a long time; no one knows what happened to him. Deni was born on August 24th, 1996 during the first war. He was born at the same time as the Russian commanders gave the people of Grozny the ultimatum to leave town or be exterminated along with the guerrillas. That day Deni's mother Tamara paid the last of her money to the local hospital staff to help her give birth. Both, she and the doctors were under great stress - everyone was thinking of one thing - how and when they might escape Grozny.
When Deni was 7 months old, he had his first attack. He had an attack of spasms - he kept screaming and could not sleep; he still has problems sleeping today. He never goes far from his mother and rarely lets her out of his sight. He often cries without reason, especially since a large ground-to-ground missile fell near their home on October 21st, 1999.
Seda Shamsadova (7 years old)
Lives at: Kalinin poselok, Baumana 53, Grozny
"We used to have two houses. Both burned. The summer kitchen ("vremyanka") survived the bombing and we live in it. But most of the time we sleep at our neighbor's. The "Vremyanka" is too cold and there isn't enough room.
They say that the soldiers burned our house. They lived in it and when they left they set fire to the house. The roof fell down. The garage burned too. The soldiers stole our gas stove and now we have no stove to cook on. We would like to repair our house but we do not have enough money. My mother tries to work, it's hard, she sells clothing in the Central Market, but it is not enough for a new roof. We took all my toys to the village so that they would not be burned or taken by the during the mopping-up operations (zachistki) That is the check-up on civilians by armed and masked soldiers. The soldiers are looking for weapons and money.
At night they shoot, but it is hard to tell what they are shooting at."
Seda is lucky she has both parents. However, her father is an invalid. He is 44 years old.
Ilyas Mazayev (10 years old)
Lives at: Kalinin poselok, Michurina 100, Grozny
"Half our home is destroyed. The second half survived the bombing and my two brothers, grandma, my sister, my mum, and I live in it. Mum can't walk, and grandma is 70 years old. They destroyed our house during the big war, when an enormous bomb hit it. I was in the village. Russians fought with our guerrillas and that is why there was a war. At the beginning, Yeltzin clashed with Basayev, then all the rest joined in the quarrel. Then Ours blew up Moscow and then the Russians blew up everything over here in Chechnya. Also they blew up our house.
There will be a war again in the summer. Everybody says that. If there really will be a war, we will hide in cellar. We will not leave Grozny. This is what Mum said; she can't go away, she can't stand up, she can't walk. They are still shooting, but this is a small war. If there will be a big war, it will be worse. Luckily, they haven't hit us yet, though my brother was wounded once in his hand. I said to my mum, if there is going to be a big war, we have to go away. I could help her, but she doesn't want to, she will soon get her pension. We need money for our meals. That's why Mum doesn't want to leave Grozny.
There will be a war again I think so too.
Ours want to get into the town, and the Russians do not want to let them in. Ours are hungry. There used to be lots of apricots, but the Russians didn't want to share them. That is why Ours have been hungry. Today, they even eat grass.
There is no electricity in the town, because they shot down all transformers. If I had money I would buy boots and a computer game. It isn't so important that there is no electricity and that I don't have a computer. I would wait for it. What is important is to at least have the game. I like Grozny, but nowadays it is a little sad. I have no TV at home. I have never seen an ocean, well, only the sea of Grozny, but this is not a real one. Most of all I love going to school, bread with butter, and Muslim my brother.
But I love my mum the most in the world."
Ilyas' father died in 1994. His mother is paralyzed.
Aza Bakhayeva (10 years old)
Used to live at: Kalinin poselok, Zhukovskaya 161, Grozny
"Dad was injured by shrapnel. The Russian soldiers were shooting randomly from an armored car and they killed two women and my father. Our house was destroyed. We live at a neighbor's. They let us live with them. They are very nice people. They have given us one of their rooms. There are five of us: my three sisters, mum, my aunt and I.
The war started because of the fight between the Russian soldiers and the Wahabbi Muslims. The Wahabbis are very bad people, the Russians are bad too. My father wasn't Wahabbi, and the Russian soldiers killed him. I'm afraid, because they shoot so much. Yesterday, bullets hit our backyard. I was at home. I was scared, but I didn't hide. They say that another war will begin again.
I love my mum the best of all and my sisters too. We do not have any electricity, because the town is destroyed. Also people have stolen all the wires. I still remember when Grozny was full of lights. I was five years old; the trams were still running then.
I love to sing and paint."
Aza is a very talented girl; she is an excellent singer and a painter. Her father died after he was wounded in his chest.
Ghabrail (2 years old), Zalina (11 years old) and Zarina (9 years old) Ibragimov
Live at: Staroprumyslovski rayon, Zhigilyovskaya 12, Grozny
The history of these three children is not clear. No one knows exactly what happened to them and to their closest relatives during the war. Everything here is conjecture. The girls' ideas about their parent's death is also confused. Ghabrail is too small to remember it. It is possible that he is a cousin rather than their brother. All three live under terrible conditions in a bombed out apartment building that is empty except for one other family.
Markha, a twenty two-year-old girl who says she is Zalina and Zarina's sister, looks after the kids. However, Markha is rarely home, and when she is, she is never sober or alone.
The ceiling in the room where the children sleep is likely to fall down soon; the roof and the apartment above theirs are missing. Zalina and Zarina say that they remember their parents. Both say that their mother and father were shot along with other people when the Russian army took over Grozny. Their parents were hiding in a cellar of a building in the Staropromyslovskiy district...
Ghabrail's mother was killed too. His older brother brought him to Zalina and Zarina not long after their parent's death. He said that somebody had stabbed his mother with a knife and that she was lying in a pool of blood back at her apartment. Markha, Zalina and Zarina rushed to the apartment. They buried her.
Ghabrail stayed with the girls and his older brother went away. Ghabrail's father disappeared too and no one knows where he is.
Zalina and Zarina are very calm girls despite their experiences. Ghabrail is a normally developed boy but he suffers from chronic bronchitis. He has a terrible cough that tortures him all the time.
Zarina and her sister like school, they like painting and drawing. Neither of them likes Sundays, "because our school is closed".
[See pictures of the children at: www.watchdog.cz]
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