Colonel Yuri Budanov, former commander of a tank regiment in Chechnya, is a bizarre choice as a Russian military hero. He admits that he strangled an 18-year-old Chechen girl called Kheda Kungaeva a year ago. There is strong evidence that he also raped her. On the day before her death, he had beaten up one of his own officers who refused to fire high explosive shells into a Chechen village. He was frequently drunk and í even when sober í subject to uncontrollable rages, say his own soldiers.

But last week Col Budanov, on trial for murder before a military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, was praised as an outstanding commander by Sergei Ivanov, the former KGB security officer recently appointed Russian Defense Minister. "In human terms I sympathize with him," said Mr Ivanov, without a word of sympathy for the murdered Chechen girl or her family.

Mr Ivanov's sympathies are widely shared in Rostov. Supporters gather every day outside the courthouse to welcome Col Budanov. "He fought and was given medals," says Valentina Tarasova, who had just handed the colonel some cakes. "He is a hero of the Chechen war." A man interrupted in perfect English to say: "So long as there are Chechens there will be war. They must be suppressed."

The court has already had to move from central Rostov to the suburbs to avoid pro-Budanov demonstrations. A local radio station poll showed 80 per cent support for the colonel. Abdulla Khamzayev, the lawyer for the murdered girl's family, had trouble getting a taxi from his hotel to the court. One driver said: "All the other drivers told me, 'Don't take that bastard', but I think there are good and bad Chechens like everybody else."

In many respects, the case of Col Budanov resembles that of Lieutenant William Calley Jnr, the American officer whose platoon massacred 347 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Lt Calley became a hero for many Americans and was freed by President Nixon after serving only three years. "I do not understand why the bandits in Chechnya cannot be defeated," said the fervently nationalist Ms Tarasova outside the court. She did not believe that the actions of men like Col Budanov might lead Chechens to become guerrillas.

Inside the courtroom Col Budanov, a burly figure with close-cropped hair, sits inside the steel cage normal in Russian trials. For long periods he slumps forward with his head in his hands, as if ashamed to hear once again how he killed Kheda. But then, after several hours, Col Budanov springs up to question a witness sharply.

The evidence, which is uncontested, gives a vivid picture of how Col Budanov's tank regiment established a reign of terror in the little village of Tangi-Chu south-west of the Chechen capital, Grozny, in the first months of 2000. Tangi- Chu does not have a reputation of being a guerrilla stronghold, but was blockaded. Nobody was allowed in or out to buy food.

On 26 March last year, Col Budanov and his chief of staff Col Ivan Fyodorov began to drink heavily; it was the second birthday of Col Budanov's daughter. To celebrate they ordered light tanks in the regiment's reconnaissance unit to open fire on houses. Lt Roman Bagraev, the officer in charge, did not refuse to obey, but delayed while he substituted anti-tank ammunition for high- explosive shells in order to reduce civilian casualties.

His senior officers were enraged that their orders had not been carried out immediately. They beat up Lt Bagraev and Col Budanov ordered him to be tied up, after which he was placed in a pit í a favorite Russian way of keeping Chechen prisoners. Later the same night Col Budanov took a light tank and drove through Tangi-Chu to the house of Vissa Kungaev, 47, an agricultural specialist. Col Budanov has since claimed that he had been told by an informer that Kungaev's daughter Kheda was a rebel sniper. The driver of the tank confirms that Col Budanov was drunk.

At 1am the colonel, accompanied by three soldiers, burst into the house. Vissa, the father, ran next door to his brother's house to get help. He left his five children behind. According to them, the soldiers first grabbed Kungaev's younger daughter Khava in her bedroom, but when she screamed Col Budanov said, "Let her go. Take that one" í pointing at Kheda.

One of the soldiers threw a blanket over Kheda's head and took her back to the tank. She was, according to her last school report dated 1999, "very modest, kind, extremely shy and timid."

Col Budanov took her back to his command vehicle. He ordered all the other soldiers out and put on loud music. It was then, her family alleges, that the rape took place. Soldiers said they heard screaming, but claimed it was of two people arguing, "not of a woman screaming for help." When a soldier finally entered the vehicle Kheda was naked and dead. Col Budanov told the three soldiers he ordered to bury the corpse: "If any of you opens his mouth I'll shoot you."

Col Budanov's defense is that Kheda insulted him during interrogation and he strangled her in a rage. According to her school report, she barely spoke Russian.

Patrick Cockburn,The Independent
(c) 2001, Independent Digital (UK) Ltd.

http://www.ichkeria.org/a/2001/5/com2105-en91716.html