The following letter was written by a Russian soldier serving in the Chernokozovo "filtration camp". Its style is spontaneous, colloquial and often disjointed. It was written on student's note-paper and given to Le Monde by an intermediary in Nazran (Ingushetia) on February 9th. In a house we visited by pure chance, we met a Chechen woman who had come there three days ago bearing this message. She didn't know what to do with it. It was given to her, she said, by a cousin who had been able to win the confidence of a "dissident" soldier. Russians and Chechens often fraternize in cellars in Grozny or in "liberated" territory, as the "federal" (Russian) soldiers call the regions which they occupy. Chernokozovo camp is located in one such region, east of Naour, to the north of the Terek river.

In this soldier's perception, the mistake of the "normal" Chechen inmates of the camp -- the non-fighters, that is -- was not to have joined the ranks of the "boiviki" (fighters). But in the next paragraph he says he has no sympathy for the "boiviki" -- the seven unfortunate prisoners suspected of belonging to their ranks are only getting what they deserve.

I do not know who will read this letter, but I hope it will help these people they call "boiviki" (fighters), one way or another . Myself, I'm here just to be sure of getting my daily allowance. But I decided to inform you because I think that the fact of knowing what's going on here and doing nothing , would be really criminal.

Here, what we do to these people -- I say "we" because I am one of the torturers, even if I am just a soldier, and the only thing I can do to help them is to write about it. Before I came here, I had always been told that they were all enemies and criminals, but in point of fact they are normal people. They are here for the following reasons :

1 - Passport not properly registered. 2 - No passport. However, no passports have been delivered here since 1996, so 17, 18 and 19-year-old boys cannot possibly have one. 3 - Passport registered in another village, if a guy is arrested when visiting a neighboring village. 4 - Breaking the curfew -- for example, if a guy has gone outside to smoke after 6 pm. 5 - If a military tent, belt, etc. is found in a house. Then they say, "What's this, where did it come from, when ... ?"

Here, they are literally slaughtered. You should hear their screams, how these strong men scream while they break every part of their body that can be broken. Some are sodomized, or are forced to do it to each other. If there is a hell, this is it. In my opinion, their mistake is that they did not go off and fight us. Yes, that journalist Babitski was here for a few days. We didn't sodomize him, but he was really beaten and humiliated, his glasses went flying, poor man.

They bring them here every day in great numbers. There are up to 700 people. But only seven are suspected of being "boiviki". Those guys are already half-corpses. It's what they deserve, I don't pity them. Two of them were already done in.

It's hard to describe these exotic ways to break human being, to change a man into an animal. I am coming to the end, but I would like to help these people, if there is in this world a force able to do something.

I am disappointed in my government. It's lying, trickery and hypocrisy. Well, I'll stop now. I don't write well, after all. I don't give my name, for obvious reasons.

February 3, 2000
Naur (Northern Chechnya)
Tchernokozovo ITK [Ispravitelnaya Trudovaïa Kolonna : camp for re-education through work]