RUSSIA: CHECHNYA: GROZNY: PAP-1 PRISON

Описание: (2 Jul 1996) Eng/Russ/Nat

APTV has filmed inside a notorious Russian prison camp in Chechnya where inmates claim they were brutally tortured.

Although the camp, known as PAP-1, has now closed, there are believed to be many more such prison camps which may account for hundreds of missing men.

Grozny's former bus station lies derelict on the edge of town.

Once a bustling hub of civilian life, Grozny's residents now avoid it if they can.

For during the war with Russia, this bus station became the notorious PAP-1 \"filtration camp\".

Faltering peace accords between the Kremlin and Chechen separatists have at least produced one concrete result: PAP-1 has at last been closed.

Today, the only people who venture here come to scavenge for scraps left behind by Russian troops.

Others, like these women, are hunting for any clue that might tell them where their menfolk have been moved to.

More than a thousand Chechen men remain unaccounted for.

SOUNDBITE (Russian)
\"We are hoping that somewhere we'll see his name scratched on the wall. But there's lots
of names and most of them have been wiped out from the cells. Everything has been erased. They have left no trace\"
SUPERCAPTION: Aina Yakubova, woman looking for her husband

PAP-1 was the centre of accusations of inhumane treatment by Russian troops against Chechens rounded up as suspected rebel fighters.

Allegations of torture are rife. One former inmate, Ramzan Kaisarov, knows the prison and its practices well. He spent a month and a half in PAP-1 before bribing his way out for 8 million rubles ($400).

He was forced to sign a disclaiming statement saying he was well treated.

Ramzan says the truth was in fact unimaginable.

He says inmates were chained to a crude series of metal pegs in what he claims was a torture cell and then beaten with gun stocks or simply kicked by the interrogators.

Difficult prisoners, he says, were deprived of food and water.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian), \"My legs were tied to here and here. My arms were tied
to these. And this thing stuck in my back forcing me out like this\"
SUPERCAPTION: Raman Kaisarov, former inmate

The International Red Cross admits that it does not know how many other such prisons may exist.

Representatives were allowed to visit PAP-1 on a couple of occasions, but only on condition that details of the conditions they witnessed were not disclosed.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"We don't know. There is one officially here which we received permission to visit and which is closed now. There were no prisoners in it. We don't know if there are more, we are not being told. There might be, there might not be. We have to go through the official way to receive permission to see the other places - if there are any.\"
SUPERCAPTION: Ferry Aalame, Red Cross

Only the accounts of former inmates like Ramzan hint at the truth.

Yet the true number of prisons like PAP-1 will likely remain hidden.

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