ECHR: Russia Must pay 1.3ml To 27 Inhabitants Of Chechnya

Esmukhambetov and Others v. Russia (application no. 23445/03)
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided that Russia had to pay more than 1,3 million euros as compensation to the residents of Chechen republic, recognized by the court as aggrieved from the anti-terrorist operation in 1999.

In 1999, two Russian military planes raided the village, firing machine gun shots and dropping a number of bombs, resulting in the deaths of two children and three women. One of the applicants (Mr Esmukhambetov) witnessed the death of his two young sons and of his wife, the latter dying in his arms fatally wounded with shrapnel. The air raid also left approximately 30 houses destroyed or severely damaged. Many of the villagers left Kogi the same day, driving off to the nearby village of Kumli in Dagestan. The following day, the bodies of all the victims were buried and the administration of Kogi issued certificates in respect of each victim, stating that they had been killed during the bombing. When the villagers subsequently returned to Kogi to collect their belongings, they witnessed Russian federal servicemen demolishing further buildings. Most of the applicants did not return to Kogi after that; they spent the following winter in a refugee camp in Dagestan.