In light of the slaying of lawyer Stanislav Markelov, we are digging into the archives of older news reports to inform our readers of the story of former colonel Yury Budanov, whose release on parole Markelov spent his final days fighting. It is important to understand how the trial and imprisonment of Budanov became a rallying point for ultra-nationalists in support of the campaign in Chechnya.
"Rape and Murder Trial Puts Russia in Dock over Chechnya," by Andrew Jack, Financial Times, (June 22, 2002, pp. 16)
In most countries, a soldier accused of raping and murdering an 18-year old girl would be heavily stigmatised. In Russia, where nearly three years of fighting has poisoned relations with its breakaway republic of Chechnya, Colonel Yuri Budanov has become a strange kind of hero.
The colonel sits in a cage in the military courtroom of the Russian city of Rostov on Don, 1,000km south of Moscow, reading a book and ignoring the proceedings which may see him walk free in the next few days although there is no dispute that he killed Kheda Kungaeva two years ago. (...)
According to evidence gathered by military prosecutors, Col Budanov, a tank commander, became drunk on March 27 2000, while celebrating his daughter's second birthday. He burst into a house in the Chechen village of Tangi-Chu, seized Kheda Kungaeva, took her to his tent and beat, raped and strangled her, before ordering his subordinates to bury the body. (...)
Outside the court, members of the ultra-nationalist Russian National Unity movement claim that Col Budanov is being made a scapegoat for the entire Chechen conflict. They say they have already collected enough money to buy him a car on his release. (...)
Successive medical reports have modified the original charges, concluding that rape took place after death, thereby reclassifying it as the more minor offence of mutilation of a corpse. The attack has also been blamed on Budanov's subordinates, who were tried and quickly given amnesty. (...)
There is little doubt that Col Budanov has already been broken and humiliated. His career has been destroyed and his family has abandoned him. But for many Chechens, the court case is fostering a sense of impunity for the army, and triggering anger which could lead many more to take up arms against Russia.
"It shows that the Russian government does nothing to defend its citizens against the army," says Imran Izhiev, a human rights activist who has followed the case closely, and whose front teeth were knocked out during an interrogation a few months ago by Russian troops.
But in Rostov, many Russians are hostile to the Chechens and indifferent to the Kungaevas. As one local builder, who identified himself simply as Alexander, says with a shrug: "War is war."
This is so sad. My sympathies to the families of the human rights lawyer and journalist killed today. To their memories I pray that justice prevails.