Torture of prisoners there came to the public eye partly via the reports of Andrei Babitsky, a reporter for the U.S.-government funded Radio Liberty who was detained and beaten there. But allegations of similar treatment continue to emerge from other detention centers that feed into Chernikozovo, particularly from the basement holding cells at Urus-Martan. Urus-Martan, with about 33,000 residents, is typical of Chechen towns in the mostly pacified northern and central regions. Some streets are impassable, many roofs are missing and faucets yield no water. But candy and soda are for sale at kiosks, and the buses are full of passengers.
Shooting is heard, but only sporadically.
Most residents spend their days trying to sweep the war's rubble out of their yards and resurrect their damaged homes. The dirt yard is strung with jagged tin cans, and fortified with giant logs and concrete barricades. In her small black purse, she carried his birth certificate and other documents, carefully wrapped in plastic. But I am afraid after a week, there will be nothing left of him. Zuhayev, the former prisoner who was released after his family gave guns to the Russian soldiers, said in an interview last week in the nearby village of Stari Atagi that a man in a cell near his was beaten to death in January.