On August 23, Human Rights Center “Memorial” received a written statement that was written by Umar Darchiev, a resident of Ingushetia. The statement explained that two Chechen refugees were lost somewhere in Russia.

He said that on August 10th or 11th, 2010, his relatives Ramzan Lechievich Makhauri, born in 1982, and Islam Vakhaevich Borchashvili, born in 1979, were lost en route from Brest (in Belarus) to Moscow.

Makhauri and Borchashvili had been living in Belgium as refugees for several years. Ramzan Makhauri is a native of Chechnya and Islam Borchashvili was living in Ingushetia before he went abroad.

In early August 2010, the pair went to Russia to visit their relatives in Ingushetia and Chechnya. They registered at the Belarussian border on August  10th at 17:40 and boarded the trainthat travels from Brest to Moscow.  Makhauri and Borchashvili were expected to arrive in Moscow onboard Belarussian railways on August  11, and take the train to Grozny at 14:33 from the Kazan station. According to relatives of the missing men, when the train arrived in Chechnya, Makhauri and Borchashvili were not on it. Their relatives made an attempt to find them, but to no avail.

“All the close relatives of Ramzan and Islam live in Belgium. In Moscow they have no relatives that could help in searching for the missing young men. Thus we decided to ask for your help,” Umar Darchiev wrote in his statement, as he pleaded for help in finding Ramzan Makhauri and Islam Borchashvili.

On August 23, the location of Makhauri and Borchashvili still was unknown.

It is important to note that Khedi Makhauri, the mother of Ramzan, had won a case against the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights in 2007. The essence of the case was as follows:

“On January 21th, 2000, Khedi and two other women were abducted by Russian invaders in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny. The occupant forces robbed and shot at women, two of which died, but Khedi Makhauri miraculously survived. On January 24th, 2000, Khedi’s relatives took her to Ingushetia where she spent two months in the hospital. As a result of her injures, Khedi’s left arm was paralyzed. The same year, Khedi asked for legal help from the Human Rights Center ‘Memorial’ and filed a complaint with ECHR”. On May 18th, 2006, ECHR declared that the Russian Federation violated Article 2 (right to life) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention of Human Rights.

*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco