The Grozny ballistic missile attack was a wave of Russian
ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...
strikes on the
Chechen capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
Grozny
Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia.
The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a pop ...
on October 21, 1999, early in the
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russia, Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from Augus ...
. The attack killed at least 118 people according to initial reports,
[Russians in disarray over Grozny strike]
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', October 23, 1999 mostly
civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
s, or at least 137 immediate dead according to the
HALO Trust
The HALO Trust (Hazardous Area Life-support Organization) is a non-political and non-religious registered British charity and American non-profit organization which removes debris left behind by war, in particular land mines. With over 10,000 staf ...
count.
[The October 21, 1999, Cluster Bomb Attack on the Grozny Market](_blank)
Mennonite Central Committee, 2000 Hundreds of people were also injured, many of whom later died.
The attack
The first reports from the region suspected the use of
Scud
A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second World, Second and Third World, Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporti ...
missiles (SS-1). The
hypersonic
In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds 5 times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above.
The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since in ...
missiles, ten in number according to Chechen officials (other sources reported less),
fell without warning, as the Chechen
air defense
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
systems had been destroyed in the earlier Russian air strikes. The explosions occurred at around 18:15 hours in several areas of the capital, mostly in the
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
area including the crowded, central outdoor
marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
.
Two of the missiles exploded outside the city's only functioning
maternity
]
A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestati ...
hospital, which was located near
Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov (russian: Асла́н (Хали́д) Али́евич Масха́дов; ce, Масхадан Али-воӀ Аслан (Халид), Masxadan Ali-voj Aslan (Xalid); 21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005) was ...
's
presidential palace building (the palace itself was not damaged in the attack), and near the city's main
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
. Another missile hit the
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
in the village of Kalinina, a
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
of Grozny.
[Russians at odds over market attack](_blank)
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, October 22, 1999 According to official Chechen sources, about 30–35 people died at the hospital; a correspondent for the
AFP counted 27 bodies, most of them women and newborn babies.
[World: Europe: Rockets blast Grozny]
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, October 21, 1999 Most of the casualties from the post office strike seemed to have been people waiting for
public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
outside the building, as several
buses were at the stop at the moment of the explosion.
[ In the ]Kalinina Kalinin (Russian: Кали́нин ), or Kalinina (feminine; Кали́нина ), is a Russian surname, derived from the word ''kalina'' (калина, meaning "guelder rose"). Notable people with the surname include:
* Aleksandr Kalinin (disambi ...
mosque, some 41 people who had gathered for evening prayer were said to have been killed.
Most of the casualties occurred at the central market, which was filled with hundreds of shoppers at the time of the attack. The victims were not limited to Chechens, but included also many ethnic Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
and others. A rain of large ball-shaped shrapnel from the cluster munition
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehicl ...
airbursts showered the market, nearby streets, and open-air café
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...
s, with each blast affecting a large area. According to an investigation by Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, the first explosion hit a building about northeast of the bazaar
A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...
at the corner of the city's main Prospekt Svobody and Mira streets, and adjacent to a city bus caught in traffic. However, most of the marketplace deaths came from the second and third explosions, which occurred within 100 yards of each other in the central bazaar
A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...
area, "near the flowers and confectionery stalls."[ According to the ]Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
correspondent Andrei Babitsky
Andrei Maratovich Babitsky (russian: Андрей Маратович Бабицкий; 26 September 1964 – 1 April 2022) was a Russian journalist and war reporter, who worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) from 1989 to 2014, c ...
, the worst hit area was the so-called '' kolkhoz'' sector of the market, located near the building of the Chechen military headquarters
Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...
.[ ]Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
reporter Maria Eismont counted at least 90 bodies on the scene,[ while the local AFP correspondent said he witnessed 17 corpses recovered from the market.][ Some time afterwards, another missile fell about 200 meters from the bazaar, claiming the life of ]Supian Ependiyev Supian Ependiyev was a veteran correspondent for the independent Chechen weekly ''Groznensky Rabochy'', who was killed while covering a Russian Ground Forces ballistic missile attack on the Chechen capital, Grozny.
On the evening of October 27, 1 ...
, the first journalist to be killed while covering the Second Chechen War.[Correspondent killed in Grozny rocket attack](_blank)
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
, November 5, 1999
Aftermath
Many of the blasts' victims were brought to the central Grozny hospital, where doctors operated without electricity. Some of the hundreds of injured, about 100 of them in a critical state
In thermodynamics, a critical point (or critical state) is the end point of a phase equilibrium curve. The most prominent example is the liquid–vapor critical point, the end point of the pressure–temperature curve that designates conditions ...
, were immediately evacuated across the border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
to the neighboring republic of Ingushetia
Ingushetia (; russian: Ингуше́тия; inh, ГӀалгӏайче, Ghalghayče), officially the Republic of Ingushetia,; inh, Гӏалгӏай Мохк, Ghalghay Moxk is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. ...
that same night. Others were taken across one or two days later, and ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
s faced lengthy delays at roadblocks when the Russian troops attempted to seal the border.[ The attacks unleashed widespread ]panic
Panic is a sudden sensation of fear, which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reactio ...
in Grozny and a new wave of thousands of refugee
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. s headed for Ingushetia.[Blasts in Chechen Capital Unleash New Wave of Refugees](_blank)
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', October 23, 1999 More than 177,000 refugees had already fled the fighting. Russia closed the border; one of the refugee convoys from Grozny was bombed after being turned back. The city's streets were reported to be largely empty after the attack, as those residents who had not yet fled were too scared to venture outside.[World: Europe: Russia tightens noose around Grozny](_blank)
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, October 23, 1999 Two weeks later, Chechen separatist officials gave an updated death toll of more than 280 people.
There were further reports of tactical missiles being used on Grozny as the Russian Ground Forces
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска ВSukhoputnyye voyska V}), also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces ...
were besieging and shelling the city. For example, in an attack on October 27–28, the homes of field commanders Shamil Basayev and Arbi Barayev and of the former acting president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev were destroyed, as were numerous civilian buildings (at least five multi-flat houses, one five-storied apartment building and many smaller houses) and a busy taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice ...
parking. Basayev himself said that he had created a special unit of suicide fighters to carry out "acts of sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...
" in retaliation for the market attack. Basayev and the formation, named , took responsibility for a series of suicide bombing and mass hostage taking incidents over the next five years, culminating in the disastrous Beslan school hostage crisis in September 2004 that claimed more than 300 victims.
Responsibility for the attack and the question of its legality
The attack was met with an official denial on the part of the Russian authorities, who insisted that no civilians died in the blasts and provided a number of widely varying and conflicting alternative explanations.[Putin contradicts Russian army spokesman on Chechen explosions; Many dead, wounded in Grozny blasts]
, CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
, October 22, 1999 Despite an early admission by Aleksandr Veklich, a Russian military spokesman in the region, that the market (Russian officials typically characterised the marketplace as "an ammunition market" and "terrorist headquarters") was destroyed in a "special operation in which no artillery or aircraft were involved", Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
claimed that the explosions were the results of a "clash between gangs" and denied information that the Russian forces were involved in any way in the events in Grozny.[Russia denies deadly attack on Grozny](_blank)
CBS, November 10, 2000 In this version, Putin was joined by the army general Vladislav Putilin, who was quoted as saying that "the military forces have nothing to do with that affair". Another official, the chief of the Center of Public Relations of the FSB, Aleksandr Zdanovitch, alleged a self-explosion of the ammunition stored there "because the terrorists thought there would be no air or artillery strikes at the place of large concentrations of people". In another conflicting version, provided by the First Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff of the Armed Forces, General Valery Manilov spoke about "a rapid special operation, independent of the regular armed forces" that "resulted in a conflict between two large bandit groups which had been enemies for a long time". This confrontation supposedly led to an accidental explosion of "one large ammunition depot
An ammunition dump, ammunition supply point (ASP), ammunition handling area (AHA) or ammunition depot is a military storage facility for live ammunition and explosives.
The storage of live ammunition and explosives is inherently hazardous. The ...
" during the alleged fighting in that area. Later, some Russian officials actually suggested "a terrorist act prepared by the terrorists themselves" and the press office of the Russian Defense Ministry even called anyone who blamed Russia for the massacre "a liar", accusing the reporters at the scene of "misleading international public opinion".
According to a report by the Russian human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
organization Memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
who had analyzed the television footage of the aftermath, an explosion of "one or several compact powerful explosive mechanisms" at ground level in this case is out of the question, as all the vertical elements in the rows of stalls remained standing, while the horizontal ones (tents and overhead covers) were destroyed and broken. In addition, those who were not protected by overhead cover received multiple fragmentation
Fragmentation or fragmented may refer to:
Computers
* Fragmentation (computing), a phenomenon of computer storage
* File system fragmentation, the tendency of a file system to lay out the contents of files non-continuously
* Fragmented distributi ...
wounds, and the foreground showed the characteristic traces of cassette (cluster) ammunition of so-called "ball bombs" (munitions used in the ''Tochka'' missile warheads and intended for destruction of non-protected live forces in large areas). Finally, apparent fragments of "enormous" ground-to-ground missiles and cluster sub-munition canisters were found at the scene (as reported by Babitsky). There were also reports in the Russian media on the use of cassette tactical missiles against "terrorists" in Chechnya earlier that month, which were corroborated by the refugees. "The mosque and the maternity home, about which the Russian officials have chosen to keep silent, are undoubtedly civil objects, the attack of which is explicitly prohibited," Memorial added.[THE MISSILE BOMBING OF GROZNY, OCTOBER 21 1999]
, Memorial
A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
, 26 October 1999
According to Human Rights Watch, the possibility of arms merchants or military installations in the bazaar did not justify "the tremendous amount of force" used against the market in a strike which may have been illegal. In its report titled ''Evidence of War Crimes in Chechnya'', the watchdog concluded: "Although there is some evidence that there may have been legitimate military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
targets located near or within the Grozny bazaar, the size and extent of the blasts, combined with the large number of noncombatant
Non-combatant is a term of art in the law of war and international humanitarian law to refer to civilians who are not taking a direct part in hostilities; persons, such as combat medics and military chaplains, who are members of the belligerent a ...
s in the immediate vicinity, strongly suggests that the Russian attack was grossly disproportionate. If Chechen commander Shamil Basayev did indeed situate his headquarters within the Grozny market, that too would be a serious abuse of international law
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
. Although Chechen fighters are not parties to the Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...
, as individuals within the territory of a state party ussia they are bound to respect the basic precept of civilian immunity. Human Rights Watch calls upon Chechen commanders to immediately redeploy their troops, headquarters, and weapons storage facilities out of populated areas."[Evidence of War Crimes in Chechnya]
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, November 3, 1999
According to the HALO Trust, "Grozny market ... is a great sprawling area of wooden stalls laid out each morning and packed away in the evenings. It is the equivalent of all your department stores rolled into one. Thus you can buy fresh bread, a TV set, a wedding dress, a bag of nails, and an AK-47 in one open area the size of a couple of sports fields. Each section is clearly marked and the area where weapons are sold is very small and set right against the edge. The center of destruction was some 150 m away from the area set aside for selling weapons. It was right over the clothes and food section. With the use of such munitions in such an area it was impossible not to have foreseen massive collateral damage.
A study by the Foreign Military Studies Office evaluated: "In a surprising and threatening move, the federal forces relied heavily on fuel-air explosives and tactical missiles (SCUD and SCARAB). (...) Such strikes were designed for maximum psychological pressure—to demonstrate the hopelessness of further resistance against a foe that could strike with impunity and that was invulnerable to countermeasures." Major General Vladimir Shamanov, Russia's commander in Chechnya, said the decision to attack was made at the highest level ("the very top" and "the highest chief"), meaning at least knowledge by Vladimir Putin and President Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
. The same opinion was voiced by the president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev
Ruslan Sultanovich Aushev (russian: Русла́н Султа́нович А́ушев; inh, Руслан Султана Овшанаькъан; born 29 October 1954) is a former politician. He was the president of Ingushetia from March 1993 to ...
.[CHECHNYA: FOR THE MOTHERLAND Reported grave breaches of international humanitarian law]
, Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
, December 1, 1999 According to Aushev, a retired Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
general and a veteran of the Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Soviet ...
, in all probability the missiles had been fired from the base of the 58th Army
The 58th Combined Arms Army (russian: 58-я общевойсковая армия) is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered at Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, within Russia's Southern Military District. It was formed in 1941 as pa ...
near the village of Tarskoye in North Ossetia.
World reaction
: The President of the European Parliament, Lord Russell-Johnston
David Russell Russell-Johnston, Baron Russell-Johnston (born David Russell Johnston; 28 July 1932 – 27 July 2008), usually known as Russell Johnston, was a leading Scottish Liberal Democrat politician and was the Leader of the Scottish Liberal ...
, expressed shock at the death toll and accused the Russian government of human rights violations and lawbreaking. The President of the European Union
The official title President of the European Union (or President of Europe) does not exist, but there are a number of presidents of European Union institutions, including:
* the President of the European Council (since 1 December 2019, Charle ...
, Paavo Lipponen
Paavo Tapio Lipponen (; born 23 April 1941) is a Finnish politician and former reporter. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1993 to 2005. He also served as Speaker of the ...
of Finland, said the group was "deeply worried about the deteriorating situation" in Chechnya. Chancellor of Germany
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...
, Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ...
condemned the "massacre on the Grozny marketplace," and German politicians urged sanctions against Russia.Chechnya: Two Russian warplanes shot down
The Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
, October 24, 1999 European leaders also demanded Putin put forward a plan to end the war in Chechnya.
: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement in which he expressed his "strong hope that special care is taken to avoid innocent civilian casualties in the current conflict and that the provisions of humanitarian law in armed conflict are respected."[Russia under pressure over Chechnya](_blank)
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, October 22, 1999
: The White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
spokesman Joe Lockhart
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Lockhart (born July 13, 1959) is a spokesman and communications consultant, best known for being the 21st White House Press Secretary from October 5, 1998 to September 29, 2000, during the administration of U.S. President B ...
said that there were "conflicting reports and statements" about the blasts, but "what's clear is that there's a tragic situation there with terrible loss of life." U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
called the incident "deplorable and ominous" and said that the Russians should have learnt in their previous war in Chechnya that "this kind of violence is not a solution".
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
declared that "even assuming that these weapons eing sold at several stalls in one corner of the marketwere indeed the target of the attack, the use by Russian forces of high explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...
weapons in a market place crowded with civilians suggests that this attack may have been indiscriminate within the meaning of Article 51 of Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions, to which the Russian Federation is a party, and therefore a grave breach of this Protocol." Regarding this and other incidents of civilian casualties in Chechnya, the organization called on Russia to:
comply with the provisions of international humanitarian law prohibiting indiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and should therefore immediately desist from carrying out any such attacks in the context of its military offensive in Chechnya ndtake sufficient precautions to protect civilians. In addition to selecting and vetting targets for their genuine military significance, it should give civilians effective advance warning of its attacks - "unless circumstances do not permit" - in compliance with international humanitarian law. Other rules require specific precautions to be taken when launching attacks, including desisting from an attack if it becomes apparent that the objective is not a military one, or the attack risks being disproportionate to the military objective. (...) The Russian authorities should hold comprehensive and impartial investigations into alleged abuses of international humanitarian law such as direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including hospitals and medical vehicles, which have been reported to have occurred in the course of their military offensive in Chechnya. The government should bring all military and government officials responsible for such violations to justice. The Russian government should grant immediately safe access to Chechnya to a team of international investigators to conduct independent investigation into allegations of violations of international humanitarian law, to establish the truth and to identify those responsible.[
]
The Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
protested the death of Supian Ependiyev in an open letter to President Yeltsin, while Human Rights Watch said the assault "may have been a serious violation of the laws of war
The law of war is the component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of warring parties (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territor ...
" and urged the Russian authorities to vigorously investigate the incident and publish their findings.[
]
See also
*1995 Shali cluster bomb attack
The 1995 Shali cluster bomb attack was an attack which occurred on 3 January 1995, when Russian fighter-jets bombed the Chechen town of Shali with cluster bombs.
Events
Eighteen cluster bombs were reportedly dropped in and around Shali on tha ...
* Battle of Grozny (1999-2000)
*Bombing of Katyr-Yurt
The reported bombing of Katyr-Yurt (Chechnya) occurred on February 4, 2000, when Russian forces bombed the village of Katyr-Yurt and afterwards a refugee convoy under white flags. The village was also previously bombed by the Russians in 1995 and ...
* Russian war crimes
*Elistanzhi cluster bomb attack
Elistanzhi cluster bomb attack occurred on October 7, 1999, in Chechnya, when two Russian Sukhoi Su-24 fighter bombers dropped several cluster bombs on the apparently undefended mountain village of Elistanzhi.
The bombing killed at least 34 (48 ...
* OTR-21 Tochka
*Second Chechen War crimes and terrorism
Human rights violations were committed by the warring sides during the second war in Chechnya. Both Russian officials and Chechen rebels have been regularly and repeatedly accused of committing war crimes including kidnapping, torture, murder ...
* Terror bombing
*1999 Grozny refugee convoy shooting
The Grozny refugee convoy shooting occurred on 3 December 1999, when at least 40 people fleeing the besieged Chechen capital Grozny were reportedly killed by Russian special police units, OMON.
Incident
According to accounts from survivors, a ...
* Baku-Rostov highway bombing
References
External links
Grozny residents in shock after attack
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
, October 22, 1999
Carnage in Chechnya Has West Worried
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', October 22, 1999
Victims of a dirty war the West chooses to ignore
''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', 3 November 1999
Russia is committing war crimes and genocide
Society for Threatened Peoples
The Society for Threatened Peoples International STPI (german: Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker-International, GfbV-International) is an international NGO and human rights organization with its headquarters in Göttingen, Germany. Its aim is ...
, November 18. 1999
Clusters of Death: Cluster Munitions Use by Russian Federation Forces in Chechnya
Mennonite Central Committee, 2000
In Chechnya's Shattered Capital, Survivors See Their Own Reflection
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', February 17, 2000
Welcome to Mr Putin's Grozny
''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', 18 April 2000
Silent screams
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', December 14, 2002
Russian Warcrimes in Chechnya, 3
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grozny Ballistic Missile Attack
Conflicts in 1999
1999 in Russia
Marketplace attacks
Cluster bomb attacks
Ballistic
Ballistics may refer to:
Science
* Ballistics, the science that deals with the motion, behavior, and effects of projectiles
** Forensic ballistics, the science of analyzing firearm usage in crimes
** Internal ballistics, the study of the proce ...
Massacres in Russia
Mass murder in Russia
Mass murder in 1999
War crimes of the Second Chechen War
October 1999 events in Russia