ICRC Hospital of Novye Atagi - The Massacre

The Massacre

On 17 December at around 3.30 am, a group of between five and ten men, masked and armed with silencer guns, penetrated the enclosure of the hospital. They directly proceeded to enter the residential building where most of the expatriate staff was asleep. The building was a two-storey building with two entrances leading to the two separate wings. Methodically they tried to enter the bedrooms where they found unlocked doors they proceeded to kill the occupants in cold blood. Where they found locked doors they tried to force their way, smashing the doors. All in all, six nurses and a construction engineer died. The head of office was wounded by a gunshot and left for dead.

Following people were killed in the atrocity:

• Fernanda Calado, an ICRC nurse of Spanish nationality,
• Ingeborg Foss, a nurse from the Norwegian Red Cross,
• Nancy Malloy, a medical administrator from the Canadian Red Cross,
• Gunnhild Myklebust, a nurse from the Norwegian Red Cross,
• Sheryl Thayer, a nurse from the New Zealand Red Cross,
• Hans Elkerbout, a construction technician from the Netherlands Red Cross.

The attackers met two local Chechen staff members and told them in Chechen language to get out of the way - clearly indicating that the purpose was to assassinate expatriate staff. After a burst of gunfire from an automatic weapon in the courtyard of the hospital, most likely by one of the guards in the compound, the attack was aborted and the masked men left the hospital compound in a hurry.

The guards then called the Chechen military commander of the village which arrived accompanied with armed men at around 4 o'clock hour in the morning. The survivors discovered the dead bodies, took care of the wounded and gathered themselves while waiting for dawn. A crowd of inhabitants of the local village congregated to comfort and protect them.

Chechnya's security chief, Abu Movsayev, has accused Russian secret services of organizing the killing of the ICRC workers and of the six Russians who died the following day. The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) have denied involvement and the Russian Interior Ministry accused the Chechen leadership of being unable to protect people from "rampant banditry."

Various sources indicated involvement of either Adam Deniyev or Arbi Barayev.