Baku-Rostov highway bombing

Infobox civilian attack
title=Baku-Rostov highway bombing


caption=
location=Near Shami-Yurt, Chechnya
target=Refugee and Red Cross convoy, Baku-Rostov highway
date=October 29, 1999
time=
timezone=
type=Indiscriminate bombing
fatalities=At least 25 to 50 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/493235.stm Russia hits refugee convoy] , BBC News, October 29, 1999]
injuries=About 70
perps=Russia
motive=

The Baku-Rostov highway bombing was an incident which occurred on near the village of Shami-Yurt in Chechnya, on October 29, 1999. Two Russian aircraft carried out a rocket attack on a large convoy of refugees heading into Ingushetia using a supposed "safe exit" route, killing or injuring up to 100 people in the convoy.

The victims included International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement workers and journalists, and numerous women and children, as well as a Chechen journalist Ramzan Mezhidov. Many of them were reportedly burned alive while trapped in their vehicles.

According to the Amnesty International report,

[A] t the time of the Russian attacks there were no legitimate military targets in the area. Eyewitness accounts of this incident would seem to indicate that the Russian forces had deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects, despite some of them being marked with the Red Cross emblem, in violation of international humanitarian law. [http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGEUR460461999 Russian Federation (Chechnya): For the motherland: Reported grave breaches of international humanitarian law. Attack on a civilian convoy near Shami-Yurt (29 October)] Amnesty International, 1 December 1999]

The incident took place after it was officially announced that the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia would re-open following a week's closure. However, the convoy was not permitted to cross the border and was turned back and subsequently bombed.

Russian authorities have officially denied responsibility. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19991101/ai_n14266814 Russia denies deadly attack on refugee convoy] , "The Independent", Nov 1, 1999] A similar aerial attack on the refugees fleeing Grozny was reported in August 1996. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907EED81231F936A2575BC0A960958260 Truce That Never Was: Chechens Tricked] , "The New York Times", August 15, 1996]

ee also

*1999 Grozny refugee convoy shooting
*Battle of Grozny (1999–2000)
*Grozny ballistic missile attack
*Terror bombing

References

External links

* [http://www.crimesofwar.org/expert/chech-lohman.html Chechnya and the Laws of War]