- MAKHACHKALA -- The family
of a kidnapped 11-year-old boy have described how he behaves "like
a child raised by animals", cowering in dark corners and using only
his teeth to pick up things, after being freed in southern Russia weighing
just 33lb, earlier this month.
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- Dzhamal Gamidov, the son of Dagestan's former finance
minister who was himself killed in a terrorist attack in 1996, was on the
verge of death when police discovered him in the south of the republic,
close to the border with Chechnya. He had been missing for almost three
and a half years.
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- His captors had demanded a $1 million (£580,000)
ransom from his family but apparently panicked when they saw police making
inquiries into an unrelated crime in the town of Khasavyurt. Witnesses
saw a group of masked men dump him in an abandoned building, where officers
found him.
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- Emaciated and dumb with shock, Dzhamal was taken to hospital.
"He is like Mowgli, like a child raised by animals," said his
uncle, Abdusamad Gamidov, referring to the lost boy who was raised by wolves
in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book. Mowgli is captured, humiliated and ill-treated
by men.
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- "He can only say a few words and he snatches food
from those around him," said Mr Gamidov. The boy cowered with his
cheek on his left shoulder and tried to sleep in dark corners such as stairwells
and cupboards, Mr Gamidov said.
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- His wrists are scarred and he uses his teeth to pick
up objects, suggesting that he was tied with a rope behind his back. He
is afraid of women, and tried to bite his female relatives when they visited
him in hospital.
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- Mr Gamidov descibed the boy's captors as monsters. "No
poverty, no hunger, no thirst - nothing in this world can excuse persecuting
a child in this way."
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- The boy's grandmother said that he was "as light
as a feather" when he was found. "The doctors were trying to
find a place to inject him but there wasn't enough flesh - he's just skin
and bones. It's terrible, terrible, but he's alive."
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- Doctors are feeding Dzhamal porridge and vitamin supplements
and slowly weaning him onto regular meals.
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- His family said that he was receiving counselling but
could take months or years to fully recover. The medical team has told
police that he cannot be questioned in the early stages of his treatment
because of the trauma it might cause.
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- Doctors say that the boy is so traumatised that he cannot
describe his ordeal, and suspect that he was tortured and beaten, in addition
to being starved.
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- He was snatched from outside his grandmother's home in
Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, as he played football with friends,
and is believed to have been moved from house to house during his captivity.
Nobody has been charged with his abduction, although the head of the region's
anti-kidnapping unit is being held in custody on suspicion of involvement
in the crime.
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- Kidnappings are common in Dagestan, Russia's southernmost
republic, which borders Chechnya. A mountainous region that is home to
more than 30 nationalities, it has a reputation for violent crime.
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- In 1999, two Chechen warlords invaded western Dagestan
and seized villages in an attempt to set up an Islamic republic. The incursion,
along with a string of bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities, prompted
the Russian army's second offensive in Chechnya.
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- Since then, spasms of violence have spilt into Dagestan.
Last week, a gang of Chechen militants killed nine border guards and briefly
seized some hostages in a remote village in the Dagestani highlands.
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- Kidnapping is an important source of income for fighters
and mafia groups in the north Caucasus. Several hundred victims have been
seized in recent years, including, last year, Arjan Erkel, a Dutch aid
worker.
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- Despite an international outcry, police have no clues
to Mr Erkel's whereabouts. Hostages are often kept in holes in the ground
and threatened with torture if their relatives do not pay.
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- Dzhamal's captors remain unknown but suspicion has fallen
on Imamutdin Temirbulatov, the head of the Dagestani interior ministry's
anti-kidnapping unit. He was arrested near where police discovered the
boy earlier this month, on the same evening.
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- Temirbulatov claims that he was negotiating the boy's
release when he was detained, but had not told his superiors.
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- The interior ministry believes that he may have been
an accomplice of the kidnappers. Temirbulatov's lawyer, Madina Magomedzagirova,
said the accusations were "terrible lies", prompted by colleagues
jealous of his success in securing the release of more than 150 hostages.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12
21/wdag21.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/21/ixworld.html
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