Kuban massacre might have been prevented, had police not ignored complaints.

MOSCOW, November 20 (By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila
Alexandrova) -- The nighttime massacre in a private home in the Kuban
region, which has caused such a strong public outcry, might have never
happened, if only the law enforcement agencies had not ignored earlier
complaints from the local people about a gang that has terrorized the area since late last decade.

That night, in the small hours of November 5, twelve people, including
four children, were slaughtered in the house of a local farmer in the
village Kushchyovskaya.
As the media have found out, the gang that is thought to be
responsible has for many years operated there with the connivance of the
chiefs of local law enforcement agencies. Some complaints about the
bandits were addressed to the governor of the region. Inattention to this
issue, experts say, was due to the highest level of corruption.
The investigation has two versions to probe into: blood feud and
robbery. The investigation of the mass murder continues. The suspected
perpetrators of crimes were detained last week. And this week the leader
of the gang was seized and charged with organizing the slaughter. He is a
local resident, Sergei Tsapok, a local legislator and holder of a
candidate of sciences degree.
The criminal gang under Sergei Tsapok emerged in the Kushchyovskaya
district back in the 1990s. For many years it has terrorized all local
residents and gained notoriety not only for extortions, but also serial
rapes. As it has turned out, Tsapok could have been brought to justice
much earlier - the reasons for that were more than enough.
Back five years ago Russian dailies reported that in the village of
Kushchyovskaya a local gang was committing thefts, rapes, and acts of
rampage. The affair surfaced after a message from Kushchyovskaya's college
and high school students reached the governor of the Krasnodar Territory,
Alexander Tkachyov. Then, twelve criminal cases were opened, including
several ones against Kushchyovskaya police, but later all were closed "for
lack of evidence."
In their message college and high school students complained that
police had refused to register crimes (robberies, thefts and rapes) the
local gang was responsible for.
The rector of the North Kuban Humanities and Technical University, who
initiated this appeal from students to Governor Tkachyov, was soon
arrested and convicted for allegedly faked diplomas. The rector's case was
handled by the organized crime department of the local police force, whose
chief, Alexander Khodych, was the godfather of one of Tsapok's children,
the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda has found out.
Two years ago, two State Duma deputies, Yevgeny Teplyakov and Mikhail
Musatov, sent requests to the police and the prosecutor's office about the
outrage Tsapok was held responsible for. The requests followed complaints
from farmer Eduard Karpenkov the gangsters had taken away his land and
threatened to do away with him.
In an attempt to have his land back Karpenkov went to court. Five
times his lawsuit was rejected, and only the sixth complaint was accepted
for consideration.
Before the court session that was held in February last year, says
Karpenkov, Tsapok personally threatened to blow up his home and warned
that the farmer would lose not only his land, but also his health.
According to the farmers, Tsapok was boasting that he knew the ropes and
had good connections at the police and the prosecutor's office. The court
session never took place, and later another case was launched, this time
against Karpenkov himself.
The farmer held firm, though, and went to State Duma deputies
Teplyakov and Musatov, who filed a request. The chief of the Krasnodar
police, Sergei Kucheruk, in his response said no confirmation of illegal
activities by Tsapok had been found.
Komsomolskaya Pravda has narrated the story of another criminal case
involving Sergei Tsapok. A year ago law enforcers obtained a video
recording made with a mobile telephone showing Tsapok beating up
Kushchyovskaya police operatives. The operatives of the investigation
department twice tried to open a criminal case over the beating. However,
the first attempt was foiled by the territory's deputy prosecutor Valery
Ryabokonev, and the second one, vetoed by the territory's prosecutor,
Leonid Korzhinek.
As sources at the local prosecutor's office said, witnesses'
testimonies were conflicting, so it was decided to close the case.
"This is the crux of the matter," angry deputy chairman of the State
Duma's security committee, Mikhail Grishankov, told the daily Vedomosti.
"The gang has operated in the area for so many years! The crime ring was
known and should have been handled long ago."
Inattention to the issue, said the deputy, was due to the highest
level of corruption and nepotism.
Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has said that a group of 22
officers from the central office of the Interior Ministry was dispatched
"to objectively analyze people's complaints and to look into the crime
situation."
"The inspection that we shall conduct will result in other measures,
too," Nurgaliyev said.
The acting chairman of the Investigation Committee under the
Prosecutor General's Office, Alexander Bastrykin, told State Duma deputies
his department had drafted a "large complex detective measures" to be
taken not just in the village of Kushchyovskaya, but also in the whole
Krasnodar Territory. Most likely, the head of the Investigation Committee
said, criminal proceedings will be launched against some law enforcement
officers, prosecutors, and high-level territorial officials.
Following the meeting the legislators decided to send to the village a
group of members of the State Duma committee on security.
The committee's chairman, Vladimir Vasilyev, has said that in the
village investigations will be launched on 28 complaints about rape, filed
earlier, but shelved by local police. A special team of investigators will
be re-examine the affairs.
The Investigation Committee promised that alongside the investigation
of the mass murder probes will be made into all complaints local people
have made to police and all criminal cases that were opened and closed
over the past few years. The Investigation Committee will offer its
comments on the performance of local law enforcement agencies only after
that.
The deputy chairman of the State Duma's security committee, Gennady
Gudkov, is quoted by the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta as saying the tragedy
occurred because local officials, instead of maintaining order, focused
only on matters that yield revenues. According to the legislator,
investigating everything that has happened in the territory will be
difficult, because "all have their own supporters and bosses."
"The local gangster's patron is small fry, the local police chief.
That minor police chief has his own, higher boss. That's how the vertical
chain of criminal command works, and breaking it would be a daunting
task," the legislator said with certainty.
The territory's governor, Alexander Tkachyov, visited Kushchyovskaya
back in 2005, after the publications about gang in the central media, but
no action was taken.
Now, at an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday
Tkachyov called for a "probe into the causes of the tragedy to ensure such
things never happen again."
The head of the Krasnodar Territory declared that he had asked those
people, who in his view, let the crime situation in the Kushchyovskaya
district go out of control to resign of their own accord. The head of the
local police department, Viktor Burnosov, and several of his deputies,
have stepped down.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets daily says that that although the suspected
chief of the gang in Kushchyovskaya has been detained, skeptics are many.
They claim that there is still nothing to be happy about - the guilt of
the gang's leaders and of their henchmen is still to be proven.

-0-str