Abdulla Khamzayev, the lawyer for the murdered girl's family, had trouble getting a taxi from his hotel to the court. One driver said: "All the other drivers told me, 'Don't take that bastard', but I think there are good and bad Chechens like everybody else."In many respects, the case of Col Budanov resembles that of Lieutenant William Calley Jnr, the American officer whose platoon massacred 347 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Lt Calley became a hero for many Americans and was freed by President Nixon after serving only three years. "I do not understand why the bandits in Chechnya cannot be defeated," said the fervently nationalist Ms Tarasova outside the court.
She did not believe that the actions of men like Col Budanov might lead Chechens to become guerrillas.Inside the courtroom Col Budanov, a burly figure with close-cropped hair, sits inside the steel cage normal in Russian trials. For long periods he slumps forward with his head in his hands, as if ashamed to hear once again how he killed Kheda. But then, after several hours, Col Budanov springs up to question a witness sharply.The evidence, which is uncontested, gives a vivid picture of how Col Budanov's tank regiment established a reign of terror in the little village of Tangi-Chu south-west of the Chechen capital, Grozny, in the first months of 2000. Tangi-Chu does not have a reputation of being a guerrilla stronghold, but was blockaded. Nobody was allowed in or out to buy food.On 26 March last year, Col Budanov and his chief of staff Col Ivan Fyodorov began to drink heavily; it was the second birthday of Col Budanov's daughter.
To celebrate they ordered light tanks in the regiment's reconnaissance unit to open fire on houses. Lt Roman Bagraev, the officer in charge, did not refuse to obey, but delayed while he substituted anti-tank ammunition for high-explosive shells in order to reduce civilian casualties.His senior officers were enraged that their orders had not been carried out immediately. They beat up Lt Bagraev and Col Budanov ordered him to be tied up, after which he was placed in a pit a favourite Russian way of keeping Chechen prisoners. Later the same night Col Budanov took a light tank and drove through Tangi-Chu to the house of Vissa Kungaev, 47, an agricultural specialist. Col Budanov has since claimed that he had been told by an informer that Kungaev's daughter Kheda was a rebel sniper. The driver of the tank confirms that Col Budanov was drunk.At 1am the colonel, accompanied by three soldiers, burst into the house.
