Tag: Chechnya

Uninvited Guests

BY MATTHEW LUCAS The soldiers beating on the thick iron door yelled for Isa Sakaev to surrender.  Two of his sisters, Khutmat and Lursa, barefoot and in the clothes they had slept in, stood outside, surrounded by Federal and pro-government…

An Accidental Career Helping in Chechnya

BY MATTHEW LUCAS Gistam Sakaeva’s career in humanitarian work began, in 1995, “by accident” in the refugee camps of Dagestan during the First Chechen War. Sakaeva, an unassuming single mother of two young children, is a Chechen humanitarian aid worker…