Chapter 5 – Christmas In Hell

The cold January air knifed through the car as we joined the convoy of trucks on the jammed M29 road heading towards Grozny, the same familiar route I had taken many times before. At the Kavkaz checkpoint we picked up a Russian military escort - an APC carrier- its crew nursing a couple of bottles of cheap vodka, which they considered human anti-freeze. One of the soldiers joked and asked, “Why are you Americans going to Grozny? Don’t you know you will be spending Christmas in Hell?”

The afternoon turned cold and gray as a light snow began to fall.The winter white somehow helped mask the ugly scars of war that blighted the landscape as we passed Samaski, Achoi Martan, Batumi, and the road leading to Vedeno in the mountains, each village carrying horrible memories of massacres. Chechen women stood by the road,some holding babies wrapped like Mexican burritos in blankets, some in bright clothes and high heeled boots, waiting in the snow for packed mini-buses to take them somewhere - anywhere.

Five young Chechen boys walked along the road selling home-refined petrol and cigarettes, their faces dirty with soot from kerosene fires they burned to keep warm. Idris stopped and bought some cigarettes from them. One boy wore a knit cap with the L.A. Lakers logo on it - in black and silver, a pirated copy. He didn’t care, it was warm.

Our trucks rolled slowly towards the next checkpoint. Two OMON guards left their guard shack and walked over to inspect our documents and trucks. After a few moments of chit-chat and the exchange of a few rubles, our vehicles pulled forward and began the familiar snake like weave through the final barriers of the maze.

Back onto the road, staring us in the face, was a huge, crudely painted sign with the words “Welcome to Hell” written in large red letters in English. The words of the soldier at the border hit me like a cold slap in the face. I realized that it was January 7, 2001, Russian Orthodox Christmas Day. His remark made sense- we were going to Hell on Christmas Day!

(continued)