Out of Chechnya 

Where to begin? With the fact that Chechen medical student Ali Tepsurkaev was held in a pit in the ground for six weeks -- beaten and burned by Russian soldiers, shocked with electricity until he passed out? Or with his brother, a crusading journalist, who was assassinated and bled to death in his arms? Or with Tepsurkaev's escape to America last year and the kindness of strangers?

To look at the strapping 22-year-old, dressed in an athletic shirt and parachute pants, you wouldn't peg him as the vessel of such violent upheaval. He has soft brown eyes and an easy smile, can crack jokes in English after just 18 months in this country, and insists on holding the door for his elders. He loves broccoli-pineapple pizza, has discovered Bob Marley and dreams of becoming a doctor. He talks excitedly about his classes at the Community College of Vermont in Burlington, the medical training program he hopes to attend, and the taekwondo school on Main Street -- he's a world-champion black belt.

"I never think my life be like this," Tepsurkaev says. "A fortune teller tell me when I am 12, 'You will go far away.' I thought to Grozny [capital of Chechnya], to study at medical school." The young refugee adds matter-of-factly, "All my friends are killed by Russians. Except one. He escape to Omsk."

Tepsurkaev's fateful story begins on Aug. 23, 2000, in the midst of the second Russian war in Chechnya, a separatist Muslim region in Russia's North Caucasus. That was the day a group of Russian soldiers burst into his house in Alkhan Kala, a town of 20,000 some six miles southwest of Grozny. Tepsurkaev and his father were thrown to the floor, their bodies held in place by Russian combat boots. His mother was shoved up against a wall. The family watched helplessly as soldiers tore up the house and passed many of their belongings out the front door.

"My mother, she try to find out what's happening, but all soldiers do slang and swears," Tepsurkaev recalls. "I really mad. If I had some gun in the house, I think I run and shoot those guys. Because, you know, I never hear anybody talk with my parents like that."

The Russian military regularly sweeps through Chechen towns and villages, checking homes and documents in an attempt to ferret out rebels and weapons. Looting is common. Known as a zachistka -- derived from the Russian word for "clean-up" -- these early-morning raids often result in the arbitrary detention of young Chechen males. For many, the next stop is a "filtration camp," the purpose of which is to separate fighters from the general population. Many innocents, though, get caught in the net -- sudden currency in the lucrative kidnapping business that flourishes in Chechnya. Ransoms are payable in U.S. dollars or guns.

That morning the Tepsurkaev surname appeared on the Russians' watchlist. "They say, 'are you the one who work in hospital? Or were you the one who takes the tape? Which one is you?' The soldiers not know who I am," he says. "They say they need to check me out, take my passport."

A second-year medical student, Tepsurkaev was the one who worked in the hospital. He had been assisting his uncle, Khassan Baiev, a well-known plastic surgeon turned war-time medic. Baiev had been persecuted by both sides in the conflict because he treated anyone who needed medical attention, Chechen or Russian. He was eventually forced to flee.

Baiev was also the surgeon who famously amputated the leg of Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev, Russia's public enemy number one, after the rebel leader and his men stumbled into a mine field. Tepsurkaev held Basayev's mangled limb down during the procedure, one of 67 amputations Baiev would perform over a bloody 48-hour period.

Further complicating Tepsurkaev's situation was the fact that he was also the younger brother of Adam Tepsurkaev, a relentless videographer for Reuters news service. At that time, no Western journalists were reporting from Chechnya. Several had been kidnapped or killed during the conflict, and Russia had imposed a media blackout. The elusive Adam Tepsurkaev, though, kept the story alive for Western viewers, filming bombings, lootings, arsons and atrocities. Of his three brothers, Ali idolized Adam and helped smuggle his footage out of the region.

During their search of his house, soldiers came across Tepsurkaev's taekwondo medals, his certificates of victory in the Russian national championships, and treated him with particular harshness. He was hauled off and blindfolded with his own shirt, handcuffed and beaten repeatedly with rifle butts. He was accused of being a fighter, plotting to blow up tanks. His 6-foot-3 body was then loaded into an armored personnel carrier. The last village sound he heard was his mother screaming at the soldiers.

Tepsurkaev's next stop was a field outside of town, a makeshift military installation overlooking the village. Bound and bloodied, he was punched and kicked until he could no longer stand. He was relieved of his belt, sneakers and money. Then he and several other Chechen detainees were told to prepare to be crushed by tanks.

Moments after tanks began rumbling, Tepsurkaev was pulled from the line. Russian officers had been informed of his relations: They had a catch on their hands. For the next six weeks, Tepsurkaev was kept barefoot, handcuffed and shirtless in a pit in the ground, four meters deep, one meter wide, ankle-deep in water. Metal fencing covered the opening.

"That was all I have, hole and sky," he says. He never saw his fellow detainees again.

Tepsurkaev was hauled out of the pit only for interrogations, several times a day. He was questioned about village residents and whether they were fighters; about his doctor uncle, who had by this time escaped to America; about his journalist brother, who was working behind the scenes to free his younger brother. Tepsur-kaev's interrogators shoved surveillance photos in his face and ordered him to write a letter to Adam pleading that he take his place. Tepsurkaev refused. He was strung up by his handcuffs, beaten, burned with cigarettes. These daily sessions often ended with Tepsurkaev having electrodes attached to his face and body, then being shocked until he lost consciousness.