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Narrated by Adam Shitayev, 12 years (born on November 24, 1987)
"When we saw a lady running toward the hill (her name was Umani, she was 28), I and six other children ran along. One of them was Magomet; I don't remember the others' names; the youngest of us was a girl aged four. We ran under sniper and moving tank fire. We found a shelter in some trench. No one came after us. After several hours the fire ceased. We lifted our heads and noticed a truck, boarded by people from the field, which was heading to the village. We ran toward the truck, but only one of us was able to get in. The six of us remained in the field. It was getting dark, but sniper fire started again, so we had to seek shelter. We hid in one of the trenches or ditches and spend the first night there.
It was raining that night. We were poorly dressed; I was the only one to have shoes on my feet; the rest of us were wearing just socks... but my shoes got completely drenched. I shared my hood with one of the boys."
Chechnya, 1998