r house, owned by the family of Aslanbek Astamirov's brother, Alkha A.
11. According to the applicants' submissions, on 5 August 2002 at around 3 a.m. a group of about thirty masked men in blue camouflage uniforms forcibly entered the applicants' house. The applicants believed that they were servicemen, as they were armed with machine guns and spoke Russian without an accent. The servicemen did not produce identity papers or any documents to justify their actions and gave no explanations.
12. The fourth applicant submitted that she had been sleeping in the room with her husband, Aslanbek Astamirov, and their daughter, the fifth applicant. The first applicant, Aslanbek Astamirov's sister, and her two daughters had been in another room, and the second and seventh applicants had been sleeping in another room.
13. The fourth applicant submitted that she had been woken at 3 a.m. by the sound of Russian being spoken in their courtyard. Then the door to their room opened and four or five men in camouflage and masks, armed with automatic weapons, rushed into the room. They shouted "Lie down" and approached the fourth applicant's husband. One of the servicemen pushed the fourth applicant against the wall and she fell down. Another serviceman gave her the crying child and ordered her to calm her down and to remain seated.
14. The men tied Aslanbek Astamirov's hands behind his back and escorted him out of the room. They took along his slippers, trousers and a shirt. Two men remained in the room and searched it, but did not take anything. One of them found Aslanbek Astamirov's passport and took it with him. Then the fourth applicant was permitted to come out of her room and into the courtyard, where she saw her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law. The servicemen were leaving and told them to be quiet. About five minutes later the electricity went off in the village and the applicants returned to the house. They submitted that the intruders had remained in their house for about twenty to twenty-five minutes.
15. The first applicant submitted that about five minutes after the men and her brother had left they had heard the sound of a military Ural truck leaving from the direction of the main road. They did not follow the armed men into the street because there was no electricity and because they were afraid.
16. The applicants submitted that the following morning the neighbours told them that they had seen an armoured personnel carrier (APC) and a military all-terrain UAZ vehicle in the village. They also submitted that both exits from the village on the main road were controlled by the Russian military and that there was a curfew in place, so no movement of vehicles or of such a large group was possible without the knowledge of the personnel at the roadblocks. The applicants submitted a copy of the published order of the Urus-Martan district military commander No. 263 of 25 September 2001 by which a curfew had been established in the district between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
17. The applicants have had no news of Aslanbek Astamirov since 5 August 2002.
18. The Government in their observations did not challenge most of the facts as presented by the applicants. They stated that it had been established that on 5 August 2002 at about 3 a.m. unidentified men wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with automatic weapons had entered the applicants' house and taken Aslanbek Astamirov away to an unknown destination. His whereabouts could not be established. The Government objected to the term "servicemen" used by the applicants because in their opinion there were no grounds to believe that the persons who had apprehended Mr Astamirov were servicemen of the Russian Federation.
19. The Government also disputed the applicants' reference to the presence of military vehicles on that night. They argued that the statements taken duri
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