VLADIKAVKAZ/ On Jan. 15, 2008, Vitaly Kaloyev turned 52. It was the first birthday he had celebrated in Russia since being released from a Swiss prison last November after serving more than five years for the murder of Danish air traffic controller Peter Nielsen. Nielsen had been the air traffic controller on duty on July 1, 2002, when a DHL cargo plane collided over Germany with a Russian airliner carrying 70 people, 52 of them children. Kaloyev’s wife, son and daughter were killed in the crash. In February 2004, Kaloyev went to Switzerland to meet with representatives of the SkyGuide company, which employed the air traffic controllers in Zurich who were monitoring the skies in the region where the crash occurred. After they refused to meet with him, Kaloyev went to Nielsen’s house and stabbed him to death. After his release, Kaloyev returned to Russia, where he was welcomed as a hero. He moved back to his house in the center of Vladikavkaz, the capital of the Republic of North Ossetia, and on Jan. 18, he was appointed the deputy minister for construction of North Ossetia. While he hopes to return to some semblance of a normal life, he continues to make daily visits to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city where his wife and children are buried.
Mumin Shakirov is a film director and critic; he interviewed Kaloyev for the Swiss newspaper Blick, where this piece first appeared.
M.S.: You were welcomed back to Russia as a hero. Did you expect to receive so much attention?
V.K.: I don’t know, I was kind of blinded by all the flash photography, but did not feel anything. I knew that I would be met by my relatives, but I did not expect to see that many journalists.
M.S.: What did you feel about the students who were rallying from Domodedovo Airport to Moscow with slogans, such as “Kaloyev, you are a real man!” Was it too much?
V.K.: Well, I am not a hero. I am an ordinary guy. As for those people rallying in the streets, they just care about their children and other people’s children.
M.S.: But they consider you a hero!
V.K.: Was I welcomed by an orchestra?
M.S.: In one of the interviews, you said that in spite of this tragedy, you don’t feel any hatred towards the Swiss people.
V.K.: I say that, but my heart feels something else. At the same time, I stick to my words. I understand that one cannot hate an entire country because of a small group of people. This morning at 8:00 a.m. I received a birthday call from Mr. [Walter] Mayer [a priest at Zurich airport]. I said some nice things about Switzerland out of respect for this man. He helped me, so I had no moral right to be bad to him. Can any Swiss say nice things about me?
M.S.: Did you make any friends or acquaintance while you were in prison?
V.K.: Well, the entire prison knew me. When I walked in the yard, many of them came up to me to say hello. Sometimes I was uncomfortable. I decided to not shake hands with those who were there on rape or paedophilia charges. I was worried that I would never be able to wash off my hands. Or I thought I could never be friends with people who were heroin or cocaine dealers. Through their trade these people killed many children and adults. Some of them did it out of stupidity and I told them: “You are foolish! You should make an honest living!” Some of them listened to me.
M.S.: Did anybody try to humiliate you in prison?
V.K.: It is not physically that one’s dignity can be hurt. Some of the wardens gesticulated and mimicked in a hurtful manner, which was worse. In general, they were polite and civilized. Some of them felt their code of professional conduct forced them to be polite. Others did it sincerely.
M.S.: What did you feel when the decision was made to free you?
V.K.: Nothing. I was sitting at my desk watching TV and quietly smoking a cigarette.
M.S.: But your release meant you were going back home.
V.K.: Were my wife and children coming home too?
M.S.: But seeing your relatives does mean a lot, doesn’t it?
V.K.: Of course it does, but I cannot say that I was jumping up and down with joy. I was emotionless. I went downstairs and the interpreter came up to me to give me the news. I listened to her quietly, but did not tell her that I had already heard about it. She finished talking, and I thanked her.
M.S.: Why did you travel to Switzerland for the second time? What was the purpose? Did you want to find Nielsen and look him in the eyes?
V.K.: You don’t know all the details. In November 2003, I received a letter from the German lawyers who told me that an investigation was going on. They mentioned some compensation. I told them that I did not want any. Apparently SkyGuide put forward some conditions: they would talk to me, provided I never mentioned my dead wife and children. I was furious and called the interpreter from SkyGuide. I told her that I wanted to meet with the company management. She called back to tell me that they did not mind meeting up. I received three or four calls, but they were all evasive. They offered to have lunch or dinner. They also asked what I wanted to see in Zurich. I asked them to apologize first before my family, then I would accept their invitation to have lunch or dinner or see something in Zurich. They dragged the whole thing until December. Then Christmas arrived. After the New Year, they called to tell me that the meeting would not take place. I told them that I would still come. I was always in touch with the SkyGuide interpreter. Back then Alan Rosier was the head of the company.
When they refused to meet up with me, I decided to go ahead with the trip. I was aware of Rosier’s position, so I decided to have a talk with Nielsen, since I did not know anybody else from SkyGuide. When I arrived, I did not go to see him straight away. I waited at the bus stop and smoked then I returned to my hotel. I thought he might refuse to talk to me. Then that Sunday, I decided to try and convince Mr. Mayer to come with me to see Nielsen. On Monday, I went to see Mr. Mayer, but he turned out to be on vacation, so I decided to see Nielsen alone. I found his house and rang the doorbell. A woman came out, and I asked for Peter Nielsen. I had a piece of paper where I had written his name. She showed me a different door. I knocked on that door and was very calm. He came out. I told him that I was from Russia and I asked him to let me in, but he unexpectedly shut the door behind him. I said, “OK,” and pulled a few pictures out of my pocket. They were the pictures of my children’s graves. Nielsen pushed my hand away, waving at me to leave. The picture fell on the ground.
I practically washed my children’s bodies myself before burying them. You are wondering why I am telling you that. When that incident with Nielsen happened, you cannot imagine what I felt. When that envelope with my children’s pictures fell on the ground, I felt that Nielsen killed my children all over again. I kept asking myself why Nielsen behaved like that. That was a year after the airplane crash. Perhaps they told him: “Stop worrying about some Russian children. Forget about them.” There was no doubt whatsoever that he recognized me. He knew immediately I was one of the parents of those children who lost their lives.
M.S.: What did you feel when Nielsen fell on the ground?
V.K.: Everything turned black, I could not see anything.
M.S.: Where did you get the knife?
V.K.: I had worked on building sites for 30 years. I travel for business all the time, so I always carry a lighter and a Swiss knife. It is an ordinary Swiss knife with a blade, a bottle opener and scissors. It was not an unusual knife and it was indicated in my court files. It was not a dagger!
M.S.: Do you remember what Peter Nielsen looked like?
V.K.: No. I never looked at him, it was hard. I saw his face later when his picture was published.
M.S.: Why?
V.K.: He killed my children. I could not look at him.
M.S.: Did you ever think about his wife and children?
V.K.: His children are growing up. They are healthy and happy. Their grandparents are happy with their grandchildren. I have no reason to be happy with my life.
M.S.: So you have not forgiven him?
V.K.: Why should I forgive him? I don’t feel relieved or anything.
M.S.: In this case what was the point of his death?
V.K.: After that incident, the ice was broken and the SkyGuide management had to admit their fault. The prosecutor’s office launched their investigation. This accelerated the activities of the independent commission from Braunschweig. They had to draw their conclusion. But for Nielsen’s death, they would have been no apology, court case or commission’s conclusion from Braunschweig. I don’t know why the German commission had to coordinate its actions with Switzerland, America and Russia. It was supposed to be an independent commission. But I know that the Swiss boycotted the entire process. It was the first anniversary of the tragedy over Boden Lake in Germany, when so many parents gathered in that area to mourn. The German lawyers said that SkyGuide refused to hold any negotiations. I did not want to sit and do nothing. After the first anniversary, some contact was made with SkyGuide and the German lawyers. When we arrived in Zurich, I expected Alan Rosier to say: “It was our fault.” Instead, Rosier said that had the air traffic controller not interfered, the airplanes would not have collided. I had a tough conversation with him. He could not look me in the eyes.
M.S.: Do you consider Peter Nielsen a victim of the situation, or someone who is guilty in this tragedy?
V.K.: He is not alive and he is nobody for me. I think he was foolish and he paid for it. Had he been intelligent, he would have acted differently.
M.S.: What if he had invited you in?
V.K.: I believe we would have had a different conversation and this tragedy could have been avoided.
M.S.: Was it difficult to find Nielsen’s address?
V.K.: Absolutely not. I found out about him two or three days after the airplane crash; he was married, had two children, his wife was eight months pregnant with their third child and he lived not far from the airport.
M.S.: When did you realize that something terrible had happened to Nielsen?
V.K.: I don’t even remember how I reached my hotel. In the evening when I looked at the pictures I saw some blood stains on the envelope and my shirt. I took off my shirt and wanted to put in the trash can in the corridor, but it turned out to be very small. I went downstairs to find a bigger trash bin; I went out and disposed of it.
M.S.: Did you realize what had happened?
V.K.: I did not know what had happened, but it was clear that blood was not there by accident. However, I did not remember any details.
M.S: Were you worried at all, or you did not care?
V.K.: I was sorry that I lost all my hopes during the trip to Switzerland. As for being worried, what was there to worry about? I did not.
M.S.: Do you have nightmares?
V.K.: No.
M.S.: Do you manage to sleep at night?
V.K.: Only a couple of hours.
M.S.: How did this tragedy change you? What do you feel?
V.K.: I feel nothing. I don’t feel like anything. I feel like I belong to the neutral gender. I am neither male, nor female.
M.S.: What can help you get through this and get your life back?
V.K.: I don’t know. Perhaps when I start working, something might change.
M.S.: Do you feel hurt by the Russian government? It did not protect your children. When you talked to the journalists at Domodedovo Airport, you thanked everyone who supported you, including President Vladimir Putin.
V.K.: I did not just thank Vladimir Putin. During the last two years, I was unaware what the papers had been writing about me. I knew they wrote something, but not the details. I knew that the foreign minister said: “We will help our citizen see his relatives”. Putin perhaps wanted the same thing. The Russian Embassy representatives in Switzerland came to see me the day after the incident with Nielsen. They visited me every month and brought me newspapers. I am not an ungrateful person. Why wouldn’t I be thankful?
Vitaly Kaloyev received letters from all over the world: Russian speakers from Israel, New Zealand and many other countries but predominantly all over Russia. These people offer their moral support and call him a courageous and strong man. In some letters women tell him about themselves, how they live their daily lives and even how they plant potatoes or marinate mushrooms, books they read. Interestingly enough, all those letters have one simple address on their envelops: Russia, Northern Ossetia, Vladikavkaz, Vitaly Kaloyev. He reads them all. If they leave their phone numbers, then he calls and thanks them but he does not write letters himself.
The city cemetery where Kaloyev’s family is buried is on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz, only ten minutes by car from his home. When we reached the grave, the black marble tombstone was shining. One of his relatives just finished the clean-up. She took the flowers and put them in a special small vase with water. He stood silent and leaned against the pictures of his wife and children on the tombstone. Then he showed us a small table draped over with a table cloth. There were a few candy wrappers. “I put sweets here and these crows eat them all and throw the wrappers around, “Vitaly said slightly smiling. Then he said good-bye, got in his American Jeep and drove off to his meeting with the Minister of Construction. I left for the airport.
Kaloyev is well known in the republic and almost every taxi driver knows where he lives. When a young driver named Oleg found out about why I came to Vladikavkaz, he told me about how they all welcomed Vitaly at the airport. Hundreds of people gathered at the airport near the airplane boarding ramp in order to welcome the Swiss prisoner who acted with dignity in such a painful situation. Then I remembered what Vitaly’s cousin Konstantin told me. Before the Nielsen incident Vitaly tried to contact the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Russian Embassy but all his efforts fell flat. “What do you want”?” said all those bureaucrats who displayed complete indifference to him and all the relatives of those who lost their lives in that air catastrophe over Boden Lake.
“Who is he now? A hero?" I asked the locals in Vladikavkaz. “No, says Oleg, “he did what he did and no one is judging him.”
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