The Times (UK)

December 7 1999

Letter

The civilian victims of Chechnya

>From the Acting Director of Amnesty International

Sir, In his account of the conflict in Chechnya (Comment, December 3),

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin refers to fears that Chechen fighters

may use civilians as a "human shield", preventing them leaving a heavily

bombarded Grozny. However, mounting evidence suggests that Russian military

forces have themselves signally failed to respect basic humanitarian

standards (the Chechens may themselves be breaching them).

Amnesty International recently collected testimony at the Chechnya/

Ingushetia border from people fleeing the conflict. The testimonies strongly

suggest that Russian military operations have included direct attacks on

civilians - the bombing of civilian centres such as a bus station, hospital

and marketplace cannot be con-sidered a by-product of a campaign to defeat

Chechen terrorists.

Before making promises for prosperity in the future, Amnesty International

would like to see Prime Minister Putin urgently reducing the number of

civilian casualties and respecting the human rights of Chechen civilians.

What can be done to achieve this? The Russian military must be pressured

through political means to restore full protection rights to all

non-combatants; in other words to anyone reasonably identifiable as a

civilian.

In February 1996, Russia's entry into the Council of Europe came with a

commitment to "respect strictly the provisions of international humanitarian

law". The UK's part should be unrelenting governmental pressure on the

Russian Federation, Chechen leaders and those to whom the combatants must

listen.

Without evidence of that international pressure it really will look as if in

Chechnya human rights are being sacrificed to a new bloody realpolitik.

Yours faithfully,

FIONA WEIR,

Acting Director,

Amnesty International,

99-119 Rosebery Avenue, EC1R 4RE.

December 3.