The New York Times

Friday, February 18, 2000

Chechens Report Torture in Russian Camp

By MICHAEL WINES

MOSCOW, Feb. 18 -- Three men seized by Russian troops and imprisoned at a detention camp in northern Chechnya this winter have told human rights observers of beatings, torture and rapes they say took place there before they bribed their way to freedom this month.

The three, who are now in the neighboring Russian province of Ingushetia, gave their accounts to researchers for Human Rights Watch, which relayed them to news organizations this week.

In Chechnya's Shattered Capital, Survivors See Their Own Reflection (Feb. 17, 2000) Russians Order Grozny Residents to Leave, Sealing Off Ruined City (Feb. 15, 2000) 'Nothing Left' in Grozny, Returning Refugees Find (Feb. 12, 2000) Russian Troops Capture What Remains of Grozny (Feb. 7, 2000) Chechen Rebels Announce Retreat From Battered Capital (Feb. 2, 2000) Russian Aim: Wind Up War in Chechnya Before Election (Jan. 20, 2000) In a Fierce Assault, Russian Soldiers Advance Into Grozny (Jan. 19, 2000) Russia Army Opens Fight to Control Chechen Capital (Dec. 26, 1999) Russia Blockades Chechnya to Isolate Rebels (Nov. 10, 1999) Russians Intensify Offensive Against Rebels in Chechnya (Oct. 29, 1999) Russian Sends Ground Troops Into Chechnya, Raising Fears (Oct. 1, 1999) Russia Tightens Its Borders as Chechnya Fighting Flares (June 19, 1999)

One of those researchers, Peter Bouckaert, said in a telephone interview from Ingushetia's capital, Nazran, that the accounts were collected separately and appear "highly credible."

But the Kremlin spokesman for war issues, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, denounced the reports today as lies spread by a biased foreign press. Although international observers have not yet been allowed to enter the camp, at Chernokozovo in northern Chechnya, Mr. Yastrzhembsky said he saw no problem in arranging visits there soon.

Russia's acting president, Vladimir V. Putin, ordered the nation's top immigration official today to serve as a special representative to examine charges of human rights violations in the war.

The latest accusations came from men arrested on Jan. 16, 17 and 18 as part of a general roundup of Chechen males by the Russian military. Russia had earlier barred all Chechen males between the ages of 10 and 65 from leaving the province, saying they were potential terrorists.

Each man said that he was taken by truck to the Chernokozovo camp, about 30 miles north of the capital, Grozny, where several hundred men and a few women were being held.

In statements read by Mr. Bouckaert, one man identified as Waha, a 38-year-old engineer, and another called Ruslan, 21, said they were forced from the trucks and made to run a gantlet of about 15 Russian soldiers who kicked them and beat them with rubber truncheons. Both said that sporadic and sometimes severe beatings continued through their imprisonment. Both men said they were forced to surrender their belongings, jewelry and money, most of which was not returned.

And both said they were forced to stand for hours in crowded cells, with their hands above their heads. Prisoners who sat or lowered their hands were beaten, they said, and at times the cells were sprayed with tear gas.

Waha said that "16 of us were put into one cell" about 11 feet by 16 feet. "We were made to stand with our arms raised from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. the next day."

The smell from human waste, he said, was overpowering. "If we wanted to go to the bathroom, we had to do it in the cell," he said. "We didn't even have a bucket to use."

Waha and a third man, identified only as Ali, 24, were briefly imprisoned together. One told Human Rights Watch that he heard the pleas of a 42-year-old woman named Raisa, imprisoned alone nearby, as she was severely beaten for 15 minutes and then raped.

The two men also described separate instances in which, they said, they heard the screams of two men who apparently were being raped.

"Afterwards, the victim said to them, 'You have killed me,' " Waha said. The soldiers, he said, replied that he now had a new name: "They said 'You will now be Alla, a woman.' "

The second man, Ali said, was forced by soldiers to answer to the name Fatima after his assault.

All three captives said they were freed from the Chernokozovo camp after their families tracked them down and paid bribes of between 1,000 and 4,000 rubles, or about $35 to $140.

There is no way to independently verify such reports.

"I know it sounds pretty severe," Mr. Bouckaert said. "But considering that we interviewed three people who gave very similar testimony, these testimonies actually appear quite credible."

In recent weeks, refugees, former prisoners and war victims have given reporters and human rights groups many new accounts accusing troops on both sides of the Chechen conflict of torture, summary executions, rapes and other abuses.

The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Mary Robinson, has released a statement expressing "deep regret" at Russia's refusal to permit her to visit sites inside Chechnya. But at his regular briefing today, Mr. Yastrzhembsky denied that Ms. Robinson had been barred from the war zone, saying instead that such requests must be processed by the Foreign Ministry.

He specifically denied that any human rights violations had occurred at the camp, one of at least four inside Chechnya. Mr. Yastrzhembsky said that 744 Chechens have been held at Chernokozovo and that all but 235, including 16 women, had since been freed.