Organization: Human Rights Watch - Moscow Office
Subject: New research on Chechnya abuses/accountability
For further information please contact:
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz 32.2.732.2009
In Moscow, Diederik Lohman 7.095.250.6852
In New York, Rachel Denber 1.212.216.1266
E.U. Should Press Russia on Chechnya
(Brussels, February 13, 2001) Russian officials have done almost nothing
to investigate atrocities in Chechnya and European officials should not
let them off the hook, Human Rights Watch said today.
On the even of a visit by E.U. officials to Moscow this week, the
watchdog group released a new analysis detailing the procuracy's feeble
efforts to investigate some of the worst atrocities of the
eighteen-month war.
"Last year the E.U. stressed repeatedly that only the Russians can
punish their own troops for abuse in Chechnya, without international
interference," said Holly Cartner, executive director of Human Rights
Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "But now it's clear that the
Russian government is not investigating these crimes in good faith, and
the E.U. has to call them on it."
The 10-page analysis, based on dozens of recent Human Rights Watch
interviews with victims' relatives and on correspondence with the
Russian procuracy, charges that government investigations have been too
few and of poor quality. One-third of the 35 investigation against
servicemen relate to inadvertent or minor crimes; only 12 pertain to
murder.
More than one year after 130 civilians were killed in the
execution-style murders in Alkhan-Yurt, Staropromyslovski, and Aldi, no
one has been held criminally accountable. A few investigations into
individual murders in these massacres were launched, but only after
victims' relatives had filed a complaint with the European Court of
Human Rights. Many relatives have not been questioned, and many bodies
remain to be exhumed. Law enforcement agencies have made no effort to
gain the trust of witnesses who are terrified of further abuse.
Witnesses are too frightened to report for questioning to the Khankala
military base, where many Chechen men have "disappeared" in custody.
No one has been charged with torture, despite hundreds of
well-documented cases. Investigations into the "disappearances" of
individuals taken into Russian custody have stalled due to lack of
cooperation on the part of the military.
Meanwhile, abuses continue. Russian soldiers and police on sweep
operations arbitrarily detain men and women, particularly young Chechen
men ranging in age from fifteen to forty-five, and loot homes. Detainees
are frequently taken to makeshift detention facilities such as earthen
pits, where they are routinely tortured and denied all due process
rights. Many detainees have "disappeared" without a trace after being
taken into Russian custody. Groups of masked men, often speaking
unaccented Russian, burst into homes of civilians at night and take away
or kill their inhabitants.
Chechen rebels have threatened and killed civilian administrators and
are presumably responsible for the bombing of Russian positions that
have killed and wounded numerous civilians.
"The E.U. can't just set aside the Chechnya mess in order to do 'real
business' with Russia," said Cartner. "This is their real business with
Russia."
The February 9 memorandum is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechmemo-0213.htm
The January 22 Field Update is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechmemo-0122.htm
--
Diederik Lohman,
Director, Moscow Office
Human Rights Watch
Russian Federation, Moscow 125267, A/Ya 2
Tel: 7 095 250 6852
Fax: 7 095 250 6853
dlohman@hrw.glasnet.ru
Website
English: http://www.hrw.org
Russian: http://www.hrw.org/russian
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