CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Adequate Security Conditions Do Not Exist in Chechnya

A Pattern of Increasing Disappearances “Bordering on Genocide.”

Moscow and Vienna, 23 July 2002. The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Moscow Helsinki Group are deeply concerned that Russian federal and provincial authorities are planning to shut down services in camps where about 50.000 former residents of Chechnya are now living, in effect forcing them to return while their lives are threatened because of the continuing lack of security there.

An IHF mission including Ulrich Fischer, Vice President; Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director; Vladimir Weissman, Project Coordinator; and Sergei Shimovolos, Moscow Helsinki Group visited Ingushetia and Chechnya along with colleagues from a number of local nongovernmental organizations. The IHF delegation found deep anxieties among camp populations about returning to Chechnya, anxieties that are confirmed by evidence of murders, disappearances, torture, rape, harassment and intimidation of the Chechen population by Russian military and security forces. In rural regions of Chechnya bombings and shootings continue to be common.

“According to documentation by Memorial Society and other organizations, the numbers of disappeared Chechens in recent months indicate a continuing assault against the Chechen people that borders on genocide,” according to Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director. While the authorities will release no statistics, human rights groups are documenting that between 50 and 80 bodies are recovered in average months and in some months the figures are much higher, and they report a clear trend toward increasing overall numbers of the disappeared. Those dying are generally men in their productive years. The Russian forces are often beheading, burning, mutilating, and otherwise destroying bodies in an effort to conceal this process, which is claiming more lives than the bombings during the two military campaigns. But corpses are also often dumped alongside highways.

Many of the disappearances occur when men are hauled off during “mop up operations” (zachistki), which are aimed at “screening” or “cleansing” the population of “illegal combatants (boeviki).” Entire villages are surrounded and systematically “checked.”

Displaced persons residing in camps in Ingushetia reported to IHF cases in which Chechen men over 15 years of age living in those camps had been kidnapped and killed by Russian soldiers. The IHF delegation spoke with the family of a young boy who had been abducted by security forces – they informed the delegation that they had of $5000 for his release.

According to testimonies given by residents of the camps to IHF, persons detained during “mop up operations” are often held in makeshift facilities, such as pits in the ground and oil tanks. They are routinely tortured, inter alia through electric shock, prolonged and painful shackling, mutilation and rape. Torture victims included women and persons under age. The federal forces also often extorted the relatives of detainees for bribes, sometimes thousands of dollars, in exchange for their family members or bodies of the detainees already killed.

By General Moltenskoi’s order #80 in the Northern Caucasus district of March 27, 2002, clear procedural rules were established for “mop up operations” (federal servicemen carrying out a “mop up operation” must introduce themselves properly when entering residential premises, armored vehicles’ plate numbers must remain visible, representatives of the procuracy must be present, etc). However, this order is persistently ignored by federal troops, violations are pervasive, and perpetrators, as a rule, are not identified and brought to justice.

The process of accountability regarding abuses against the civilian population remains almost totally ineffective. According to official information that was submitted to the Council of Europe by Russian authorities in September 2001, only 393 cases of alleged abuses had been investigated since 1999 (this number cannot but represent a small fraction of the total number of violations committed and complains made). In spite of compelling evidence from victims or witnesses as to the identity of the soldiers or the unit responsible, cases were often dismissed because the perpetrators “could not be located”. Only around 40 cases were referred to court, and in most of these cases the sentences were lenient. An unprecedented case is that of a high-ranking military official, Colonel Budanov, who murdered a Chechen girl in 2000. Currently, yet another psychiatric examination of the colonel is scheduled. As a result of the two pervious examinations he was found “insane at the time the murder was committed.

During the year 2001, steps were taken to restore the legal system in Chechnya; the Supreme Court and ten local courts were re-opened. However, the work of the courts was not effective. Furthermore, there were great difficulties with accessibility to courts for people living in certain districts who had to make long trips to courts, through numerous check-points notorious for their extortion practices. Also, residents of Chechnya note that judges were unwilling to consider claims against military servicemen.

There is today more freedom of movement allowing travel in and out of Chechnya than in previous months, although check-points are operating in an inconsistent and arbitrary manner. The city of Grozny today is in a completely ruined condition; virtually no structure has been spared bombing and artillery damage, and virtually none have been repaired. Residents report frequent shootings, some meant to clear roads and streets. There is no water, electricity, or any other public service. Medical care is rare; death in childbirth is common and residents cannot find treatment for serious health conditions.

Russian authorities have established several Temporary Accommodation Centers (TACs) in Grozny, which can house a few thousand returnees, only a small fraction of the internally displaced persons from Chechnya.

Our organizations insist that adequate security conditions, under which IDPs can safely return to their former homes, do not exist in Chechnya. Many of the camp residents cannot produce full identity documents, official files having been destroyed, and these people are thus especially vulnerable. No IDP among scores interviewed by the IHF said it would be possible to return to Chechnya absent the removal of Russian troops. We demand that Russian authorities refrain from any actions aimed at forcefully returning IDPs to Chechnya. The state must take decisive measures in order to improve living conditions of refugees, ensure that they receive fair compensations for damages inflicted during the war, and provide for their physical and psychological rehabilitation.

Most importantly, the highest levels of Russian state authority must order military and security forces immediately to cease any further actions that threaten the security of civilians in Chechnya and in IPD camps, and ensure that violations will be fully investigated and prosecuted in accordance with Russian domestic law and international standards.

For more information:

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Contact:
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Wickenburgg. 14/7, A-1080 Vienna, AUSTRIA
Tel. +43-1-408 88 22
Fax +43-1-408 88 22-50
E-mail: office@ihf-hr.org
Internet: http://www.ihf-hr.org/

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