Shut the doors, draw the curtains, tell the neighbors everything is fine.
If things aren't fine, that's none of their business. And bark at anyone
who tries to snoop around.
It sounds like a good strategy to keep your household in perfect order --
or at least to keep up the pretense that you are dealing with your domestic
problems effectively. And this seems to be Russia's approach to solving
its Chechnya problem.
In late 2002, the Russian government realized that it was having difficulty
persuading the Russian public and the international community that the situation
in Chechnya was normalizing. There were tens of thousands of people displaced
by the conflict still living in tent camps in Ingushetia, and they were
expressing no desire to go back to Chechnya. Moreover, observers from the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were snooping around
on the ground and undermining Russia's normalization claims.
So the government found a straightforward solution: get rid of the monitors
and pressure all the displaced people to return to Chechnya.
To this end, on Nov. 15 an intergovernmental agency consisting of Russian, Ingush
and pro-Moscow Chechen officials was formed and charged with getting displaced
people to return to Chechnya. A Dec. 20 deadline was set for closure of
the tent camps, which later had to be abandoned due to international protests
and logistical difficulties. Throughout, the government has claimed that
returns have been voluntary and stated that accusations of use of force
are totally ungrounded.
In December, I spent 11 days in Ingushetia as part of a research mission
and no, I didn't see anyone being pushed into a truck at gunpoint. But I
saw plenty of vidence that the effort to shut down the tent camps
amounts to forcible return.
I saw some 30 migration and FSB officials in the camps every day going from
tent to tent explaining the advantages of returning to Chechnya and the
disadvantages of staying in Ingushetia. They promised the displaced shelter
and assistance in Chechnya. When these incentives didn't work, officials
threatened the tent dwellers with arrest on false drug and weapon possession charges,
withdrawal of food allowances and cutting off gas and electricity supplies
during the cold winter months.
I saw people terrified by the presence of Russian troops deployed near the
camps. I also met those who gave in to the threats and left for Chechnya
-- only to return after being caught in crossfire in Grozny or in a sweep
operation in one of the villages. Others were simply unable to find a place to
live, despite the migration officials' promises.
Heda, a woman who had returned to Chechnya, came back to her tent camp specifically
to dissuade former neighbors from leaving Ingushetia. "I came here to tell
people that they are deceiving us," she told me. "All their promises are
lies."
I also visited the former Iman camp in Aki-Yurt to witness the desperate
situation of 17 families that continued to live in mud huts after tents
were dismantled in early December. These families are trying to survive
sub-zero temperatures without gas and electricity. They use the wooden floors
from the removed tents as firewood, and tremble from the cold and from threats
that their huts will be soon bulldozed.
I asked tent dwellers whether they had heard anything about the possibility
of shelter in Ingushetia, which migration officials had told us would be
offered as an alternative to Chechnya. Not one of the dozens of people I
spoke to had heard of it. I visited the sites that the Federal Migration
Service has on its list of "alternative housing," only to find them uninhabitable,
occupied or simply nonexistent.
Migration officials deny that by sending people back to Chechnya they subject
them to life-threatening risks. In addition, they claim that security guarantees
are beyond their mandate.
Meanwhile, the conflict in Chechnya grinds on and continues to take a huge
toll on civilians. In addition to the two horrible incidents in late 2002 -- the
Moscowhostage-taking and the suicide bombing of the government building in Grozny
-- Chechen rebels have been responsible for numerous assassinations andabductions
of civil servants. At the same time, abuses by federal forces, including forced
disappearances, extrajudicial executions, looting and arbitrary detention, have
continued unabated. Accountability for crimes committed in Chechnya is
almost nonexistent.
Over the past year, the international community has not responded robustly to
the ongoing abuses in Chechnya. But observers have been able by and large to see
through Russia's reassurances of "normalization" -- in part, due to the contribution
of the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya, which documented violations, receiving
victims of human rights abuses at its offices and making on-site visits. The authorities
first tried to cut the human rights monitoring component of the group's mandate.
When negotiations with the OSCE broke down over the mandate, the government announced
on New Year's Eve, the day the group's mandate expired, that it had to close.
What then to do with the rest of the international community when it pokes
its nose into Russia's "internal affairs?"
The Council of Europe rapporteurs who visited the region in the second half
of January were able to see what Russia was trying to hide. But in the end,
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe dropped its objections
to the March constitutional referendum in Chechnya. This was seen by Russia as
a major victory.
However, the PACE resolution passed on Jan. 29 did remind Russia of its
obligations taken on when entering the Council of Europe. In it, the Parliamentary
Assembly expressed its distress at widespread allegations of brutality and
violence against the civilian population and, in particular, at the apparent
resistance of the federal authorities to establishing a meaningful level
of accountability. Members deplored "the climate of impunity" in Chechnya.
And they called on the Russian authorities never to use "direct or indirect
force or undue pressure of any kind" to coerce displaced people to return
to Chechnya, reaffirming that "coercion is a breach of fundamental rights."
It remains unclear how far the Council of Europe is willing to go to ensure
Russia's compliance with the resolution.
The federal authorities have stressed time and again that a further Council
of Europe monitoring presence is unnecessary. Today, Council of Europe experts
are the only international monitors on the ground in Chechnya. It remains
to be seen how much longer they will be allowed to snoop around for.
Anna Neistat, director of Human Rights Watch's Moscow office, contributed
this comment to The Moscow Times. HRW's recent report "Into Harm's Way:
Forced Return of Displaced People to Chechnya" can be found at www.hrw.org/reports/2003/russia0103/