http://www.chechenpress.com/news/10_2003/23_20_10.shtml

Russian secret services seize computers in Ingushetia

Special services began confiscating computers in Ingushetia on 16 October. The reason for seizing computers from organizations (PCs are likely to be seized from individuals, too, in the near future) is that they do not use licensed software, the NGO council has said.

However, NGO representatives said that quite a different reason was behind these measures. Representatives of Chechen human rights and public organizations said that power-wielding agencies wanted to block and stop information activities of NGOs, using such a convenient pretext.

At the same time, the seizure of computers may also mean that special services want to get access to the databases of NGOs dealing with human rights in Chechnya. Some Chechen rights activists were concerned about repression and persecution of dissidents that might start after Kadyrov's election as president of Chechnya. It seems that these forecasts are starting to come true.

20.10.03 Chechenpress

October 20th 2003 · Prague Watchdog / Timur Aliyev

Chechen rights activists preparing for UN alternative report about situation in Chechnya

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – Members of Chechen human rights organizations are going to submit their own report on the economic, social and culture situation in their republic which they will present to the November session of the United Nations. This is the result of a seminar on UN methods for the protection of human rights and economic, social and cultural rights that was held in Ingushetia on October 18 and 19 by the World Organization Against Torture.

According to one of the organizers, Zaynab Gashayeva, chairwoman of “Ekho Vojny,” this report will be an alternative to the official one that Russia will present. “When reading the document that the Russians presented at the UN’s September session, one almost got the impression that we were living in Switzerland,” she said. ”Our job is to brief the UN about the real situation in Chechnya,” Gashayeva added.

Nearly fifty members of the Chechen human rights organizations are contributing to this report, which includes a questionnaire on all the violations of economic, social and culture rights in Chechnya. Torture of Chechen citizens is dealt with separately.

Nathalie Mivelaz, program manager of the World Organization Against Torture, told her Chechen colleagues that human rights violations by Russian soldiers in Chechnya are generally known when the culprits are found guilty. She added, however, that unlike Russia, Chechen rights activists are powerless in providing further evidence to prove these incidents to the international establishment. She also stressed that it is necessary for her colleagues to join forces as only through mutual cooperation would they benefit.

The World Organization Against Torture will assist these activists to hand over their report to Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur on Torture of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

As the Children’s Program Officer Severine Jacomy pointed out, the UN Commission already has a great deal of data at its disposal, but it is far more useful when local human rights agencies add their own information to it.

Former Bella residents challenge camp shutdown by Federal Migration Service

Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus – Former residents of the dismantled refugee camp Bella in Ingushetia are planning to challenge the Federal Migration Service’s decision to shut down their tent city. So far more than one hundred refugees have agreed to join the lawsuit.

Those who were forcibly displaced say their rights were violated by the camp’s re-organization, claiming that psychological and physical pressures were exerted on them during their relocation to a new site.

Camp Bella was shut down by a decree of August 1, 2003 issued by the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Ministry of Interior. According to official documents the decision was made due to “fires, deaths and traumas, and the rise in infectious diseases.”

Although the camp was officially shut down on September 1, refugees remained at the site for two more weeks. However, once electricity, gas and water were shut off they began abandoning the camp.

Some returned to temporary accommodation centers in Chechnya, but most of them moved to the neighboring Satsita camp. And it is this latter group that is planning to go to court with their complaint.

The refugees who moved to Satsita had been promised normal living conditions, but apparently that’s not what they got. “Tents are built dangerously close to each other and have no electricity installed yet. So we laid cables to light the tents ourselves, but the danger of fire remains,” stated the refugees.

“Nor does the school here at Satsita admit any of our children,” they complained.

Following upon the heels of Bella, camp Alina is next in line to be dismantled. And the same scenario that took place in Bella is now being imposed on the Alina residents, including the old carrot-and-stick method.

Those who agree to return to Chechnya will get all the humanitarian aid and food denied them during the past 10 months; and those whose homes were destroyed due to combat operations will be financially compensated. Flyers stating all this are being circulated everywhere in Alina where people congregate.

Meanwhile, the Ingush and Chechen migration authorities are exerting ever more pressure on the refugees. Access to the camp is restricted to all outsiders. “Secret orders from on high” is the explanation given at the police checkpoints.

Those who are persistent are subjected to endless questions, such as why do they want to come here?, whom do they want to visit?, and from where have they come? But the few who do manage to talk their way in must then proceed on foot.

(D/E,T)

More than 300 people have been kidnapped in Chechnya this year, a pro-Russian official has admitted. Movsur Khamidov, Chechnya's deputy prosecutor general, said on Monday the victims were mainly civilians, but some were law enforcement officials.

He added the figure was relatively low compared to the period between 2000 and 2002, when kidnappings were rampant. However, human rights groups have said the figures are an under-estimate and kidnappings are on the rise.

Vanishing without trace

Anna Neistat, Moscow office chief of Human Rights Watch, said: "The real figure is 400 disappearances from January to July this year - which is an average of 60 people vanishing without trace each month." Neistat said the evidence clearly showed Russian soldiers were committing most of these crimes.

"Most of the disappearances are down to the Russians' idea of swift justice. They are summary executions, abductions after cases of mistaken identity, and people who have been tortured beyond recognition and who are then killed."

She added: "We know that Ahkmad Kadyrov (Chechnya's Russian-appointed president) is linked to these disappearances. His men have their own motivations but much of it is to do with crimnal gang activity."

Total impunity

And Neistat said there was absolute impunity for the perpertrators of these crimes.

"The Russians do open investigations but close them after two months for lack of evidence. I think the Russian authorities simply do not want to upset the military, and there is no prressure on them to change their ways."

According to Human Rights Watch, 1132 civilians were killed in Chechnya in 2001, or between 10 and 15 times the murder rate for Moscow.

Another report, providing crime statistics for the first months of 2003, said in January and February there were 70 murders, 126 abductions, and 25 cases in which human corpses were found.

Chechen independence

Russian troops poured into Chechnya in October 1999, in an "anti-terror" campaign launched by then prime minister Vladimir Putin.

The republic had won de facto independence from Russia after a 1994-96 war, but it was overwhelmed by violence and kidnappings during the interim period.

The official Russian military toll from the second war is estimated at up to 5000 soldiers, although rights groups believe the figure may be closer to 12,000.

Russia says that up to 15,000 Chechen rebels have been killed, although the official civilian death toll has never been published.