Friday, Feb. 28, 2003. Page
1 The Moscow Times
Memorial Sees More Terror in Chechnya
By Andrei Zolotov Jr.
Staff Writer Respected human rights organization Memorial warned on Thursday
that the planned constitutional referendum in Chechnya won't reflect the
will of the people, saying it has documented an increase in kidnappings
and disappearances linked to federal troops.
"We think the conditions are not right for holding the referendum in Chechnya,"
said Memorial head Oleg Orlov, who recently returned from a fact-finding
trip to Chechnya ahead of the March 23 vote.
"We are seeing an increase in terror on the eve of the referendum," he told
reporters. "Is [the referendum] the reason for the campaign of terror? If
so, it has achieved its goal. In the run-up to the referendum, the population
is very intimidated."
The Kremlin is touting the referendum, to be followed by the election of
a president and a parliament, as a key element in the peace process. If
approved, the constitution would be subordinate to federal law.
Memorial said it is alarmed by the growing number of kidnappings and disappearances
of people, some of whom are carried away by masked soldiers on armored personnel
carriers without license plates and others by Chechen gunmen.
Although some cases are investigated and suspects are brought to trial,
most are not even registered by law enforcement officials, it said.
Orlov said Memorial counted 42 cases -- many of which involved more than
one missing person -- in January and February alone. The group is pressing
prosecutors to investigate an additional 600 cases.
Chechnya Prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko said Wednesday that 1,660 people,
including servicemen, are considered missing in Chechnya, Interfax reported.
A pro-Moscow Chechen administration task force charged with searching for
the missing puts the number at 2,800, Memorial official Alexander Cherkasov
said.
"With five out of every 1,000 people missing, the rate of terror in Chechnya is
higher than during Stalin's great terror [in the late 1930s]," Cherkasov said.
"You can imagine what kind of affect this is going to have on the Chechen people's
psyche."
Orlov said "no one is seriously considering the referendum" to be an expression
of the people's will. He said the population is scared and will certainly
participate in the referendum, fearing that a low turnout would anger the authorities
and lead to mopping-up operations or kidnappings.
Vakha Baibatsirov of the Chechen administration's Moscow office brushed off Memorial's
concerns.
"It is none of their damn business commenting on the will of the whole population,"
Baibatsirov said in a telephone interview.
Others have also said Chechnya is not ready for a vote. Lord Judd caused a stir
in January when he announced that he would resign as the Council of Europe's rapporteur
on Chechnya if Russia refused to postpone the referendum.
However, Council of Europe human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles earlier
this month endorsed the referendum as the beginning of a path to peace.
Orlov said the authorities are doing everything possible to make sure that the
referendum takes place as scheduled. He said that when signatures were being collected
to hold the vote, retirees in at least one town received referendum papers along
with the documents they had to sign to get their pensions.
Orlov said that despite the increase in missing persons, the number of mopping-up
operations, in which troops surround a village and indiscriminately arrest, beat
up and sometimes kill residents, has markedly decreased in recent months.
They do, however, still take place, and with mixed results, he said. A drawn-out
operation carried out by Chechen OMON officers in Stariye Atagi in December and
January ended with no complaints about human rights abuses being filed, he said.
But a Jan. 8-15 operation in Argun was "an absolute return to the old times,"
he said.
At least one man was killed and dozens of others were beaten to a pulp, according
to testimonies recorded by Memorial.
Meanwhile, the Central Elections Commission is to hold a discussion on Chechnya's
readiness for the referendum Friday. A CEC spokesman said the commission would
discuss security and logistics with security and Chechen officials.
Stanislav Ilyasov, the federal minister in charge of Chechnya, said Thursday that
he was certain that most of the population in Chechnya would support the referendum
and vote for the constitution. "Surveys and meetings with local officials show
that the adoption of the constitution is necessary and everybody understands that,"
he was quoted by Interfax as saying.