Reuters: Fifty soldiers
convicted in whole 2nd Chechen war
MOSCOW, Mar 7 (Reuters): Russian military courts have convicted 50 soldiers for
crimes against civilians during three years of war against separatists in Chechnya,
a top military legal official has said.
But rights groups, dismissing the announcement as an attempt to give an impression
of transparency before a March referendum on Chechnya's future, said very few
soldiers have been brought to justice considering how widespread abuses have been.
''In the last two months alone, military courts have convicted four soldiers for
crimes committed in Chechnya,'' Chief Military Prosecutor Alexander Savenkov was
quoted by Interfax news agency as saying yesterday.
He said that a total of 50 soldiers had been convicted since 1999, when Russian
troops poured back into the mainly Muslim province after three years of its de
facto independence.
Military sources told Reuters more than 150 other cases were currently being examined.
The Russian anti-separatist campaign in Chechnya has been the target of massive
criticism from rights groups, which have singled out the military's indiscriminate
arrests and its failure to prosecute perpetrators for particular condemnation.
Activists say Savenkov's figures showed how ineffective the army was in tracking
down abusers.
''The release of the figures is probably connected to the referendum as well,''
said Alexander Cherkasov of Memorial, a respected Russian rights group. ''It is
obvious there is a system of supporting and hiding criminality.'' Memorial says
it has evidence of widespread abductions and murders by soldiers in the province,
but Savenkov said any abuses were discovered and punished.
''In such operations, a criminal case is opened to legally assess soldiers' activities,''
he said.
The Kremlin says the military operation is almost over, even though separatists
attack troops daily, and Chechens will vote on a new constitution to tie the region
to Russia.
Russian media have given huge publicity to troops leaving the province in the
last few days, in what is widely seen as an attempt to show a normalising situation
before the referendum.
Webauthor's comment: After about 100.000 killed, thousand "disappeared",
totrured, raped and robbed, only 50 soldiers, about whome we are not allowed to
know the name, rank, crime and sentence, have been convicted??!!??