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News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International AI INDEX: EUR 46/007/2004 18 February 2004 Russian Federation: Out of control: Anti-Chechen sentiment in Moscow post-metro blast The Russian authorities are responsible for the safety and security of all their citizens, including Chechens, Amnesty International said today as it called on the authorities to take immediate and decisive steps to prevent the incitement of racial hatred, in accordance with law. The human rights organization is concerned about the current wave of hostility towards Chechens and other people from the Caucasus region that has been reported in the Russian capital in the wake of the metro blast on 6 February 2004 that killed up to 41 people, and injured more than 100. According to information received by Amnesty International, minority ethnic groups from the Caucasus region have once again become the target of discriminatory rhetoric, arbitrary document checks and searches, and racially-motivated revenge attacks. Although no-one has as yet claimed responsibility for the metro blast, senior Russian government officials, including President Vladimir Putin, were quick to blame Chechens. New tougher legislation - linked to the unconstitutional residence registration system "propiska" - is currently being drafted in the capital, allegedly aimed at combating "illegal migration". Furthermore, it has been reported that an extremist organization has been calling upon people to attend a public meeting, under the slogan "Cleanse Moscow of Chechen bandits!" Amnesty International is concerned that this may amount to incitement of hatred on grounds of nationality and incitement to racially-motivated violence. Prominent Russian human rights groups have also expressed their concern regarding the demonstration. "In the current climate, we are concerned that the meeting could lead to incidents of racially-motivated violence. The authorities must take all necessary steps to protect potential victims in line with their international obligations, and uphold constitutional guarantees in relation to equality of citizens. Such inflammatory slogans appear to be aimed at inciting racial hatred and should therefore be immediately removed from all public places in the capital", Amnesty International said. "Indiscriminate killing of civilians can never be justified", the organization said in its unreserved condemnation of the metro bomb blast. "Those found responsible for such acts must be found and brought to justice in a court of law." The organization calls on the Russian Federation to ensure that all measures taken are in accordance with international human rights law and that the "fight against terrorism" is not used as a means to restrict the human rights of its citizens, regardless of their ethnicity. Background Research conducted by Amnesty International and Russian human rights groups has shown that discrimination towards Chechens is commonplace throughout the Russian Federation, with increased levels of harassment and racist attacks reported following bomb attacks or incidents, such as the Moscow theatre siege in October 2002. Law enforcement agencies have launched what can be described as targeted campaigns against Chechens which have resulted in arbitrary arrests and planting of drugs and ammunition during personal searches of Chechens or their homes. **************************************************************** View all documents on the Russian Federation at http://amnesty-news.c.tep1.com/maabXp3aa4trbbeuxZvb/ Visit Amnesty International's new Russian language website at http://amnesty-news.c.tep1.com/maabXp3aa4trcbeuxZvb/ ****************************************************************
eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 18/2/2004 Human Rights Center "Memorial" demands to stop fanning anti-Chechen sentiments in Moscow We call your attention to the text of the letters addressed by the Human Rights Center "Memorial" to the Moscow Mayor and Prosecutor in view of the forthcoming meeting titled "Clear Moscow of Chechen Bandits": Dear Yuri Mikhailovich and Anatoly Ilyich, The announcements of the following content were pasted in many cars of the Moscow metro on 16 and 17 February 2004: "Clear Moscow of Chechen Bandits! Muscovites! Nationals! Chechen bandits have become masters in Moscow. We are killed and exploded, and the authorities do nothing protecting the Chechen mafia. It's time to establish order and to evict criminal diasporas and terror accomplices from the city! Come to the national meeting of Muscovites that will take place on Lubyanka Square, at the Solovetsky Stone, at 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. on 20 February (Friday). Don't be indifferent! Do come! The Movement Against Illegal Immigration. www.dpni.org - tel.: 772 94 35. Spread information about the meeting through Internet, forums and guest books. Invite your relatives, acquaintances, friends and colleagues to the meeting." This announcement is also placed in Internet, on the website of the so-called Russian Movement Against Illegal Immigration http://www.dpni.org/news.html#newsitem1076930199,32061. It is quite obvious that the Moscow Prosecutor's Office must react to the provocative actions of the organizers of this meeting. We draw your attention to the fact that this announcement, being widely spread in Moscow, contains the barefaced appeal to break norms of the Constitution and legislation of Russia. Its authors openly appeal to evict diasporas disagreeable to them, which they call "criminal" in addition, from Moscow. In other words, both the appeal to carry out ethnic cleansing and actions aimed at fanning ethnic strife are present. It is quite evident that the authors of the aforecited appeal purposely fan pogrom sentiments in Moscow. It is no less evident that the holding of such a meeting will noticeably worsen the situation in Moscow and can produce mass violent acts on the part of extremist groups. We demand that criminal proceedings against the group of people who arranged and executed the distribution of this announcement in public places be immediately instituted by Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code. We ask to make a prosecutor's examination of the activity of the Russian Movement Against Illegal Immigration extremist organization. We ask to inform us of the decisions that will be made by the Moscow Prosecutor's Office. On behalf of the Council of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" Council Chairman Oleg Orlov Source: Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Moscow, Russia)
Some would like to dismiss Anna Politkovskaya's hard hitting reports from Chechnya as merely anecdotal rather than statistical. But for obvious reasons we have no rigorous, reliable statistics about state-sponsored kidnappings and other atrocities. The conclusions of this veteran correspondent for Novaya gazeta are based on long and intense on-the-spot observation, and they demand to be taken seriously. In a February 12 article, Politkovskaya offered her judgment that the last two months have seen a real change in Chechnya--for the worse. "The end of December and all of January," she wrote, "saw a new wave of kidnappings by 'unidentified, masked gunmen.' For about six months before then there had been a downturn in this sordid business, though people were continuing to disappear. But now it has revived." According to the families of victims with whom she has met, Chechens are now learning how to tell whether a kidnapping was conducted by federal troops or by Kadyrov's gunmen. Choking a victim to death rather than shooting him seems to be a trademark of the latter. Also, wrote Politkovskaya, the federals usually leave no corpse behind. Kadyrov's thugs, on the other hand, "knowing the strict Chechen customs by which the guilt of the murderers is considered tenfold greater if they have not even returned their victims' bodies, usually try to abandon the bodies in places where they can be found." Finally, Kadyrov's men are more likely to make themselves known after a kidnapping so that they can demand a ransom. According to Politkovskaya, the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship has obtained several case files from the Kadyrov administration's interior ministry in which the "presidential security service" was said to have returned kidnapping victims to their families--who then ostensibly refused to file criminal complaints. The files explicitly use the word "ransom." The reality behind these verbal formulations, wrote Politkovskaya, is a standard pattern: "Immediately after a kidnapping by Kadyrov's men, there is a demand for a quick payment for 'handing him over;' if the family doesn't collect the amount required, then the victim is either liquidated or transferred 'to the ROSh,' as it is called." The ROSh is the "Regionalny operativny shtab" or "Regional Operations Staff"--i.e., the main Russian military base at Khankala, just outside Grozny. Once a kidnap victim is in the hands of ROSh, either the sum demanded for his release is sharply increased, or he disappears forever--usually the latter. In the February 11 issue of Moskovskie novosti, Sanobar Shermatova suggested another reason why the Kadyrov administration has chosen to postpone Chechnya's parliamentary elections to the autumn. It's not only that Kadyrov enjoys filling the power vacuum created by the lack of a real legislature, but also that his team needs to do more to make sure that the new parliament will be totally under his control. "Elections for the organs of local government have been scheduled for March," wrote Shermatova, "and it is necessary to fill these bodies with the maximum number of people loyal to Kadyrov. It is these local organs, in turn, which will then have the assignment of guaranteeing the victories in the parliamentary election of the sorts of candidates that the Chechen authorities need." 18 February 2004, Volume V, Issue 07 CHECHNYA WEEKLY: News and analysis on the crisis in Chechnya
Russians ousting international organizations from Chechnya - Chechenpress web site The Russian authorities are trying to oust international organizations and foreign journalists from Chechnya in order to isolate the republic, the Chechen rebel web site Chechenpress has said. The web site stressed that the Russian special services would gain if there were no journalists or members of humanitarian missions in Chechnya because they are the "eyes and ears" of the international community and because the Russian authorities do not want their atrocities to be known to the whole world. At the same time, Chechenpress criticized the UN and European organizations for turning a blind eye to the Chechen problem. The following is a text of Salman Musayev report by Chechenpress news agency web site headlined "Strange humanists - or could they be humanoids?". Subheadings have been inserted editorially: Russian "hedgehog" The UN envoy Jan Egeland, who visited Chechnya and Ingushetia recently, came to a rather strange decision. He said in The Guardian newspaper of his decision to conclude his humanitarian mission here: "It is difficult to speak about stepping up a foreign presence in Chechnya until the release of Aryan Erkel (a member of the Medecins sans Frontieres organization, who was kidnapped in Dagestan in August 2002 - Salman Musayev). We have all closed ranks over this. This is very important." One is tempted to say in connection with the humanitarian's statement: "He frightened the hedgehog with his bare bottom." Such moves by the UN envoy will scarcely affect the Russian "hedgehog", or to be more precise - that is precisely the outcome that Russia is striving for. And if you take into account the fact that the Russian leadership has literally chucked the office of the OSCE [Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe] beyond the Chechen borders, and also closed the office of the special representative for human rights, then the position of the Kremlin-Lubyanka terrorists in relation to international organizations becomes absolutely clear. At first glance the request of the federal minister [for Chechen affairs], Stanislav Ilyasov, that the members of humanitarian missions return to Chechnya smacks of discord, but this is no more than playing to the gallery, for what is happening around Chechnya is more like a show in which the so-called humanitarians have been given a definite role. Plan to isolate Chechnya To strengthen our case, let us recall the content of a very remarkable FSB document entitled "Special measures to neutralize pockets of separatism in the Northern Caucasus", the instructions of which are still being followed by the Russian authorities and its special services in Chechnya and the Northern Caucasus. One section of this strategic plan of the Russian special services clearly states the following: "Stage One - a news isolation of Chechnya. Stage Two - total isolation. The task of Stage One is easily solved - in a poor republic it is not difficult to find people who will want to earn money - as much as possible and straightaway. This can be done with the help of journalists and members of international humanitarian organizations. They must become a bartering tool." It should be clear to everyone why the Russian special services would gain if there were no journalists or members of humanitarian missions in Chechnya. First of all, because they are the eyes and ears of the world community, and a criminal, as a rule, never wants to commit his crimes in the presence of witnesses. Therefore, the Russian criminal authorities would not wish their monstrous atrocities to be known to the whole world. The second act in this bloody drama was thought up long before the second Chechen war, and these "humanitarians" played and continue to play their dirty parts in it. Testimony to this are the thousands of Chechens - when there were no humanitarian missions around - who were hurriedly dismissed from the republican stage by invisible directors, and populated areas of Chechnya were shelled by Russian-made surface- to-surface tactical missiles, including the densely populated capital of Groznyy in October 1999. And what about the firing on the "humanitarian corridors" of refugees on 29 October 1999? What was the reaction of the humanitarian organizations like the UN, PACE and the European Court of Human Rights? None whatsoever! They all kept a deafening silence on what happened, and still do, as if these crimes did not happen. Such a vow of silence! Foreigners becoming personae non grata in Chechnya A seditious thought creeps into one's mind: could these so-called humanitarians be somehow involved in the monstrous crimes in Chechnya? If we are wrong in our surmise, then why has the European Court, which examines over a hundred Chechen cases and tens of thousands of witnesses, still not examined and not issued a verdict on at least one of these cases, if only to disperse any doubts on this? And four (!) years have gone by since these terrible crimes were committed. But still, you cannot hide the truth. The fact of this horror, which cannot be described other than as Russian state terror, has become known thanks to the courage of members of the Memorial human rights centre and those brave foreign journalists who were lucky enough to break through to Chechnya. Who benefits from this silence and why are humanitarian missions and foreign journalists becoming personae non grata in the Chechen Republic? Who will protect the suffering Chechen people from the Kremlin-Lubyanka tyranny? Why is the American journalist Rebecca Santana, who arrived in Chechnya incognito the other day, being deprived of accreditation and even work? Why is Jan Egeland, with the permission of his leadership, closing humanitarian missions in Chechnya, thereby untying the hands of the Russian criminals in and out of uniform? Judy Elbaum, the mother of the American journalist Cynthia Elbaum, who died on 22 December 1994 as a result of a bombing raid by Russian aircraft in Chechnya, explains the situation here: "Democracy and justice will only prevail when the people know the truth. It is only thanks to the bold and decisive actions of journalists that the world can know the truth that a number of governments wish to solve questions by suppressing their opponents. I place above all else the fact that my daughter courageously tried to bring the truth to the people." From Judy Elbaum's quote it becomes clear that those who hold power in the world do not want the rest of the world to know the truth about Chechnya, that the leading countries of the world community, including the UN and PACE, have no wish to solve the Chechen problem. This bloodshed in Chechnya has been going on for over ten years with just brief intervals with their silent consent. Therefore, they do not hear and do not wish to hear the "voice of one crying in the democratic wilderness" of [European MP Olivier] Dupuis, who has been on hunger strike for about a month. I believe that those who hold power in today's world would not change their views on Chechnya even if the cold corpse of the European deputy were to be found tomorrow. They would even be pleased at such a turn of events. So is it worth Dupuis risking his life again? Would it not be better if, equipped with the latest word in military technology, the group of 145 Euro MPs who voted to support their colleague, set off to warring Chechnya to uphold there their priorities by taking up arms against the Russian monster, to whom human language is absolutely alien, and who will only accept crude physical force? I am confident that this action of Olivier Dupuis, and not the hunger strike, would be supported by the whole just world, and the problem of Chechnya would be settled within days, if not hours. Salman Musayev for Chechenpress 16.02.04 Relatives of a detained person turned to human rights people for assistance On February 16, 2004, Luisa Shomkhanovna Soltykhanova turned to theIngush office at the Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship with therequest to assist her in the search for her brother Soltykhanov AnsorShamkhanovich (born on August 15, 1980). He lived in Kulary village ofGrozny rural district of the Chechen Republic together with his parentsat the address 9 Novaya Street. The sister of the missing man told that on January 14, 2004 at 6 amrepresentatives of the force structures of the Chechen Republic and theRussian Federation drove up to the Soltykhanovs’ house in eight «UAZ»cars. Many of them were wearing masks. At that time five people were inthe house: the head of the family Shamkhan Soltykhanov (born 1942), hiswife Zaynap (born 1944), and their three sons Khavazhi (born 1973),Ibraguim (born 1977) and Ansor (born 1980). Khavazhi and Ibraguim wentout of the house to find out the reason of such a visit. Immediately theservicemen aimed their guns at them. Then they searched the Soltykhanovs’ house and the yard. TheSoltykhanovs brothers were detained. However, some time later Khavazhiand Ibraguim were freed. Their younger brother Ansor was taken by themilitary in an unknown direction. During the search in the Soltykhanovs’house representatives of the force structures seized a submachine-gun, agun and a portable two-way radio belonging to Ibraguim Soltykhanov, whois a serviceman of the extra departmental guard. The same day Ibraguimturned to his authorities with the statement that his official weaponhad been misappropriated by the military. Ansor Soltykhanov’s family have started the search for him immediatelyafter his detention. Soon they managed to find out through non-officialsources that he had been detained by the criminal police. On January 12,the Soltykhanovs received unconfirmed information that legal proceedingshad been initiated against Ansor. However, none of the force bodies hasofficially confirmed the detention of Ansor Soltykhanov. The Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship Relatives and attorneys of two Chechens who disappeared in Georgia stage protest Two of the three Chechens who had been released by the Provincial Court, Timur Baimurzayev and Bekkhan Mulkoyev, disappeared three days ago under unclear circumstancces. Their attorneys don't exclude that the hands of the authorities are involved in this matter. If the assumption of the attorneys is confirmed, a serious scandal of international dimensions awaits the Georgian and Russian authorities. And the European Court will impose heavy sanctions on both sides. A delegation of the European Court will visit Georgia on 21 February and thoroughly study all matters connected with the Chechens. After this, they will go to Russia for the same purpose. The attorney of the disappeard Chechens, Lia Mukhashavria, stated that precisely these three arrested Chechens had been seized by Georgian border guards on 4 August, 2004, together with 12 other people near the sentry post of "Girevi". Five of them were later transferred by the government to the Russian Federation without a legal decision, and the spectacular trials of the rest were moved to Tbilisi. The prosecution tried in every possible way to fix absurd charges to the Chechens and to achieve their extradition. The attorneys used all their forces in order to confirm their innocence, and a case against our country was even brought to the European Court. The Provincial Court finally solved their fate. On 6 February, 2004, the judge pronounced an exonerating verdict, but after 10 days they had disappeared somewhere under obscure circumstances. After their release by the court, Temur Baimurzayev and Bekkhan Mulkoyev had stayed in Georgia on our request and the request of their relatives, in order to give evidence to the delegation of the European Court, when it arrived in Tbilisi on 21 February, according to the attorney. In the morning of 17 February, they went to the Ministry for Refugees and Displaced Persons in order to fetch some evidence which refugees had written down for them. But, as it was explained, they didn't reach the ministry. Their family members started a search for them, checked with relatives in the Pankisi Gorge, but without result. There is an assumption that the Chechens didn't disappear accidentally, but became victims of policy. The attorneys suspect that the Georgian special services transferred the Chechens to Russia. The participants of the protest action at the building of the Georgian State Radio intended to leave in the afternoon for the village of Duisi in the Akhmeta district of Georgia, where about three thousand Chechen refugees are living in a concentrated area, and to continue their action at the building of the local administration. D. Kakhidze, Chechenpress, 18.02.04 http://chechenpress.com/news/2004/02/18/23.shtml [Translation by N.S.]
Water supply to Satsita camp of Chechen refugees cut off because of technical reasons The supply of water to Satsita, a camp of Chechen refugees situated in the Ingush village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, was cut off because of technical damage to the water pipe going through the territory of the camp, and it was not a purposeful action. A source at the Public Company for Water Supply and Sewerage (GPVK) told it to the Caucasian Knot correspondent on February 17. "In view of the fact that the Satsita camp will be liquidated in the near future, the equipment repair is considered to be inexpedient," said the GPVK source. To remind, the supply of water to the Satsita tent camp was cut off two week ago already. Neither the migration service nor the administration of the Sunzha district, on the territory of which the camp is situated, has taken any concrete measures to resolve the situation since that time. The UNHCR field office in Ingushetia has arranged the delivery of drinking water to the refugee camp in special tanks, but Satsita inhabitants still have to limit its use. Author: Malika Suleymanova Source: Own correspondent |