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(quick tr. by M.L.) Freed hostages are taken away by the local FSB ingushetiya.Ru, 18.06.2004 13:30 Those two inhabitants Of ingushetia who were freed yesterday and whom a group of agents of special unit GRU was attempting to move into Chechnya, were at night taken away by employees of UFSB of Ingushetia. One of the hostages - inhabitant of Karabulak - Medov, had time to connect with his relative over the telephone and described that after seizure by that GRU unit and FSB, they were beating him up and demanding from him to take responsiblity for his alleged participation in the attempt on President RI Murat Zyazikov's life. From Medov's words, the attackers placed him in the vehicle's trunk, and when the machine drove up to the Kavkaz checkpoint, he succeeded to open the trunk's lid and with his cries for help attracted attention of the Ingush policemen who stood on the checkpoint. Only after arrival to the checkpoint of the whole group of the Sunzha ROVD and Karabulak GOVD policemen, who blocked the vehicles with the hostages, the GRU agents were forced to return Medov and another abducted person into the hands of Ingush police Russian Soldiers' Mothers Ask U.S. Congress for Help Created: 18.06.2004 13:46 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:55 MSK, MosNews Representatives of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia addressed the U.S. Congress on Thursday, calling on moral support for the Russian organization in its struggle to uphold conscripts' rights. This event was held under the auspices of the Helsinki Congress Commission, while the visit was organized by the U.S. Department of State and financed by different local funds, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. A source in the committee's Moscow office told MosNews that most of its representatives were in Washington, and declined to give any details on the trip. Addressing the Congress, the leader of the National Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, Valentina Melnikova, and chairperson of the Nizhny Novgorod Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, Natalya Zhukova, called on the American Administration and Congress to render them moral assistance. They also expressed disappointment with a recent statement by U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry, who reportedly said nuclear security was a higher priority than democracy in U.S.-Russian relations. "There can be no security in Russia without democracy," Itar-Tass quoted Valentina Melnikova as saying. Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov had said recently that Russia has no plans to abolish military conscription — under which every Russian male between the ages of 18 and 27 may be drafted to serve in the army for two years — despite talks in the past years of creating a professional army. Meanwhile, the Russian Army is seen as neglected and in disarray — in a typical case last year, 100 conscripts caught pneumonia after being forced to stand outside in sub-zero temperatures for hours. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 18/6/2004 Human rights groups file proposals for Chechnya to Administration Yesterday, on June 15, representatives of a number of Russian public organizations - Sergei Kovaliov, chairman of the Russian Memorial Society and a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group; Oleg Orlov, chairman of the board of the Memorial Human Rights Center; Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of the board of the Memorial Human Rights Center and chair of the Civic Assistance committee; Tatiana Lokshina of the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Demos center; and S. Davidis of the Antiwar Club - presented “Theses on proposals for the search of ways of settlement of the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic.” These theses were passed by the nongovernmental organizations in the second half of May to the Administration of the Russian president, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and the delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that had visited the Chechen Republic. Below is the text of the document. 1. The death of Akhmat Kadyrov has again posed the problem of searching for ways of settlement of the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic, not only to the Russian leadership but also to the entire Russian society. 2. The question of government in the Chechen Republic is the most important aspect of this problem. The government in Chechnya must be shaped on the basis of the will of the population of the Chechen Republic. It is in the process of expressing this will that the people of the Chechen Republic should have the chance to make a choice of the future for Chechnya. 3. The referendum on the Constitution of the Chechen Republic and the following election of the president of the Chechen Republic went along with such massive violations of the rights of voters and were so non-free that it is impossible to speak seriously about any legitimacy of the Constitution in effect currently and the government shaped on its basis. 4. There is a need to search for possible ways out of the legal and political deadlock that has taken shape in Chechnya. The ongoing armed conflict claims new and new lives, destroys human destinies and has an extremely negative influence on the political and social life throughout Russia. 5. The most desirable and consistent solution would be the long way of a multistage negotiating process between the president of Russia (or his representatives) and the president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (or his representatives) on a cease-fire and development of an algorithm for determining the future status of Chechnya; creation of interim government agencies and a following referendum on the status of Chechnya or an election of some kind of constituent body. 6. However, on account of many reasons this most desirable way can hardly be implemented at present. The steps we propose are therefore inevitably of a half-and-half, compromising nature. If there is minimum good will proceeding from the Kremlin though, they could be put into practice. 7. The need to shape a new government in Chechnya gives the Russian leadership some chances to begin to implement a political settlement in Chechnya which may not be optimal, but still possible. Chechnya should elect a parliament and a president. Unlike the previous elections, these must be honest. Pressure of the executive on voters, bribery and so on must be left out in the course of these elections. 8. The current situation in the Chechen Republic leaves no chances that such elections, if they are conducted within the period indicated in the Constitution of the Chechen Republic, will be freer and fairer than the previous ones. 9. Russia's central government must postpone these elections. There is the only chance for that - declaring a state of emergency in the Chechen Republic. There are all reasons to declare one in the republic in accordance with the law “On emergency.” 10. The emergency period must be used by the Russian government to prepare actual conditions in the Chechen Republic to conduct honest elections there. This requires taking comprehensive measures: * announcing a wide amnesty to all members of the armed units that oppose the federal forces in Chechnya. The only condition to deny someone such an amnesty is his having committed grave crimes against civilians, prisoners and forcibly kept people. An attempt on the life of representatives of government agencies must come under the amnesty. The president of Russia guarantees personal safety to those people who lay down arms as part of the amnesty and appoints his special representative to control the amnesty process and ensure the safety of the people who have passed the amnesty; * preparing conditions for all political forces in Chechnya (including supporters of Chechnya's independence) to be able to carry out peaceful agitation in support of their platforms in the process of the following election campaigns. Separatism as such, unless it is connected with violence and propaganda of ethnic or religious hatred, cannot be considered a crime; * involving as many observers from various international organizations, including human rights organizations (the OSCE, UN, COE, EU, nongovernmental organizations) in monitoring the situation in the Chechen Republic; * organizing the beginning of a roundtable dialogue between all political forces in Chechnya; * reinforcing prosecution agencies in the Chechen Republic, toughening the responsibility of prosecution and policing agencies for investigating crimes, including those committed by law enforcement and security agencies with regard to civilians; * conducting an audit of the make-up and the activities of various Chechen law enforcement and security agencies and bring their activities strictly in line with Russian legislation; * implementing a series of socio-economic measures, in particular launching full-scale work on the clearing and reconstruction of Grozny, completing the payment of compensations, providing people with building materials; * organizing staged return to Chechnya of those its residents who are ready to back. In doing so, pressure of any kind on internally displaced people with the purpose of making them return to the Chechen Republic must be absolutely excluded. 11. The state of emergency will be canceled only when the international observers from the UN, OSCE, COE, EU and other major international and inter-state organizations come to a conclusion that conditions for conducting honest elections in Chechnya have been established there. 12. All political forces intending to take part in the elections sign an agreement on rejection of attempts to settle political issues by force on condition that the federal government meets the obligations it undertakes; they pledge to respect the choice of the people of Chechnya whatever it is. In particular, supporters of independence for the Chechen Republic undertake to seek to achieve their goals peacefully in the event of their victory. 13. New electoral commissions are set up involving representatives of all political forces in Chechnya on a broad scale. New electoral registers are drawn up. 14. The president of Russia undertakes on behalf of the federal government the following: * not to try to provide assistance to any political force in the process of the election campaign and the election, * to respect the choice of the people of Chechnya whatever it is, * to launch dialogue with the supporters of Chechnya’s independence to develop, in the event of their victory, mechanisms for determining the future status of the Chechen Republic. 15. The Chechen Republic elects the leadership: first the parliament and then the president. 16. The federal government and the new political leadership of the Chechen Republic begin talks on signing a treaty on the distribution of authority or mechanisms for determining the future status of Chechnya. Source: Memorial Human Rights Center (Moscow, Russia) eng.kavaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 18/6/2004 Chechen refugees fight for survival The ceremony to close the last tent settlement in Ingushetia was conducted on the territory of the former camp for Chechen refugees Satsita on June 10, 2004. Representatives of the Human Rights Center Memorial attended the action and asked head of the Russian Interior Ministry's migration department in Chechnya Asu Dudarkayev whether additional temporary accommodation centers would be organized in Chechnya for newly arrived internally displaced persons (IDPs). "A compact settlement equipped with services and utilities has been organized in the destroyed village of Bamut for families who expressed a wish to return to the Achkhoy-Martan district of Chechnya. Panel houses have been allotted to these families. Administrative and public buildings from the tent camp Satsita - a bath-house, a school and a mosque - are being removed there too," Mr Dudarkayev answered. The head of the Chechen migration service also assured Memorial's representatives that no dwelling tents would be in Bamut. On June 12, Memorial's activists visited Bamut. They found two tent camps, altogether 25 tents, on the territory of the completely destroyed village. Only men live in the camps because they are not suitable for families. There is no supply of electricity, gas and water to the village. The nearest settlements where one can buy foodstuff or be given medical care, namely the village of Assinovskaya in the Sunzha district of Chechnya and the village of Achkhoy-Martan, are situated 10 and 8 kilometers away from Bamut. Tents leak when it rains. There is nothing to heat them with as there are no furnaces. Besides, it is dangerous to chop firewood in the nearest forests as they were mined during hostilities in 2000-2001. The problem of IDPs is well hidden from the observers and press after the closure of tent camps in Ingushetia. These people have to fight for survival in rough conditions of submountain Chechnya by themselves now. Source: Representative Office of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Nazran, Ingushetia) eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 18/6/2004 European Court to hear six complaints from Chechnya On September 23, 2004, the European Court of Human Rights will conduct hearings of six complaints from Russian citizens resident in the Chechen Republic that concern some developments in the armed conflict in the North Caucasus. These complaints were lodged in April and May 2002, assistance in doing paperwork provided to the applicants by lawyers from the Memorial Human Rights Center. The complaints were declared to the government of Russia in August 2000. Correspondence on these cases through the court between the representatives of the applicants and the representative of the Russian government continued in 2000-01. On December 19, 2002, the court passed a decision recognizing all these complaints acceptable. Kirill Koroteev, a lawyer from the Memorial Human Rights Center, acts in court on behalf of the complainants along with Professor Bill Bowring of London Metropolitan University (starting from the summer of 2002). Human Rights Watch, the international human rights organization, in particular Human Rights Watch Moscow office director Diderick Lochman, provided assistance to the Memorial Human Rights Center in preparing the complaints and correspondence with the court. Below are brief accounts of the six complaints. They are consolidated into three cases and will be heard simultaneously. The first case unites the complaints from Magomed Akhmetovich Khashiev and Rosa Aribovna Akaeva. The complainants’ relatives became victims of extrajudicial executions, torture and cruel and degrading treatment on the part of Russian service men during some “clean-ups” in the Staropromyslovskii district in Grozny, Chechnya, in January 2000. The bodies of the first complainant’s brother and sister and his two nephews, as well as the second complainant’s brother, were found with sings of gunshot wounds. In spite that courts in Ingushetia established the fact of death of the complainants’ relatives in February 2000, no legal action was taken until May. Investigation was then repeatedly suspended, resumed and again suspended. The second case includes the complaints of Medka Chuchuevna Isaeva, Zina Abdulaevna Yusupova and Libkan Bazaeva. These complaints concern an air attack on a column of refugees trying to leave the Chechen Republic. The tragic event occurred on October 29, 1999. On that day, having learnt that there was a “corridor” for leaving for Ingushetia, thousands of people decided to use that opportunity. However, the check-point on the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia turned out to be closed. Hundreds of vehicles with refugees stood on the highway in a column for a long time, but then they began to turn back to go along the Rostov-Baku highway towards Grozny. However, the column was suddenly attacked from air near Shaami-Yurt. Tens of people were killed or wounded. The first claimant’s two children and daughter-in-law died, the second claimant sustained a serious wound and the third claimant complains of a mental shock and destruction of her family's assets. Legal action on the fact of the people’s death was also taken only in May 2000, and it was later abandoned for lack of crime in the pilots’ actions. The third case contains the complaint lodged by Zara Adamovna Isaeva about developments in a bombardment of Katyr-Yurt in early February 2000. In late January that year, the federal command conducted a top secret special operation for having Chechen rebel units out from Grozny. Chechen commanders were misinformed that the rebels could allegedly simply buy from the Russian military a safe pullout from Grozny to the mountains along a certain route. They paid the pullout, but in reality minefields, prepared in advance, were awaiting the gunmen at the end of the way. Federal artillery and aircraft struck the villages along the route. The Chechen units sustained significant casualties, but civilian casualties were even higher. The complainant’s son and her three nieces died under attack. An investigation carried out by the prosecutor’s office coincided in its results with the investigation into the second case. The Russian government insists that the complainant’s relatives died as a result of the use of force that was absolutely necessary. Investigation into this case was also abandoned for lack of crime in the actions of the military command, the pilots and the artillerists. In these cases, the complainants refer to Article 2 (“the right to life”) and Article 3 (“prohibition of torture") of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as well as to Article 13 (“the right to an effective remedy"), with the exception of Libkan Bazaeva complaining that Article 1 (“protection of property”) of Protocol 1 to the Convention was violated. They contend the Russian troops unlawfully killed their relatives and subjected them to inhuman treatment, while the prosecution agencies did not conduct a due investigation. On September 23, 2004, the European Court of Human Rights will conduct hearings of these cases. The representative of a complainant will be speaking the first 30 minutes and the representative of the Russian government will be speaking the next 30 minutes. The judges will then ask questions to the representatives of the parties, after which a ten-minute break will be announced. When the break is over, the parties will have ten minutes each (in the same order) to answer the questions of the judges and the arguments of the other party. When the hearings are over, the court will start its deliberations. The final decisions will be passed later, the parties and the public to be notified of the date when they will be passed beforehand. Source: Memorial Human Rights Center (Moscow, Russia) |