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PRIMA News 21.6.2004 13:45 MSK Defenders of human rights merge with activists The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has presented an unusual initiative: Each human rights organization will have an employee of the central ministry attached to it, who will become acquainted with material collected by these human rights organizations on wrongdoings by the various militias and act on it. This initiative was presented in an interview with the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Alexander Chekalin. In the coming days, the minister appointed for human rights questions, Vladimir Lukin, and the Minister of the Interior, Rashid Nurgaliev, will sign a memorandum on this. According to Chekalin, several human rights organizations have already agreed that an officer of the Interior Ministry be attached to their organizations. As reported by NEWSru.com the representative of the Moscow Helsinki committee, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, considers “positively” the plan of the Interior Ministry to assign an operative to each organization. The present initiative of the Ministry of the Interior is not the first attempt to put public organizations under the control of the state. The idea of uniting defence employees with human rights activists fits perfectly with the concept of constructing a rigid system of vertical authority and controlled democracy. It is possible to assume that human rights organizations who had welcomed Mr. Putin at the Kremlin would agree to close cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior. These human rights activists would be given eased terms of existence and a guarantee of safety in exchange for their loyalty and readiness to compromise. It is completely inexplicable why, as a reaction to militia abuses, it is necessary to have one officer from the Interior Ministry at each human rights organisation. In fact the militia and other divisions of the Interior Ministry are anyway obliged to react to statements and complaints from both activists and common citizens. Obviously, militiamen attached to human rights organizations will be not so much officers of communication between these organizations and the government, but “peeping toms”, agents of influence. Certainly they will help the human rights activists in some ways, but these activists will pay for this with their loss of independence and reputation. For others it is a question already decided. Many known human rights activists will now be part of the Russian President’s Commission on Human Rights: for which officer of the militia could be worse than the president? A new public phenomenon is appearing: human rights corruption, where organizations dedicated to protecting human rights are united with the organizations breaking them. Alexander PODRABINEK eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 21/6/2004 Refugees undergo purges in Ingushetia At daybreak on June 19, officers of Chechen security agencies conducted a special operation in the place of compact residence of Chechen refugees situated of the territory of a bread-baking plant in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia's Sunzha district. As reported by inhabitants of this refugee center, gunmen in masks, who did not introduced themselves, detained a 30-year-old resident of the village of Tangi-Chu and took him away in an unknown direction. His family name is being ascertained. "At about 5 a.m., we woke up to a woman's cries. The sound of automatic fire was heard close to us. I run out into the street but wasn't able to make anything out. Gunmen in masks were dragging a half-clothed man. He was covered with blood and offering no resistance, but the military men kept on beating him. In response to our indignation, the men in masks threatened that they would come back to take us," Sultan Musayev living in the refugee center said to the Caucasian Knot correspondent. Refugees report that similar "purges" were conducted in some other places of Chechen refugees' compact residence on the territory of Ordzhonikidzevskaya on June 19. According to unchecked information, three people were also detained in the refugee center on the territory of a tinned food factory and in the Rassvet refugee center. No exact information on the people detained in these temporary accommodation centers is available so far. Author: Malika Suleymanova, CK correspondent Source: Caucasian Knot Wednesday, 23 June 2004 Russian Repression Triggers Backlash In Ingushetia By Liz Fuller Local commentators are virtually unanimous in their conclusion that this week's guerrilla raids on strategic targets in Ingushetia in which around 90 people were killed were the deliberate response to the Kremlin's policy. In the two years since Moscow engineered the election of former Federal Security Service (FSB) General Murat Zyazikov to succeed Ruslan Aushev as Ingushetia's president, the republic has suffered a steep economic decline attributable, some analysts claim, at least partly to Zyazikov's failure to combat corruption and mismanagement. Even more crucial, over the last year, Russian and Chechen Interior Ministry and special forces troops have engaged in the indiscriminate killing or abduction of Ingush civilians. Rashid Ozdoev, a senior official from the Ingushetian prosecutor's office who sought to investigate and put a stop to such abductions, has himself disappeared without trace and may have been executed. What is not clear is whether, as some analysts have hypothesized, a faction within the Russian leadership deliberately sought, for whatever arcane or venal reasons, to extend the ongoing "antiterrorism" operation from Chechnya into neighboring Ingushetia, or whether the most recent Caucasus crisis is simply the product of inefficiency and lack of insight into conditions in the latter republic. Those inclined to lend credence to the former interpretation have suggested that the Kremlin's ultimate objective may be to create a case for either reincorporating Chechnya and Ingushetia into a single republic, or creating a much larger territorial-administrative unit in the North Caucasus within the framework of a broader streamlining of the Russian Federation that would reduce the number of federation subjects by up to two-thirds. Eyewitness reports of the raids cited by the independent ingushetiya.ru website suggest that the fighters were overwhelmingly young Ingush men, members of a battalion commanded by Magomet Evloev, aka Asadullah, which is subordinate to radical Chechen field commander Shamil Basaev. Asadullah reportedly warned last September that unless the ongoing murders and abductions in Ingushetia were stopped, Ingushetia could become a second Chechnya. Basaev warned in a statement last week (http://www.kavkazcenter.com/russ/article.php?id=22307) that his men were preparing for a major operation that would inflict considerable military and political damage on federal forces. Writing in "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 23 June, one Russian journalist pointed out that the tactics used in the 21-22 June raids replicated those Basaev used in his attack on Grozny in 1996. Most Russian officials, however, have identified the raiders as ethnic Chechens plus the usual imputed Afghan and Turkish mercenaries, allegedly operating at the behest of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. Maskhadov's official representative abroad, Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Akhmed Zakaev, released a statement on 22 June in which he described the attack as a "popular insurrection" triggered by Russia's "blind [and] suicidal" policy in Ingushetia, in particular the wave of killings and kidnappings of innocent civilians. Zakaev did not, however, specifically absolve Maskhadov from any role in the incursion. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2004 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 21/6/2004 Women's meeting in Chechnya suspended The women from the villages of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya who blocked the Rostov-Baku federal route to protest against recent detentions of their fellow-villages suspended their protest action on June 19. It happened after Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Khizir Tepsayev had come to the scene and addressed the protestors. He assured the women that all groundlessly detained residents of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya had been released. The last three detainees are held by the Chechen police and will be released soon too, he said. Having been given evidence that 25 out of 28 detained people were really free, the women decided to wait until the release of the other three people. Besides, details of the purges in Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya which led to the protest action have become known. On June 15, at about midnight, gunmen came in two Uaz cars to take three Sernovodsk residents, Ayndi Mazayev, Magomed Nakayev and Ruslan Paraulidze. The gunmen start to beat the young people. Ayndi lost consciousness, and the attackers decided he wad dead. They stopped the beating and took away Nakayev and Paraulidze. To all appearances, they decided to come back to take Ayndi Mazayev's body. But he had regained consciousness and managed to get home by that time. Early in the morning of June 16, gunmen rushed into the Muzayev family's house. Ayndi's relatives say the people who rushed into their house were Chechens. They did not even demand that Ayndi show his documents. Ayndi's parents followed the abductors after awhile. They heard a single shot in approximately twenty minutes and found the bloody body of his son soon afterwards. Editors note: See also the article "Chechen women block federal route". Source: Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship 22.6.2004 Meeting broken up in Grozny and “Kadyrovtsy” cause chaos CHECHNYA, Grozny. (News Centre ORChD). On the 17 June Urus-Martana Khazman Muskhanova, a 57 year old resident of Grozny, spoke of the chaos caused by former members of Akmat Kadyrov’s security service following the break up of a meeting on 2 June near the Government buildings in Grozny. On 22 April her son, Adam Muskhanov, went outside and disappeared without trace. After a long time spent searching she found him at the Regional Department for the Struggle against Organized Crime in Grozny. He had been so badly beaten that she did not recognize him. Adam Muskhanov has still not been released, despite his mother’s claims that he is not guilty of any crime. On 1 June, while her son was still missing, Khazman Muskhanova heard an announcement on local television that lists of the missing were to be made public on the 2 June at No 4, Bogdan Khmelnitsky street in Grozny. The lists however proved to be out of date, and the 300-350 relatives of the missing made their way to the Government buildings to protest about the kidnappings and extrajudicial killings in Chechnya. According to Khazman Muskhanova, after three to four hours of standing outside the Government buildings holding placards and photographs of those who had been kidnapped no officials had come out to speak to them, then members of the security services arrived including the “Kadyrovtsy” in several cars and two buses. After surrounding the protesters they began to beat them with clubs and rifle butts, dragged them into buses and took them away to the town of Gudermes. Khamzan Muskhanov along with about 70 other women were imprisoned by the Kadyrovtsy in their own prison. In the cell were another seven young people in a very bad condition, having been beaten, emaciated and showing signs of being tortured. According to one of them they had not received food and water for more than a day, and when he appealed to the guards they opened the cell door and with the words “Who here wants to drink?” began to beat him with clubs and the butts of their rifles. Then he was dragged outside onto the street and beaten again before being returned to his cell covered in blood. When the women, most of whom were not young, asked to be given water, the “Kadyrovtsy” brought urine in a cup. Later using obscene language the Kadyrovtsy lead away a young pregnant woman, who had been taken into custody, to a booth next door to the prison. From the booth a woman’s screams could be heard which were so loud that many in the prison cell felt sick. Two days following her detention Khamzan Muskhanov was the first to be released thanks to the efforts to find her of a well-connected relative from Grozny’s. She heard one of the guards being asked over the radio about her, but he said that she was not there, however, Khamzan Muskhanov was later freed. PRIMA News Agency [2004-06-18-Chech-12] Jun 23 2004 9:10PM Russian senator says Amnesty International report biased STRASBOURG. June 23 (Interfax) - Head of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev described Amnesty International's latest report on the situation in Chechnya as "superficial and biased." "Unfortunately, the report says nothing to condemn terrorism in Chechnya - the main violation of human rights in that region," Kosachev told Interfax in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Kosachev is the leader of a delegation from the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, to the June session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). On Wednesday, under the initiative of Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, the situation in Chechnya was discussed in Strasbourg. The Russian delegation was represented by Chechen delegate Akhmar Zavgayev. The parents of Elza Khungayeva, a young Chechen woman, killed in 2002, have also arrived in Strasbourg to take part in the session. "Russia is prepared to hear and take note of constructive recommendations, instead of seeing these tendencies of shaking fists at us - I understand the report this way," the Russian senator said. "In general, the report described the situation in Chechnya as an armed conflict which 'has been going on for nearly five years,'" he said. "Moreover, the report does not call terrorists by their proper name and describes them as 'armed opposition groups.' I think this is tantamount to aiding the terrorists," Kosachev said. Jun 22 2004 6:52PM International Helsinki Federation concerned about attacks in Ingushetia MOSCOW. June 22 (Interfax) - The International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights and the Moscow Helsinki Group have issued a joint statement concerning the armed attacks in Nazran and other towns in Ingushetia. The two organizations "are deeply concerned about the armed attacks on government buildings in Nazran and other towns in Ingushetia, which have resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties," reads the statement circulated in Moscow on Tuesday. At the same time, the two organizations expressed concern that the reaction of the Russian forces to this attack will be disproportionate and in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. "These attacks represent a serious escalation of the ongoing armed conflict in Chechnya. Like a tumor, the conflict has been spreading to the neighboring regions," Tatyana Lokshina, programs director of the Moscow Helsinki Group was quoted as saying. The statement also quotes Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights, as saying that "the Russian authorities' response to these attacks in Ingushetia must not descend to the levels of brutality witnessed in Chechnya." "The IHF is further concerned that the attacks by Chechen fighters in Ingushetia may fuel a conflict between the ethnic Ingush and Chechen population," the statement reads. Jun 23 2004 5:05PM Chechen official dismisses human rights advocates' concerns GROZNY. June 23 (Interfax) - Chairman of the Chechen State Council Taus Dzhabrailov has described as groundless concerns aired by human rights organizations about a possible conflict between residents of Ingushetia and Chechens in the wake of the recent guerilla attacks on Ingushetia. The International Helsinki Federation and the Moscow Helsinki Group on Tuesday issued a joint statement to air their concern over the guerilla raid. "The International Helsinki Federation is also concerned over a possible conflict between the ethnic Ingush and Chechen populations that could be sparked by the Chechen guerilla attack on Ingushetia," the statement said. Dzhabrailov told Interfax on Wednesday that "the authors of the statement are not aware of the situation either in Chechnya or Ingushetia, and the document they issued cannot play a positive role." "The Helsinki Group's concerns are just wishful thinking. There have never been and cannot be any confrontations between the Ingush and Chechens," Dzhabrailov said. "This is virtually the same ethnic group, with common roots and common religious beliefs, traditions, and way of life," he said. Jun 23 2004 1:35PM Chechen leadership does not want OSCE mission GROZNY. June 23 (Interfax) - The Chechen leadership does not see the need for an OSCE mission to resume work in the republic, Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov told Interfax on Wednesday, commenting on a report on human rights observance in Chechnya published by Amnesty International. "We have already gone through this, and we don't see any necessity for an OSCE mission to return to Chechnya," he said. "Once appearing in Chechnya, OSCE officials start to raise the issue of some negotiations with illegal armed formations. Moreover, the guerillas then begin to feel themselves as a political force and try to air their demands through the OSCE mission," he said. Dzhabrailov emphasized that there will be no negotiations with the guerillas, which is "the firm position of the country's leadership, and the Chechen authorities fully approve of it." International organizations could provide humanitarian, economic, and other aid to Chechnya, Dzhabrailov said. "There could also be significant assistance if they make the governments of the countries included in the OSCE curb the financing of illegal armed formations in Chechnya," he said. He admitted that nobody questions the fact that the situation in Chechnya has not yet stabilized, and the Chechen leadership has never denied disappearances of people. "Nobody in Chechnya hushes up abuses committed by servicemen," Dzhabrailov said. "All these facts are characteristic not only of Chechnya or Russia, but they also happen in any country," he said. <> http://www.newsru.com/russia/24Jun2004/ingush.html (my quick tr) Unknown people wearing masks with dogs carried out zachistki in the camps of refugees in Ingushetia In the camp of Chechen refugees Altiyevo near Nazran (Ingushetia) some unknown people wearing masks and with dogs conducted a zachistka on the 23rd of June, reported on the of Ekho Moskvy radio station camp's director Ms Raisa Isayeva. According to her, about 3PM those people suddenly surrounded the camp; "were breaking the doors from the barracks, demolishing things, they threw male refugees on the street, undressed them, placed downward on the face, put their passports on their backs  - in this state the people had been kept for 20 hrs". These unidentified people "were selecting persons, took them to the laundry room, and beat them up". Isayeva described that, until now in the hands of these unknown people are 34 persons, among whom are 15- yrs old teenagers. Those inhabitants of camp, who were let go, "ran away to their relatives, and haven't returned to the camp" - she noted. In the town's office, where the women from Altiyevo camp turned up they "got no information, and were chased away". On 24 June they brought a crane to the camp, removed a transformer, cut off electricty to the camp, turned off gas, cut out and took away section of pipes";. These unknown people in masks, she reported, demanded in 2 days to vacate the territory under threat of burning down of the camp. Women from Altiyevo turned to deputy assistant of administration for matters of migration in Ingushetia, but he stated that "can't help"; and "if there are threats - it is necessary to go home to Chechnya" "We don't have any place [to live there}. We decided to turn to all organizations, which protect the rights of citizens with a request to move us into other regions of Russia" - reported Isayeva. An ultimatum to vacate within 2 days and to leave Ingushetia has also got inhabitants of the Logovaz camp - refugees reported. Ingush Refugee Camps Raided, Refugees Beaten — Radio Created: 24.06.2004 16:52 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:10 MSK, MosNews Masked men raided a Chechen refugee camp near Ingushetia's Nazran on Wednesday, Ekho Moskvy radio reported, citing camp superintendent Raisa Isayeva. Isayeva cited numerous abuses, such as beatings, unlawful detentions, and instances when men were taken outside, forced to undress, and held on the ground face down for several hours. According to her, 34 people, including several 15-year-olds, are being held by the attackers. On Thursday, electricity, water, and gas were cut off from the camp, and the refugees were ordered to leave the territory of the camp within two days or it would be burnt down, Isayeva told the radio station. Attempts by the refugees to get information from the local authorities were unsuccessful — after receiving a complaint from one refugee, an Ingushetia migration official reportedly advised her to "return home to Chechnya," adding that there was nothing he could do. Another camp nearby was also reportedly threatened, Isayeva said. This comes after reports from the region's plenipotentiary, Vladimir Yakovlev, that Monday's rebel attacks in Ingushetia, which claimed nearly 100 lives, involved mostly local residents of Ingushetia.