Security Forces Enjoy 'Impunity' for Chechnya Abuses: Amnesty

LONDON, May 25 (AFP) -- Russian and Chechen forces are committing serious human rights abuses in
Chechnya with "virtual impunity", Amnesty International said on Wednesday ( 25 May) in its annual
report.

Chechen armed opposition groups were also responsible for abuses including bomb attacks and the
Belsan hostage-taking in September in which more than 300 people were killed, the influential
London-based rights group said.

There were also serious human rights issues in Russia as a whole, Amnesty warned.

"Torture and ill-treatment in places of detention continued to be reported throughout the Russian
Federation," it said.

"Attacks, some of them fatal, on members of ethnic and national minorities and on foreign
nationals were reported in many regions but convictions for racist attacks were rare."

The main focus in the Russia chapter of the rights groups annual report was Chechnya, where Moscow
has struggled militarily since 1994 to snuff out an independence movement.

"Serious human rights violations continued to be committed in the context of the conflict in the
Chechen Republic, belying claims by the authorities that the situation was 'normalizing', Amnesty
said.

"The security forces enjoyed virtual impunity for abuses."

Abuses frequently reported included killings, torture and people disappearing, the group said,
adding: "Many of the abuses occurred during targeted raids by Russian federal and Chechen forces."

The perpetrators of such crimes were not being punished, Amnesty added, highlighting a case in
April when a court in Rostov-on-Don found four members of a Russian military intelligence unit not
guilty of the murder of six civilians in Chechnya, despite the four admitting to the killings.

In Ingushetia, which neighbours Chechnya, the human rights situation deteriorated, notably
following an attack by a Chechen armed opposition group in June, Amnesty said.

For Russia as a whole, Amnesty noted concerns about a curtailment of civil and political rights,
for example the decision in December by the Duma to abolish elections for the governors of the
regions, who would in future be appointed by the president.

Ethnic minorities also faced persecution, particularly Roma, the report said.

"Roma were targeted by police in St Petersburg and subjected to racist attacks in other parts of
the country," it said, criticising police actions more generally.

"Police routinely used torture and ill-treatment to extract confessions. Investigations into
allegations of torture or ill-treatment were rare and often inadequate, contributing to a climate
of impunity.


24.5.2005

Chronicle of militia misdeeds: hiding crime and extorting bribes

Investigations by the state office of the Russian Public Prosecutor have revealed that in the
Kostromsky region, the local inspector for the ministry of internal affairs had been bribed to
terminate ongoing criminal cases. In 2004, law enforcement bodies in the Voronezh region
whitewashed a total of 1,819 crimes, while in the Vologda region the figure was 2,105 for the same
period, and another 602 in the first three months of this year. Recent months in Sverdlovsk and
surroundings saw 1,747 cases prematurely closed. Thus it is not the militia serving the interests
of society, but the other way round.

The Kostromsky regional court sentenced Sergei Yakushev, an inspector for major crimes at the MIA,
to two years imprisonment at a penal colony for accepting a bribe. In addition, he has been
deprived of the right to work as an inspector in law enforcement bodies for a further two years.
At the end of January, the inspector had ordered a certain Andrei Shasherin to come to his office
and demanded 10,000 roubles for the termination of a supposed criminal case against him,
threatening him otherwise with arrest. Shasherin gave him 8,000, with which the inspector was
subsequently caught red-handed.

The minister of internal affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev has reprimanded the regional MIA head,
Alexander Dementyev, for numerous infringements concerning the registration of crimes. The area
saw 1,819 crimes or supposed crimes covered up: these including robbery, rape, bodily harm, and so
on.

At a police station in Voronezh, a citizen registered his having being abducted and car taken.
While the victim’s statement was registered, no investigation was opened.

Also in Voronezh, a district inspector, wanting to remove traces of a crime, destroyed a statement
taken from a Madagascar woman who had been robbed of her handbag, documents and money. He rewrote
the statement of the victim, in which she had apparently found her handbag after all. The
inspector, a certain Sarana, was sentenced for exceeding his powers and forging a statement.

The general prosecutor for the central federal district opened a criminal investigation, citing
abuse of official powers. The accusation concerns the large number of dubious crimes in the
Voronezh region: quoted are 2,199 for the year 2003; 1,819 for 2004; and 391 for the first quarter
of 2005. The report testifies that citizens’ rights are grossly abused with regard to the
registration of crimes, statements from the victims, and the subsequent investigations.

In particular it was noted that officials from the local MIA deliberately misinterpreted rules of
service for personal gain, with the aim of creating an image of well being at work, abusing
official powers, and organising affairs with subordinate structures so that crimes were never
registered. Thus constitutional laws protecting citizens and allowing them access to justice were
essentially broken.

During 2004, 2,105 crimes in the Vologda area were not registered, with a further 602 in the first
quarter of this year. According to the prosecutor, 26 members of the militia, including 3
department heads, are to be brought to account. The prosecutor has charged three militiamen with
non-registration of serious crime: in this case that of robbery.

In Cherepovets, some 300 decisions to close investigations were overturned by the public
prosecutor. Many statements taken by the militia had been ignored.

In the Sokolsky district, the militia shelved an investigation into the stabbing of a man. Workers
at the public prosecutor established that the attack was caused by the man’s wife, and not, as
according to the militia, by “having fallen on a knife”. A criminal investigation has been opened.

In the Sheksninsky district the prosecutor annulled a decision by a fire inspector to close a
case, and has brought charges against a man for setting fire to a car.

Further north, in the Murmansk district, 381 crimes are under investigation, and 37 members of the
militia are being brought to account. 3 officers have been charged with wrongly closing criminal
cases.

The first four months of this year saw 30 criminal cases opened in the Sverdlovsk district. The
militiamen are charged with abusing their positions: again concerning taking statements from
victims and registering crimes. 230 militiamen are involved, and 1,747 (supposed) crimes under
investigation.

The Serov town court sentenced a head of a branch of the GRU in the town to two years
imprisonment, and his deputy to eighteen months, for forging documents and exceeding official
powers.

On 17 August last year, a militia station received a report from a first aid station about
injuries received by a lady, named Khotya. Although evidence of a crime was apparent, the victim
was persuaded to sign a blank sheet of paper ostensibly for the purpose of proceeding with
investigations. Afterwards, the sheet was filled in with the explanation the woman had been
injured in a fall.

Then a false report on the place of the incident was made and a false eyewitness account was
concocted. Thus the victim had supposedly received her injuries by falling in the garden, and a
case was not opened. The public prosecutor has opened a criminal case, however, concerning
robbery.

Dmitri BELOMESTNOV Translated Michael Garrood

http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/articles/2005/5/24/32335.html


Russia to appeal soldiers' acquittal

Wednesday, May 25th, 2005

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - Military prosecutors said Wednesday they would seek a new trial for
four members of an elite military intelligence who were acquitted of killing six civilians in the
breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya, officials said Wednesday.

A lawyer for the victims' families told The Associated Press they also planned to contest the
innocent verdict, which has prompted protest rallies in Chechnya and criticism from the region's
Moscow-backed Chechen leaders.

A captain and three subordinates were acquitted of murder charges last week by a jury in the
southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. That trial itself was a retrial of an initial acquittal
for the four in the case.

The defendants are accused of killing six civilians who were riding in a truck that passed their
position in 2002. They claim they were acting on superiors' orders.

Nikolai Titov of the Military Prosecutor-General's Office said prosecutors would appeal to the
Russian Supreme Court for a new trial.

Lyudmilla Tikhomirova, the lawyer for the victims' families, said she also will seek a reversal of
the verdict.

"We consider that the acquittal is not fair and we will seek a review of our case," she said.

Russia has seen only one other high-profile trial of servicemen accused of killing civilians in
the two separatist wars that have wracked Chechnya since 1994.

Human rights groups claim Russian soldiers and Chechen security forces frequently act with
impunity, killing, abducting and intimidating civilians in Chechnya.



eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 24/5/2005

Children killed in clean-ups, says Versiya

Versiya newspaper has investigated two "special operations to capture rebels" in which two
children have been killed in Dagestan: Sumaya Abdurashidov, 6, and Kerim Tadzhutdinov, 3.

Two men came to Ruslan Abdurashidov on 14 February this year. His wife, Zulpa Abdurashidov,
invited them to stay for a night at their place, the newspaper says.

At night, Zulpa woke up because she heard military two-way radio sounds. She says armed people in
camouflage uniforms broke into the room. Zulpa remembers Ruslan asking the armed people not to
fire because there were children in the house. However, the policemen opened fire exactly on the
nursery. The police also used explosives, according to Zulpa.

Sumaya died of a shrapnel wound in the head. Her father, Ruslan, was arrested at the same time,
charged under Article 316 of the Russian Criminal Code for resetting rebels who it was explained
to Zulpa the people were who had stayed for a night at her place.

After numerous grievances to the district, republican and federal prosecutor's offices and
personally to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the Abdurashidovs received a notification that
read, "Your complaint has been sent to the Khasaviurt district prosecutor's office." However, they
did not know what conclusions the prosecutor's office arrived at.

District prosecutor Rezvan Gajimagomedov agreed to talk to Versiya and said an examination of the
six-year-old girl's death had already been conducted. However, it turned out no separate
investigation into the child's killing had been carried out, but Sumaya's death had been treated
as an episode in the investigation into the destruction of the two rebels. The prosecutor's office
made a conclusion the girl was killed by an F-1 grenade one of them threw.

The prosecutor added that the "rebels were especially dangerous" and that they had one handgun
with them, aside from two grenades. However, according to Versiya's information, even 2.5 months
later an examination of the place where Sumaya had died gave an understanding of what had
happened: the place where Sumaya's bed had stood was right opposite a breach in two adobe walls,
each 0.5 m in diameter. A grenade could not have caused such breaches. The weapon that killed the
girl was more powerful and the rebels had no such weapon, in the newspaper's opinion.

The publication emphasises there are no reasons to believe the policemen killed the child
deliberately. Sumaya died because they conducted a usual military clean-up instead of an adequate
detention operation. Prosecutor Gajimagomedov agreed the qualification of the police officers was
insufficient, but he also said, "Those rebels, Salman and Ruslan Yangisbiyev, had killed police
lieutenant Magomedov on 31 December. Now the dead child's parents weep, but what did they think
about when they let them in?"

In the opinion of the prosecutor, Abdurashidov knew that rebels stayed at his place that night.
"These people had more than once stayed at the imam's," prosecutor Gajimagomedov maintains, "he
has confessed he knew everything well."

"We also have some other evidence: the Yangisbiyevs killed and robbed a police officer. They sold
his mobile phone to a resident of Solnechnyi, Khasaviurt district. We found that resident and
seized the phone, but we had nothing to arrest him for. So it was him who told the imam then that
the phone he had bought from his friends Yangisbiyev turned out to have belonged to the killed
policeman," the prosecutor added. Thus, the "especially dangerous rebels and terrorists" turned
into usual robbers, Versiya says.

A similar case occurred in Khasaviurt on 5 April, the newspaper says. Three-year-old Kerim
Tadzhutdinov was killed in a special operation. A bullet hit him in the head, while his mother was
wounded in her leg.

It became known later local Dagestani police in cooperation with their Chechen counterparts had
been storming a flat opposite Said Tadzhutdinov's flat where rebels had been reported to stay. The
words "Police, open up!" led to someone shooting from that flat through the door. The police
officers opened fire in response, too. The gunmen were destroyed in several minutes, but
three-year-old Kerim from the opposite flat was killed with them.

The fact of Kerim's death is investigated by the city, not district, prosecutor's office, but no
separate case has been opened. Instead, it is examined as part of the case of the destroyed
rebels. The investigation is not finished yet, so the city prosecutor refused to speak about its
results.

However, the lawyer to whom Said Tadzhutdinov has applied, a former police officer himself, has
told Said, "The case has actually been closed, they have decided your son was killed by a bullet
the bandits fired which broke through their door and your door and hit Kerim. The examination led
to establishing the police officers had not fired in the direction of your flat."

Three bullet holes can be seen on the balcony of Said Tadzhutdinov's flat. These bullets were
fired from the yard of the house where the police were. The rebels did not get into the yard, they
were destroyed right in the flat. Said says these bullets were fired at him when he called for
help, Versiya reports.

These were not the only shots from the yard. Bullet marks can be seen in the entrance hall
starting from the second floor. This means the police did not simply fire at the windows of the
rebels' flat, but also at the entire entrance hall. However, Kerim was killed in the anteroom
where bullets could not hit from the street.

In January this year, a special operation to capture rebels was conducted in the capital of
Dagestan, Makhachkala, during which tanks destroyed two houses where the rebels were hiding and
partially destroyed another 20 buildings nearby. The owners were promised compensations. The
republican Ministry of Emergencies was in charge.

The owner of house no 65 in 3rd Magistralnaya St, Magomedrasul Akhmedkhanov, says he was offered
10,000 roubles as compensation. He refused to take this amount because the windowpanes alone he
had to replace cost 60,000 roubles.

Those whose houses were destroyed completely received 800,000 roubles each. This is approximately
$25,000. They can now reconstruct the foundation and a part of the ground floor for this money.

Dagestan's Ministry of Emergencies says they have compensated everything "according to the
established standards in state prices as of 2000."


May 26th 2005 · Prague Watchdog

Mopping up operations in Gudermessky district

By Ruslan Isayev

CHECHNYA – For the past two weeks mopping-up operations have been carried out in the Gudermessky
district by Russian special services and the so-called "kadyrovites", i.e. units under command of
the Moscow-backed Chechen Vice-Premier, Ramzan Kadyrov.

In the village of Engel-Yourt, located near the border with the neighbouring Dagestan, four young
men were taken from their homes at dawn and arrested. One of the men, Ibragim Beskayev, was freed
after two days by the efforts of a relative who works in one of the law enforcement agencies in
Gudermes. Relatives claimed that Beskayev had been beaten.

The location of the other three - Ibragim Kakhidov, Ibragim Iskhadzhiyev and Khamid Suleymanov -
is unknown although mediators are busy trying to get them released.

Meanwhile Ruslan Alkhanov, the Moscow-backed Interior Minister of the Chechen Republic, told the
media that five guerrilla fighters under field commander Ahmet Avdorkhanov were arrested in
Gudermessky. Alkhanov refused to give out their names, adding that large quantities of explosives
and ammunition in their possession had been confiscated.

Translated by Mindaugas Kojelis.

www.watchdog.cz



eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 25/5/2005

Forced disappearances continue in Chechnya

Eight unidentified men armed with automatic weapons abducted a local resident in Chechnya's
Achkhoi-Martan district, a source with the Chechen Internal Affairs Ministry told RIA Novosti.

According to him, a local woman applied to the Achkhoi-Martan District Division of Internal
Affairs on 24 May. She said eight men in camouflage uniforms and with automatic weapons had on
that night broken into her house, led her son out and brought him away without indicating the
destination.


PRESS-RELEASE #1293 FROM MAY 23, 2005

Reports from the Chechen Republic

Grozny rural district. Special operation is carried in Starye Atagi village to detain people on
suspicion of being involved into actions of unlawful armed groups

On 18 May 2005 at about 2 pm representatives of the federal force agencies in cooperation with the
service personnel of Grozny police office and the Chechen OMON blocked up one of living quarters
in Nuradilov Street in the village of Starye Stagi of the Chechen Grozny rural district. According
to local people, the force agencies carried a special operation to detain people participating in
the armed resistance to the federal forces. Crossfire started between servicemen of the force
agencies and a group of Chechen combatants. Two combatants and a Russian soldier were shot dead in
the clash. In addition, a shell hit a household belonging to a local teacher V. Mezhidov. Mezhidov
is a disabled person. The house caught fire and burnt up. Another local resident A. Taramov was
detained in the operation on suspicion of being combatants' accomplice. (From our correspondent)

Shali district. Kidnapping of a little child in the town of Argun

On 16 May 2005, a little son of Bagaeva Ellina Yusupovna was kidnapped in the town of the Argun.
Bagaeva lives there at the address 25 Sakhzavodskaya Street. The woman thinks that it is her
husband who has kidnapped the child. Having no legal possibilities to keep the child, the man took
the son away to an unknown destination. (From our correspondent)

Grozny. A resident of Grozny reports disappearance of her son

On 13 May 2005 Gaytukaev Khamzat Azamatovich (born 1973) left his flat situated at the address
Grozny 67 Krasnoznamyonnaya Street ap.12 and never came back home. The Information center at the
RCFS received this information from Belkharoeva Leyla Razhapovna, the mother of the disappeared
man. As of the present moment, there has been no information about the whereabouts and the fate of
Gaytukaev. (From our correspondent)


PRESS-RELEASE #1294 FROM MAY 23, 2005

REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK


A male corpse is discovered in Grozny

On 18 May 2005 in Grozny local people discovered a male corpse not far from house No23 in
Khrustalyov Street. The corpse bore no evident signs of violent death. The police managed to
identify the dead man as Saidov Movsar Bachalovich (born 1955), a resident of the village of
Bolshie Varandy of the Chechen Shatoy district. (From our correspondent)

Abduction in Grozny

On 16 May 2005 at about 7 am a group of armed people consisting of twenty men, reportedly
representatives of some unidentified force agency, abducted Movsaev Temirlan Sayd-Khasanovich
(born 1970). Bella Sayd-Khasanovna Movsaeva, the sister of the disappeared man, reported his
abduction to the Information center at the RCFS. (From our correspondent)


PRESS-RELEASE #1295 FROM MAY 23, 2005

REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK

Grozny. New facts of presenting false applications to receive compensations for dwellings
destroyed in armed operations are registered in Chechnya

May 19, 2005. On May 18, 2005 the service personnel of the Department on Combating economic crimes
at the Interior Affairs Ministry of the Chechen Republic established eight cases of presenting
false documents on never-existing households with the purpose of receiving compensations for
households destroyed in armed operations. An anonymous source in the Interior Affairs Ministry
reported it to the Information Center at the RCFS. The additional audit is being carried out now.
(From our correspondent)

Shali district. Two servicemen of the “Vostok” battalion are found killed in Belgatoy

On 18 May 2005 at about 1.30 pm two male corpses were discovered not far from a bus stop in the
village of Belgatoy of the Chechen Shali district. The corpses bore numerous bullet wounds at the
backs and heads. The police carried initial investigation into the crime and identified the killed
men as Muskhadjiev Islam Suleymanovich (born 1983), a resident of Argun town, and Khaladov Il'as
Khaybulaevich (born 1978), a resident of Gudermes district center. Both men were servicemen of the
“Vostok” battalion that is part of the Main Intelligence Service at the Defense Ministry of the
Russian Federation. (From our correspondent)

Shelkovsky district. A resident of Grebenskaya settlement became victim of unidentified criminals

On 17 May 2005 the police servicemen discovered a male corpse bearing signs of violent death three
kilometers away to the East from the settlement of Shelkovskaya. There were bullet wounds in the
area of his chest. The police identified the murdered man as Alimbekov Nazarbek Saytbekovich (born
1955), a resident of the settlement of Grenbenskaya where he lived at 6 Sadovaya Street. (From our
correspondent)


PRESS-RELEASE #1296 FROM MAY 23, 2005

REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK

Grozny rural district. Abducted resident of Starye Atagi village is released the same day after
being beaten

On 16 May 2005 at about 8 pm in Starye Atagi village of the Chechen Grozny rural district
unidentified armed people abducted a local resident Zakaev Magomed Ruslanovich (born 1980) and
drove him away to an unknown destination. According to the testimonies of some eye-witnesses,
Zakaev's “Zhiguli” car was blocked by a “Gazel” mini-van in which the perpetrators were riding.
Having dragged Zakaev into the mini-van, the perpetrators disappeared to an unknown destination.
They also seized Zakaev's car.

Some local people made an attempt to prevent abduction. They intervened into the situation but the
perpetrators made people back down threatening them with arms.

The man was released the same evening. He told that he had been kept at RUBOP office in Grozny
where he was subjected to beating up. (From our correspondent)


PRESS-RELEASE #1287 FROM MAY 17, 2005

REPORT FROM THE CHECHEN REPUBLIK

People keep disappearing in Chechnya

On 7 May 2005 in the village of Starye Atagi of the Chechen Grozny rural district unidentified
armed people, reportedly representatives of some force agency, detained a local resident M.
Khamidov. They drove him away to an unknown destination. As of the present moment, Khamidov's
relatives know nothing about his whereabouts and his fate.

On 8 May 2005 a group of Russian military that arrived at the village of Starye Atagi of the
Chechen Grozny rural district riding in seven armored personnel carriers, an UAZ (“tabletka”) car
and a “Gazel” minivan detained a local resident M. Artsuev. Some hours later the man was released
from Grozny rural district police office situated in the city of Grozny.

In the beginning of May 2005 an Astamirova, a female resident of the village of Starye Atagi,
disappeared without any traces left. Her relatives told that she had gone to Grozny on business.
Nobody has seen her since that. (From our correspondent).