U.N. Should Censure Russia
Over Chechnya Abuses. Three “Disappearances” a Week Documented
(Geneva, April 10, 2003) —
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights should adopt a strong resolution
condemning abuses in Chechnya and Russia’s failure to investigate them,
Human Rights Watch said today.
In a briefing paper published today for the commission, Human Rights Watch said
that abuses by Russia’s forces appear to be on the rise. Based on more than
fifty interviews conducted in the region in late March, the briefing paper details
new cases of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, and torture.
The Russian government has not complied with resolutions on Chechnya adopted by
the Commission in 2000 and 2001.
“The Commission cannot turn a blind eye to atrocities that have continued
unabated for three and a half years,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive
director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. “If it
is to uphold its authority and credibility on human rights, the commission has
to take Russia to task.”
During its March mission Human Rights Watch documented the forced disappearances
of forty-four men. Twenty-six of the disappearances occurred between late December
2002 and late February 2003—an average of about three “disappearances”
per week. In all cases, the individuals “disappeared” after being
taken into custody by federal forces. Human Rights Watch also documented five
extrajudicial killings and twelve cases of torture, all of which occurred after
December 2002.
Unpublished government statistics on incidents of violent crimes in Chechnya confirm
the high level of violence there. According to these statistics, which were made
available to Human Rights Watch, in 2002 1,132 civilians were killed in Chechnya,
or between ten and fifteen times the murder rate for Moscow. Another report, providing
crime statistics for the first months of 2003, stated that for January and February
there were seventy murders, 126 abductions, and twenty-five cases in which human
corpses were found. Accompanying the statistics are detailed descriptions of more
than 185 crimes in Chechnya committed in January and February 2003. In thirty-eight
of these, involving sixty-four victims, federal forces are implicated by the involvement
of armored personnel carriers (which Chechens rebels do not use), and of large
numbers of uniformed men speaking Russian without a Northern Caucasus accent.
“Both our research and the official data on crime in Chechnya belie the
Russian government’s claims of normalization in the region,” saidAndersen.
Human Rights Watch said that a commission resolution should call on Russia to:
· invigorate the domestic accountability process;
· publish a comprehesive, detailed list of investigation into abuses;
· issue invitations to relevant U.N. human rights monitors; and
· agree to an OSCE presence in Chechnya with a strong human rights mandate.
Last year, the commission narrowly defeated a resolution on Chechnya. Russian
authorities interpreted the resolution’s failure as a signal that the international
community now endorsed its actions in Chechnya.
“The commission has to stand up for its principles, and say resoundingly
that it does not endorse Russia’s abusive actions in Chechnya,” said
Andersen.
Several cases from the Human Rights Watch briefing paper:
· On the night of January 4, 2003, several dozen masked and armed men,
who arrived on armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles, simultaneously
burst into the Mazhiev family’s three apartments in Grozny. Aishat Mazhieva
told Human Rights Watch that the men took away her husband and youngest son, a
ballet dancer with the “Vainakh” dance group, and her two other sons
who lived in adjacent apartments with their families. Despite numerous attempts
by Mazhieva to find her husband and three sons their fate remained unknown.
· “Malika K.” told Human Rights Watch that on February 16,
2003, a group of about fifteen armed and masked men in uniforms riding in
military vehicles and speaking unaccented Russian took away her two sons, “Kharon”
and “Aslanbek.” The armed men took the brothers to an ad hoc detention
center in Grozny, where they questioned Aslanbek K., beating him with a rifle
butt on his face, legs, and kidneys; they broke his nose in several places with
a heavy metal flashlight. It is unclear when Kharon was killed; on February 17,
the guards loaded Aslanbek K. and his brother’s corpse in a car and
drove them to a an abandoned chemical
plant where they tied the two together, placed them under a large slab of concrete
and put explosives between their bodies. Before leaving, they fired a bullet at
Aslanbek’s head but missed, causing only a superficial wound. Aslanbek K.
managed to free himself before the explosives went off, and return home.
To read Human Rights Watch’s briefing paper on the human rights situation
in Chechnya, please see: http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechnya/