Rights Group Blasts Russia on Chechens

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSCOW (AP) -- A human rights group charged Monday that government figures show dozens of Chechens disappeared or were killed in the first two months of this year, contradicting Russian claims that the breakaway republic is returning to normal.

The group Human Rights Watch said the statistics -- allegedly prepared by the pro-Moscow administration in Chechnya and obtained from a government source -- reveal that the civilian population continues to be terrorized.

The documents show that 1,123 civilians were killed in Chechnya last year, said Anna Neistat, head of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch. In the first two months of this year alone, 70 civilians have been killed and more than 100 have disappeared, according to one document obtained by the group.

Chechnya's Moscow-appointed leader Akhmad Kadyrov, along with several other Chechen officials, denied the existence of the crime data and questioning the figures, according to Russian news reports.

But a Chechen administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said federal authorities were leading a hunt to expose who leaked the statistics.

The Kremlin has claimed that stability is finally returning to the republic, which has been engulfed in lawlessness since the breakup of the Soviet Union. But in the last 24 hours, five Russian soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in rebel attacks, the Chechen official said.

Neistat told a Moscow news conference that human rights abuses have persisted but the methods have changed. She said fewer people disappear during much-criticized ``mopping up'' operations in which Russian forces search for rebels among the civilian population.

Neistat said that now when Chechens disappear, they are usually seized in their homes by masked gunmen who burst in late at night. Many are never seen by relatives again.

The leaked crime reports give detailed descriptions of crimes but do not assign blame, Neistat said. Human Rights Watch suggested, however, that much of the evidence points to federal troops.

``These people are arriving in groups of 10, 20, or 30 so it is difficult to imagine that in an area controlled by Russian soldiers, such a large group of rebels could move securely around,'' Neistat said.

The respected Russian human rights group Memorial said it recorded 537 abductions last year.

``It is criminal not to seriously investigate these incidents,'' Neistat said.

In one case cited by Human Rights Watch, masked gunmen burst into three Grozny apartments belonging to the Mazhiev family on the night of January 4. The men arrived in armored personnel carriers, which Chechen rebels do not have, and seized Aishat Mazhieva's husband and her three sons. Nothing has been heard from the men since.

Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Human Rights Commission to adopt a resolution condemning Russia, and urged the government to set up a body to investigate alleged abuses by both federal forces and Chechen rebels.