Sultygov denounces report of mass killings of civillians in Chechnya

Apr. 15 2003

Probe Promised

VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia (AP) -- Vladimir Putin's envoy for human rights in Chechnya denounced reports of widespread killings of civilians and promised Tuesday that a commission to investigate crimes committed by Russian servicemen and rebel fighters will be established after the region elects a president.

Abdul-Khakim Sultygov described reports from human rights groups and Western media about mass killings in Chechnya as part of a "planned action" aimed to justify efforts among some Europeans to establish an international tribunal for Chechnya, Interfax reported.

Sultygov said a commission to investigation crimes by rebels and Russian servicemen will be set up after a president is elected. "I am confident that the creation of this commission will be the first priority of the republic's president," he said.

Envoy promises investigation of crimes in Chechnya

VLADIKAVKAZ - President Vladimir Putin's envoy for human rights in  Chechnya denounced reports of widespread killings of civilians and  promised Tuesday that a commission to investigate crimes committed by  Russian servicemen and rebel fighters will be established after the  region elects a president.

Abdul-Khakim Sultygov described reports from human rights groups and Western media about mass killings in Chechnya as part of a "planned action" aimed to justify efforts among some Europeans to establish an international tribunal for Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported.

He spoke a day after Human Rights Watch said leaked statistics from Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration showed that 1,123 civilians were killed in the region last year, a murder rate at least 10 times higher than in Moscow. Human Rights Watch said another report showed 70 people were killed and 124 civilians disappeared in the first two months of this year.

Sultygov denied the existence of such government reports and denounced Human Rights Watch. "Rather than a human rights organization, it is an extremist organization spreading totalitarian notions about Europe's democratic values," Interfax quoted him as saying.

Officials in Russia and Chechnya's administration have sharply criticized a call by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights body, for an international war crimes tribunal for Chechnya, saying Russia can prosecute the crimes.

Sultygov said a commission to investigation crimes by rebels and Russian servicemen will be set up after a president is elected. "I am confident that the creation of this commission will be the first priority of the republic's president," he said.

In a March 23 referendum, voters in Chechnya approved a new constitution that solidifies the region's status as part of Russia and legislation setting the stage for presidential and parliamentary elections. No date for the votes has been set, but officials have raised the possibility of holding them alongside Russian elections in
the coming year.

Russian and Chechen officials have called the referendum a step toward peace and stabilization, but fighting and violence against civilians persist.

Over the previous 24 hours, 11 Russian servicemen were killed and 16 others wounded in rebel attacks, firefights and mine explosions, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said Tuesday on condition of anonymity. The official said Russian forces shelled suspected rebel positions in southern Chechnya and detained at least 150 people in search operations.

Federal forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 after a disastrous two-year war that left the separatists in charge of the mostly Muslim region in southern Russia, but returned in 1999 after rebel attacks in neighboring Dagestan and apartment-building bombings in Russian cities that the Kremlin blamed on rebels.

Despite Sultygov's angry comments, an official in Chechnya's government said Tuesday that thousands of civilians have gone missing in Chechnya, and a Russian prosecutor acknowledged that disappearances persist amid an overall drop in murders and other serious crimes in the region.

"Unfortunately, people continue to go missing in large numbers. Some of them have been abducted by rebels," Interfax quoted Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky as saying. Rights groups say Russian troops are responsible for most of the disappearances.

Movsur Khamidov, a deputy Chechen prime minister overseeing security agencies looking for missing people, estimated that more than 2,500 people have gone missing during the two wars, including 1,500 since the current war began in 1999, Interfax reported.

/The Associated Press/ 


Western media reports of mass graves incorrect - Chechen HR envoy

Information on mass graves in Chechnya circulated by Western media does not correspond to reality, Russian presidential human rights commissioner for Chechnya Abdul- Khakim Sultygov told Interfax on Wednesday. Citing documents, Sultygov commented on a recent article published in Le Monde, which referred to alleged crimes against the civil population in Chechnya. Citing a secret report drafted by the Chechen administration, Le Monde claimed there are 49 mass burial sites in Chechnya, in which over 2,800 people are buried.

"The journalists apparently used a Chechen Emergencies Ministry document of February 26, 2002, which did report the sites of burials," he said. According to Sultygov, the document names 30 sites in which from 1 to 5 people are buried. In addition, it refers to the Grozny central cemetery, where 260 people are buried, the cemetery of the 12th Sector of Grozny with 141 graves, and even graves outside Chechnya, for instance, in Dagestan's Khasavyurt," he said.

"There are 13 burials sites in Chechnya in which over 6 and less than 50 bodies are buried," Sultygov said. Identification of human remains from mass graves is underway, he said. "If we count the overall number of bodies set out in the document, we will have 1,590 people, while the article said over 2,800 bodies. Thus, we see that some destructive forces are trying to falsify data even without trying to look into the true state of affairs, or simply count," Sultygov said.

\\Interfax\\