Apr 01, 2003

WASHINGTON - Several people have died at the hands of Russian soldiers who used "indiscriminate force" in civilian areas of Chechnya, the State Department said Monday.

In its annual human rights report, the U.S. agency cited credible reports that federal armed forces had committed extrajudicial killings in Chechnya, and used force at random "in areas with significant civilian populations, resulting in numerous deaths."

The State Department said many civilians were killed in government "mopping-up" operations in the town of Tsotsin-Yurt in January, March and July of last year. The agency noted that human rights observers say no one has been held to account for the deaths of 130 people in similar operations in 1999 and 2000 in Alkhan-Yurt, Staropromslovskiy and Novyye Aldi.

"There were a number of killings of government officials throughout the country, some of which may have been politically motivated, either in connection with the ongoing strife in Chechnya or with local politics," the report said.

Also, "a number of journalists were killed by unknown parties, presumably because of the journalists' work," the report said.

The State Department noted killings by Chechen rebels, most notably two of the hundreds of hostages taken in a Moscow theater standoff last October. A three-day standoff ended with 41 captors and 129 hostages killed, virtually all of them dead from the effects of knockout gas pumped into building.

Chechen terrorists also killed a number of federal soldiers they took prisoner, and several "religious and secular figures" were also abducted and slain in Chechnya, the report said.

The agency also said religious freedom remains an issue, with Muslims, Catholics, Jews and adherents of other minority faiths reporting that they continued to encounter prejudice and harassment.

Muslims, Russia's largest religious minority, were particularly singled out for "discrimination and antagonism," the report said. Researchers noted that President Vladimir Putin has sought stricter, more consistent application of anti-discrimination laws.

Overall, the government "was more active in preventing or reversing discriminatory actions taken at the local level, by more actively disseminating information to the regions and, when necessary, reprimanding the officials at fault," the report said.

/The Associated Press/