MOSCOW - Russian human rights activists Tuesday criticized what they called inadequately
light punishments meted out to Russian soldiers for crimes committed against Chechen
civilians.
Human rights organizations accuse Russian troops of systematically kidnapping,
torturing and killing civilians. Officials, including President Vladimir Putin,
have repeatedly pledged that all crimes in Chechnya, including those committed
by servicemen, will be punished.
But Memorial, a prominent Russian human rights group, said those promises have
so far been empty.
"It seems that the absolute majority of soldiers allegedly punished for crimes
against the peaceful population are only punished symbolically, if at all," the
group's head, Oleg Orlov, said at a news conference.
By June 2003, military courts had opened 177 cases against Russian servicemen,
and 52 Russian soldiers had been punished for crimes committed in Chechnya, Orlov
said. Those numbers do not match what human rights groups believe to be the scale
of the problem, he said.
Of the 52 servicemen convicted, only 19 have been imprisoned, the majority of
them for murder, he said. Twenty-four soldiers, including some convicted of rape,
were given suspended sentences. Three were given immediate amnesties and two were
fined.
"How can Chechen civilians hear about this sort of judgment and seriously believe
the statement that all criminals, no matter from which side, will be punished?"
Orlov said.
Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya following a devastating 1994-1996 war that
left separatists in charge, but they returned in 1999 after Chechnya-based militants
invaded a neighboring region and the Kremlin blamed rebels for apartment-building
bombings killed 300 people in Moscow and other cities.
Despite Kremlin assurances that normality is returning to the region, and a recently
declared amnesty for rebels who agree to disarm, fighting continues on a daily
basis with losses on both sides.
Over the past 24 hours, at least 10 Russian soldiers were killed and 14 injured
in rebel artillery attacks, fire fights and mine explosions, an official from
Chechnya's Moscow-backed government said on condition of anonymity.
Four rebels were killed - two during a clash with Russian forces near the village
of Galashki across Chechnya's border in the neighboring region of Ingushetia -
the official said.
Also on Monday, a security official in Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, Rudnik
Dudayev, said political opponents of administration chief Akhmad Kadyrov had organized
the recent arrest of Kadyrov's son, Interfax news agency reported.
Zelimkhan Kadyrov, an officer in the Chechen Interior Ministry, was detained several
days ago in the southern Russian town of Kislovodsk, for alleged hooliganism involving
weapons, officials said Tuesday.