| Russian Rights Activists Accuse EU of
Whitewashing Chechen Reality Created: 08.12.2005 16:44 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:44 MSK, 34 minutes ago MosNews Russian rights activists have accused the European Union of whitewashing reality by giving an optimistic assessment of Chechnya's parliamentary election, Reuters reported. The EU hailed last month's poll, won by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, as "an important step". But in an open letter to the EU, seven rights groups said that such a statement called into question the EU's commitment to human rights. Rights groups have said the presence of Russian troops, and kidnappings and murder by Moscow's proxy forces in the region made a free parliamentary poll impossible. "A policy of whitewashing this reality by the EU, would consolidate Chechnya as Europe's 'forgotten conflict', and ignore the regional security threat posed by the conflict," said the letter, addressed to the British government as president of the EU. Tens of thousands of troops and civilians have died in the 11 years of the Chechen war, but Russia says the conflict is finally ending with just a few separatist rebels left fighting. The parliamentary election on Nov. 27 was designed to give Chechnya the last institution required for it to be governed as a normal Russian region and marked the end of the Kremlin's "peace process". Russia denies its forces have engaged in systematic rights abuses, and says much of the criticism of its policy is an attempt to undermine its rule over the region. "By failing to confront the grave and systematic human rights abuses ... and 'welcoming' the elements of the manipulated and dangerous 'political process' contributing to the present crisis in Chechnya, the UK Presidency of the EU doesn't hold up to its commitments," said the rights groups. "This statement not only contradicts the evidence assembled by the Russian and international human rights community ... but also calls the EU's commitment to human rights, democracy and rule of law into question." The letter was signed by Russian rights group Memorial, the Helsinki Federation, the Russia-Chechen Friendship Society and others including the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights. Friday, December 9, 2005. Issue 3313. Page 3. http://ej.ru/comments/entry/2480/ Appeal by the Non-Governmental Organization "Voice of Beslan" [ NOVEMBER 30 2005, 17:45 ] VOICE OF BESLAN To the President of the United States To the U.S. Congress To the Presidents of the Member Countries of the European Union To the European Parliament To the editorial staffs of all world television companies, information agencies, newspaper and periodical publications which covered the terrorist act committed in Beslan To all Russian journalists who worked in Beslan from September 1-3 2004 To all who feel sympathy for the victims of the Beslan terrorist act! We, former hostages who suffered in Beslan's School No 1, parents of the children who were killed and maimed, appeal to each one of you. We - the citizens of a country which did not protect us during September last year. We - the citizens of a country which is unable to ensure our right to know the circumstances in which 1128 people were taken hostage and through whose fault 331 people died. One year and three months have passed since the terrorist act. We thank all who have rendered assistance to us and shown charity. But if we had realized what a terrible path lay in prospect for us after the little town of Beslan buried more than 300 people, we would have asked you not to transfer money to us, nor to send us medicine and other humanitarian assistance. We would have asked you for nothing except aid in the investigation of the terrorist act. After Beslan, this investigation became the purpose of our lives. After Beslan we learned what it is to be the victim of a terrorist act in Russia. We learned of the agonies the victims of the bombings of the apartment blocks in Buinaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk are suffering in their search for truth, what an inhuman attitude the law-enforcement agencies and executive authorities have shown to the surviving hostages and the relatives of those who were killed in the "Nord-Ost" theatre, to the relatives of the passengers of the people who perished in those two airliners that exploded in August 2004, and the manner in which the inquiry into the Nazran attack, which took place two months before Beslan, is being conducted. It is with horror that we must acknowledge: today terrorist acts have become the most efficient political mechanism in Russia. By means of terrorist acts our government solves its political and commercial problems. We rightfully accuse the present regime of Russia of complicity in Russian and world terrorism. Not one terrorist act perpetrated in Putin's Russia has been properly investigated. Dozens of serious crimes against the peaceful citizens of our country remained unpunished and anonymous. We know nothing of who really ordered the Beslan crime. Of just how the organization and realization of a crime of this scale became possible. Why it was not prevented. Who is to blame for this. We have been asking all these questions for more than year. In response we hear lies. We are forced to live in a country where the public prosecutor's office openly lies and commits official crimes, where the officials give false evidence in court, and during the days of mourning the President himself publicly deceives the mothers and the fathers of the killed and maimed children. To tell lies about 354 hostages - this is the choice made by our President. He finds it easier to show that he is badly informed than to punish his friends – the members of the law-enforcement agencies - for their total incompetence and corruption. We have been forced to search by ourselves for the proofs of the fact that tanks and flamethrowers were used to fire on the Beslan school. We have been forced to prove that the school was fired on when there were there living hostages inside. We have been forced to prove that there were more terrorists, and that many of them are now at liberty. We have been forced to prove that the assault was begun by our soldiers at the very moment when Aslan Maskhadov had agreed to come to Beslan. And our politicians refused to conduct negotiations even to save children. They refused to make use of the possibilities offered by Maskhadov to rescue the hostages. Once again, the principles of Russian authority proved to be more important than human life. We are guilty of having elected a President who solves his problems with the aid of tanks and flamethrowers and gas whose effects are making the former hostages of "Nord-Ost" give birth to defective children. But it is not we who are guilty of the fact that the world's political elite supports our President, who has become the guarantor of criminals. Yes, the western world is faced by a new threat - terrorism. We do not justify Shamil Basayev, the main Russian terrorist whom they have been "trying to catch" for ten years, and we demand that he be brought to justice. But we would like to obtain the expert advice of the foreign special services: are the Russian law-enforcement agencies doing all that they can in order to eliminate Basayev? Do they want this? Is this task being put before them? How long would it take, let us say, the officers of MOSSAD to eliminate Basayev? And how can Mr. Patrushev [head of the FSB] sit quietly in his armchair while at the same time Basayev is blowing up Russia with impunity? Yes, the world is threatened by terrorism. But why does America judge Saddam Hussein, while Russia kills Maskadov? Why in Spain does a president who tells lies commit political suicide, while in Russia he runs for a third term? Why in our country do they kill thousands of hostages along with a handful of terrorists, while Mr. Berlusconi pays the ransom for an opposition female journalist? And the President of France does everything he can in order to free French hostages? Yes, terrorism is a world problem. But if the world goes along the way of infinite cruelty, will not this perhaps be the victory of terrorism? We will become like them. We will become terrorists. Vladimir Putin thinks that this is the correct way. Terrorist acts in Russia are increasing in number. Terrorist acts in which Russian citizens kill other Russian citizens. None of these terrorist acts has been properly investigated. We want to do everything we can in order to change this tendency. We want to attain a juridical assessment of the actions of all the participants in the Beslan events. We ask you for help. We appeal to all who possess information about the Beslan terrorist act. We appeal to the television companies, which are the owners of video materials, and to the journalists, who became direct eyewitnesses of the first explosions which were heard at 13.03 and 13.05 on September 3 and provoked the military operation for the elimination of the terrorists. We ask that this information be put at our disposal, or that those who possess such information shall appear in court to give testimony on behalf of the victims. We appeal in particular to the President of the United States and the U.S. Congress. We know that your country has at its disposal surveys of the Beslan school made from satellites on September 1, 2 and 3, 2004. We ask that these surveys be declassified and delivered to the residents of Beslan for presentation at the trial of the accused terrorist Nurpashi Kulayev. We also appeal to the European Union and the European Parliament, whose members have publicly voiced their intention of conducting an international investigation of the Beslan terrorist act. We cannot demand, but we request support for our efforts to investigate the terrible crime which took away the lives of our close ones. NGO "Voice of Beslan", November 30 2005 Open letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, to the European Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and mass media, to all the organizations for the defence of rights and other organizations social and political, to the political partys and all the mondial community. We are addressing this letter to you in the hope of your understanding and support. During the last few years of the Russian-Chechen conflict our Association has repeatedly turned to the United Nations, European Parliament, PACE and others with the following requests: 1. To take measures in accordance with international obligations to stop the war in Chechnya; 2. To officially recognise gross violations of human rights and freedoms in Chechnya and the legal consequences of this recognition. We have covered thousands of kilometres by foot, embarking on peace marches since the time of the first war in 1994-96, as well as during the second, this inhumane war by one of the strongest world powers against a one million population of the Chechen people. We have carried out hunger strikes, in Istanbul, Turkey in 1995, in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1996, in Strasbourg, France in 2001-2002. We have conducted numerous meetings and much else in the hope of assistance for a just resolution of the Chechen question. However, in response to our legal demands to the European Parliament and PACE, we have received nothing more than an indication as to which Recommendation or Resolution on the Chechen question they have taken which, evidently, have brought neither peace nor stability to the long-suffering Chechen soil, on which for several centuries lies the abundant blood of innocent people and courageous freedom fighters. Considering the Chechen question from a double standard, the UN, European Parliament, PACE and others give the Russian Federation (Russia) military-political forces the opportunity to manipulate the situation in Chechnya and, ignoring the 29th Session UN General Assembly Resolution, to alter the meaning of the term aggression. This affords the RF (Russia) the opportunity to assert that this full-scale war, applying aviation and other forms of heavy technology, the murder of over a quarter of the peaceful population including from 35 to 65,000 children, the hundreds of thousands of wounded and refugees, the ground-level destruction of towns and living areas, the mothers crying for their dead children and the children wandering in vain to find their parents, is an “anti-terrorist operation”, in other words, “an internal affair of the RF (Russia)”. Despite the United Nations having adopted the said Resolution, it has still not clarified whether or not aggression has been committed by the RF (Russia), nor discussed the consequent genocide of the Chechen people, continuing to “believe” that for more than ten years now the RF (Russia) has been annihilating terrorists. It is indisputable that terrorism and the reasons which give rise to it must be fought against as a common evil. But terrorism in Chechnya is staged and conducted at the level of the Russian government, with the aim of realising political, economic and other interests with the blood and suffering of innocent people. This is not just evil, but a terrible evil not only for Russia and Chechnya but for the whole world. And no-one fights against this terrible evil because it acts from a position of cunning and strength. The defenceless Chechen people, abandoned by the world community (which asserts that another’s misfortune doesn’t happen) stand tête-à-tête with a hundred thousand Russian armed forces, butchers and terrorists of various sorts who have no nationality. In spite of all the above and the fact that murders are committed with impunity, abductions, torture, extra-judicial killings and other inhumane crimes against the peaceful population continue to this day, the indisputable fact of gross violations of human rights and freedoms in Chechnya is still not officially recognised. This confirms that not even the first step has been taken in resolving the Chechen question. The infinite pain and suffering (of those who are still alive), not having any guarantee for the next day, having lost family and close friends, their accustomed way of life and hope for some assistance, this does not reach the consciousness of most people who are deluded into believing that there exist terrorist threats from these victims themselves. This explains in large part why the United Nations, European Parliament, PACE and others have not adopted an objective position on the Chechen question and have not fulfilled their international obligations to protect human rights and freedoms. An analysis of the ongoing events affords the opportunity to understand that the military-political forces of the RF (Russia) cannot and do not want to settle the Chechen question for many reasons, a few of which are: an unwillingness to return to the Chechen people the natural resources which belong to them and to restore what is being morally and materially damaged during this unjust war; a desire to avoid punishment for crimes committed against peaceful people and for the death of Russian soldiers thrown into the hell of this needless war and so forth. The situation in Chechnya is directed toward a deadlock. Short-sighted, doomed people from various sides, pitted against one another, use deceit, bribery and power in order to complete the murderous scenario of the Chechen people. It is only possible to change the potentially tragic finale of events in Chechnya through the mediation of international organisations and the world community in accordance with generally accepted norms of international law. In connection with the foregoing, I request, as a first, real step in the resolution of the Chechen question, that you examine the aforementioned demands and create a competent, independent international commission to conduct a comprehensive and objective juridical investigation of the root causes for the origin of the current conflict and of its just resolution. Dismissal of this letter will testify to the fact that there is no sense in waiting any further for assistance and that the Chechen people are doomed to suffering and death. To visually demonstrate these sufferings and condemn your indifference, 10.12.2005 I intend to begin an open-ended hunger strike in front of the PACE building if I do not receive an objective reply. I declare that my suffering and any consequences of this hunger strike will lie, as the sufferings and loss of the Chechen people do, on the conscience of all those who remain indifferent. Said-Emin Ibragimov, President of the International Association Peace and Human Rights Former Minister of Communications of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria IA DAYMOHK 02-12-2005 http://www.daymohk.org/cgi-bin/orsi3/index.cgi?id=18659;section=1n December 2, 2005 Human Rights and the War in Chechnya: A Test for Europe By Chris Stephen The European human rights system is facing a critical test of strength as the Council of Europe prepares to challenge Russia over a series of alleged abuses in Chechnya. Earlier this year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Russia in three cases from the conflict in Chechnya, and dozens more are currently under consideration. The Council of Europe, which supervises the Court, now faces the problem of ensuring that Russia observes its decisions – not only by paying fines but also by holding genuine investigations into abuses carried out by Russian forces. The war in Chechnya has seen reports of war crimes and other violations of human rights by Russian forces on a far greater scale than in any other member of the European Court of Human Rights since the court was set up in 1959. Because Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court, there is no international tribunal that can hear cases against individuals who may be responsible for violations of the laws of war. But the European Court of Human Rights can investigate whether the Russian state is ensuring that the rights of its citizens are respected in the course of this conflict on Russian territory. A Record of Crimes in Chechnya Groups such as Human Rights Watch and the Moscow-based organization Memorial have accused Russia of torture, illegal detention and the killing of civilians during the second Chechen war, which began in 1999. Allegations of abuse increased dramatically after the Russian army surrounded the Chechen capital Grozny in early 2000 and began pounding it with artillery and air power. Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, a human rights official with Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration, admitted last summer that his officials had identified more than 50 mass graves in the republic, and that tens of thousands of civilians had been forcibly "disappeared". Although reports of human rights violations have been widespread, it has taken years for the first cases to make their way through the European human rights system. Under court rules, a complaint must have been ignored by at least two levels of the host country's legal system before the European Court is qualified to look at it. Russia ratified the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998, bringing itself within the Court's jurisdiction. Last February's judgments focused on abuses early in the Chechen war. They represent one of the most significant attempts so far to address crimes committed during internal armed conflict within a framework of human rights law. The most prominent case concerned the indiscriminate bombing by Russian jets of a civilian convoy leaving Grozny in which the children of Medka Isayeva, 51, and her daughter in law were killed. Judges ruled that the bombing interfered with the right to life of the dead and ordered Russia to pay 57,000 euros in damages and 10,926 euros costs. The other cases concerned the use of excessive force against a Chechen village and the torture and killing of Chechen civilians; in these cases too judges found that Russia had failed to protect its citizens' right to life. In all cases, the Court ruled that the Russian state had also failed adequately to investigate the deaths, as required by the right to life provisions of the European Convention. While Moscow can afford the fines imposed, the Court's decision also requires the Russian government to grant redress to the people who brought the cases. The Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers has said that this requires Moscow to demonstrate that it is remedying the shortcomings in effective investigations into these abuses by the security forces. The call for genuine investigations is likely to be contentious. Rights groups say that Russia has refused to look at cases which involve "command level" responsibility. Justice Delayed, Justice Denied? Memorial lawyer Dina Vedernikova said Moscow prosecutors have been slow to answer requests for information on the 30 new cases now being considered by the court. "You have started to get this refusal for all of Chechnya cases," she says. "The problem is that the government refuses to forward the investigative file to the [European] court." Judges have promised to speed things up regarding Chechnya, putting all these on a fast track. But in Strasbourg, "fast track" is a very relative concept. "It means they will be heard in four years, rather than nine," says Ms Vedernikova. The few cases of abuse that have come to Russian courts have faced extraordinary problems, chiefly over the apparent reluctance of juries to convict. One example concerns two soldiers, Yevgeni Khudyakov and Sergei Arakcheyev, charged with killing three Chechen construction workers in 2000. According to prosecutors, the case is cut and dried. The soldiers stopped a bus carrying the men, ordered them to get out and lie on the road. Then each was shot in the head. Last year the case came to trial in Rostov, a Russian town with a strong nationalist tradition. The jury declared the men innocent. Russia's Supreme Court intervened, and ordered a retrial which was again held in Rostov. In October of this year, the soldiers were found innocent again. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has ordered a second retrial in another case, that of captain Eduard Ullman. In January 2002 troops under Ullman's command opened fire on a car with civilian passengers, killing the driver who turned out to be an innocent school director. The survivors, including a pregnant woman, were taken to an abandoned house. But when captain Ullman radioed his headquarters, according to the testimony of soldiers who witnessed it, he was told to execute the survivors. The Chechens were ordered to leave the house, and then shot. Their bodies were put into the car which was set on fire. Captain Ullman and three other soldiers admitted the killings, but said they were following orders. In April 2004 a Rostov jury found Ullman and his subordinates innocent on all charges. In the first retrial, again in Rostov, another jury came to the same decision. The Supreme Court has now ordered a fresh retrial with a jury recruited from across southern Russia, not Rostov. The most publicized case has been that of Colonel Yuri Budanov, accused of abducting and killing an 18-year-old Chechen girl in 2000. The case caused a sensation because the girl had simply been walking on the street when Colonel Budanov, a decorated tank commander, abducted her, drove her to his office, and inside beat her to death. Budanov's first trial found him not guilty by reason of insanity. When a retrial was ordered by the Supreme Court in 2003, he was found guilty and jailed for ten years. Human rights groups say these cases do not go far enough, because none deals with command level crimes. They say the big unanswered question about some atrocities is whether they were approved by the higher-ups. Allegations of a Massacre Most sensational of the 30 new cases being studied by European judges is an alleged massacre by Interior Ministry forces at the village of Novye Aldy, near Grozny, in 2000. On February 4, according to Memorial, a unit of Interior Ministry OMON Special Forces arrived and began asking for papers. The villagers felt they had nothing to fear as rebel units had not been active in the area. What happened next is hotly contested. Memorial says it has sworn testimony that some of the soldiers went berserk. Some began shooting in the air, others demanded money. People who could not produce their identity cards were shot down. One woman, whose statement has been passed to the European Court by Memorial, tells of how soldiers demanded she give them money. She went into her house with one, and then tried to hide behind a water heater, but was discovered by a soldier. He put a gun to her head and she pleaded for her life. The plea worked, but then she heard gunfire and went outside to see relatives shot dead. Next, she heard her husband arriving in the backyard, and shouted in Chechen for him to run away, saving his life. By day's end, say Memorial, more than 80 civilians lay dead. A local human rights investigator videoed the corpses and Memorial conducted dozens of interviews, passing the material to Russian prosecutors. They say prosecutors did nothing. The European Court and the Challenge of Chechnya The European Court was set up to monitor compliance with the European Convention of Human Rights. Its remit is to decide whether states have met their obligation to respect the rights of people within their jurisdiction. The Court can point to impressive victories, notably a string of judgments against Britain over its Northern Ireland policy in the 1970s, Turkey over its treatment of the Kurds, and the Irish government over its discrimination against homosexuals. But Russia is likely to be a tougher test. Firstly, Moscow is at war in Chechnya and is not inclined to risk the morale of its armed forces by probing abuses. Secondly, other states have abided by the Council of Europe's rules because, although it is not connected to the European Union, membership of the Council is essential before accession to the EU can be considered. Russia, however, does not expect to join the EU and EU nations therefore have little leverage over Moscow. The issue of Chechnya has already strained relations between Russia and the Council of Europe. In April 2000, in response to Moscow's offensive in Chechnya, the Council's Parliamentary Assembly suspended Russia's voting rights. But calls for the Council to go further, and suspend or expel Russia were turned down by the Committee of Ministers, a gathering of the foreign ministers of the 56-nation body, which has the ultimate sanction. No nation has ever been suspended by the Council, and members are loath to carry out such a drastic measure. In 2002 the Assembly's human rights rapporteur Lord Judd, a frequent visitor to Chechnya, blamed Moscow for continuing to ignore abuses. In January 2003 he resigned in protest at Moscow's determination to go ahead with a referendum on a new constitution despite the province being too war-torn for voting to be safe. Later that year the Assembly called for the Council to set up an international war crimes court, along the lines of the UN court in The Hague, to look at abuses in the province. But Russia's representative on the Committee of Ministers rejected the proposal. On November 29 and 30 of this year, the Committee of Ministers held a meeting to supervise the compliance of member states with judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. On the agenda was both Russia's obligation to hold genuine investigations into security force abuses, and its failure to cooperate with the Court regarding future cases. This was the second meeting at which the Committee had examined Russia's response to the judgments, and for the second time it did not agree a resolution on the subject. Hardliners believe that the Council must ensure that members comply with the Court's rulings in order to preserve its credibility – and that Russia should ultimately be expelled if it refuses fully to investigate abuses it is found guilty of. Others insist that expulsion will only worsen the situation and remove what power the Council has to moderate the behaviour of a member state. They say that in the past countries have complied with human rights rulings not as a result of public threats but through quiet diplomacy. The gradualists got some encouragement this September, when Russian president Vladimir Putin said on a live TV call-in show that there had been human rights violations by both sides in Chechnya, and that he would work to find out who was responsible. However, the statement comes half a decade after many of these abuses were reported. Since 1999 Chechnya has seen a full-scale armed conflict notable for the brutality with which it has been fought. The European Court of Human Rights has demonstrated that human rights law can provide an effective way of regulating the conduct of internal armed conflict in the absence of any mechanism to apply the laws of war. Now the Council of Europe will have to demonstrate that it has the authority to ensure that the judgments are implemented. Chris Stephen is a freelance journalist based in Moscow. He is the author of Judgement Day: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic. This site © Crimes of War Project 1999-2005 |