(Geneva, April 2, 2002) Spanish officials should have serious discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ivanov about Russian abuses in Chechnya, Human Rights Watch urged on the eve of Ivanov's visit to Madrid.
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The Spanish government is a critical part of any effort to hold Russia accountable for atrocities in Chechnya. Now is the time for Madrid to act
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The European Union was the architect of the resolution condemning Russia last year at the U.N. Commission, which is now holding its annual six-week session in Geneva.
"In the case of Chechnya, Russia is thumbing its nose at the European Union and the United Nations," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "As the current president of the EU, Spain cannot let that happen. To maintain their political integrity, Spanish officials must firmly protest to Ivanov about the behavior of Russian troops in Chechnya."
Human Rights Watch released a briefing paper based on more than fifty interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch researchers in December 2001 and February 2002. It describes violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by Russian troops on an everyday basis: arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, summary executions, indiscriminate fire and large-scale looting.
Human Rights Watch said the Chechen rebel forces have also been responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the assassinations of dozens of Chechen civil servants working for the administration established by the Russian government.
"Chechnya is the only place in Europe where civilians are being killed on a near daily basis," Andersen said. "Our research clearly contradicts Russian government assertions that Chechnya is returning to normal. What's happening there is certainly far from normal."
Tracking the conduct of Russian forces in six military sweep operations between August and December 2001 alone, the Human Rights Watch briefing paper documents nine forced disappearances and five cases of the indiscriminate use of force. It analyzes the Russian authorities limited efforts to investigate these crimes and describes the problems faced by internally displaced people in Chechnya's neighboring regions. The briefing paper also describes assassinations and threats against officials and ordinary civilians by Chechen forces.
Among the victims whose cases are detailed in the briefing paper are:
Madina Mezhieva and Amkhad Gekhaev who were machine-gunned from a military helicopter on October 27, 2001, while driving home from a turnip field in Komsomolskoe. The soldiers took these two away alive, and several days later, family members obtained their bodies, both missing limbs, from the military commander's office in Gudermes.
Malika Lalaeva and Raisa Taramova, two children killed during a shelling of Goity on October 28, 2001, when three of the nine shells lobbed into the village hit Lalaev's family house.
Musa Yunusov and Lom-Ali Yunusov, both detained at night on December 9, 2001 by Russian soldiers, who also torched their houses. Five days later, the relatives identified their mutilated bodies among seven corpses dumped in a forest near a Grozny suburb.
Magomed-Emi Alsultanov, Khasmagomed Esuev, Mukhadi Khamzatov, Saidmagomed Mutsukaev, Anzor Ismailov and others, detained by Russian forces and subsequently "disappeared." For months, relatives were trying to get information about their fate from Russian authorities, but never succeeded.
In none of these cases have the authorities taken adequate steps to investigate the abuses. Since the last U.N. commission meeting, the Russian government has claimed to be carrying out criminal investigations into abuses in Chechnya. But Human Rights Watch has analyzed several key investigations, including those into the Sernovodsk sweep "disappearances," the mass grave in Dachny village, and the massacres in Alkhan-Yurt, Staropromyslovskii, and Aldi. Human Rights Watch found that investigators have consistently failed to take basic investigatory steps that could lead to the identification of perpetrators.
The volatile security situation in Chechnya continues to prevent more than 200,000 internally displaced persons from returning to their homes. The Russian authorities pressure them to return to Chechnya, but the majority remains in Ingushetia, in conditions of squalor, insecurity, and uncertainty.
Human Rights Watch is urging the U.N. Commission to adopt a resolution:
Deploring the continued serious violations of international humanitarian law;
Noting Russia's failure to establish a national commission of inquiry or other accountability mechanism;
Noting the absence of any official national or international record of violations committed in the context of the conflict in Chechnya;
Calling on Russia to issue invitations to the relevant U.N. human rights monitors; and
Calling on Russia to invigorate the domestic accountability process.
"The Spanish government is a critical part of any effort to hold Russia accountable for atrocities in Chechnya," said Andersen. "Now is the time for Madrid to act."
