Open letter to:
E.U. Heads of State and Government
E.U. Foreign Ministers
High Representative Javier Solana
Commission President Romano Prodi
Commissioners Chris Patten and Pascal Lamy

We are writing in advance of the upcoming E.U. summit with Russia on November 11. The appalling hostage seizure in Moscow has once again thrust the armed conflict in Chechnya high onto the E.U.’s political agenda with Russia. In response to the crisis, the E.U. and individual E.U. governments expressed solidarity with Russia’s fight against terrorism and the need to preserve civilian life in this context. We hope that the E.U. will now encourage the Russian government to establish an independent commission of inquiry to examine, among other things, whether all necessary precautions were taken to provide adequate medical assistance to civilians in the immediate aftermath of the hostage rescue operation.

We also hope that the E.U. will similarly speak with one voice and urge the Russian government to end human rights abuses in Chechnya, perpetrated in the name of fighting terrorism, to commit to a genuine accountability process, and to desist from arbitrary arrest of ethnic Chechens in Moscow.

The need for principled and courageous defense of human rights is even greater, given new military operations currently under way in Chechnya and widespread reports of arbitrary detention and ill treatment of Chechens in Moscow in response to the hostage taking. The Danish E.U. presidency rightly rejected the Russian Foreign Ministry’s attempt to cast the World Chechen Congress, currently under way in Copenhagen, as an event that would compromise Denmark’s obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373. The initiative boldly illustrated Russia’s broader efforts, particularly after September 11, to deflect attention from the political aspects of the armed conflict in Chechnya.

Responding to concerns by the E.U. prior to September 11, 2001, President Putin pledged that Russia would implement certain changes in its policy in Chechnya and would cooperate with international organizations. Both promises remained unfulfilled.

Instead, the Russian government was among the first to seek to exploit the September 11 attacks and their aftermath, suggesting that Europe, the U.S., and Russia alike face “a common foe” that would justify Russia’s abusive conduct in Chechnya. The subsequent muting of criticism by European leaders and the E.U. of human rights violations in Russia allowed the government to enjoy its new role as ally in the global campaign against terrorism and remain confident that it will face no diplomatic or other consequences as a result of its human rights record. The failed U.N. Commission on Human Rights resolution on Chechnya this past spring represented a particularly serious setback in this respect, which we hope the E.U. will do its utmost to prevent from reoccurring next year.

As you are undoubtedly aware, the Russian government continues to give the military in Chechnya a free hand to violate some of the most fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Continuous field research by Human Rights Watch found that the situation on the ground has not improved since the last E.U. summit with Russia in May. Abusive sweep operations by Russian troops continue to result in arbitrary detentions, torture, forced “disappearances,” extrajudicial executions, and large-scale extortion and looting of civilian property. In one particularly egregious case since May, Said-Magomed Imakaev “disappeared” on June 2, 2002, after being detained by Russian servicemen at his home in Novye Atagi, four months after he and his wife had filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights regarding the “disappearance” of their son, Said-Kussein, in December 2000. The authorities have persistently denied any responsibility in the case, claiming in the face of overwhelming evidence of government involvement that rebel forces disguised as Russian soldiers most likely kidnapped Mr. Imakaev.

The international community was quick to laud measures taken by Russian authorities to address abuses perpetrated by its servicemen against civilians in Chechnya, such as the introduction of a new decree in March meant to provide better protection for civilians during sweep operations. But this decree, like one it issued seven months earlier, was simply ignored and thus did not serve to protect the Chechen population.

Russia has clearly failed to demonstrate its commitment to accountability. The majority of investigations into abuses against civilians are suspended without meaningful investigative steps ever being taken. To date, not a single high-level commander has had to answer for atrocities, and the only case of a commander being tried for such crimes, that of Yuri Budanov, has been turned into a political showcase. Meanwhile, Russian authorities continue to ignore requests by the Council of Europe and others to provide a new list of investigations into abuses by Russian servicemen against civilians in Chechnya; a previous list, submitted in April 2001, revealed that more than half of the investigations had in fact been suspended. In “disappearance” cases, 79 percent had been suspended. Not a single investigation concerned torture or ill-treatment.

The Russian government has still not issued invitations to U.N. human rights mechanisms whose mandates cover the core abuses of this conflict – torture, extrajudicial execution and forced disappearances – and has failed to comply with other recommendations of international institutions. In this connection, its recent decision to cancel a long-overdue joint visit to the region by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the Representative of the Secretary General on internally displaced persons is particularly troubling. Russian authorities also continued to impede access to the region for several human rights organizations and independent journalists, thus preventing the Russian and international public from receiving objective information about the conflict. The only international presences in Chechnya are the Council of Europe experts and the OSCE Assistance Group, both of whose mandates expire at the end of the year. While pressing for increased access to Chechnya, it is incumbent that the E.U. make clear to the Russian government that these international monitors belong in the region as long as impunity and abuses against the civilian population persist.

In part to persuade the international community that the conflict in Chechnya is winding down, Russian authorities have started to intensively compel – through a combination of threats and incentives – the return of thousands of Chechen displaced people currently residing in tent camps in neighboring Ingushetia. While publicly stressing that the return would be strictly voluntarily, officials bring significant pressure to bear on the internally displaced, short of overt coercion. Of particular urgency is the Federal Migration Service’s plan to close the tent camp at Aki-Yurt, in northern Ingushetia, by October 31. The Federal Migration Service has given the 2,700 internally displaced people living in Aki-Yurt the choice of either returning to Chechnya, which many fear, renting private space, which most cannot afford, or moving into facilities made available by the migration service that are reported to be uninhabitable.

Human rights violations in Russia are not limited to the Chechnya conflict. Despite the government’s repeated assurances of its support of a free press, independent media outlets and journalists throughout Russia continued to be harassed. Even if the government was not directly responsible for court challenges against media outlets and physical assaults on journalists, it has undoubtedly benefited from the outcome – media criticism of government policies has significantly softened, while journalists and media outlets have found themselves increasingly impelled to practice painstaking self-censorship. In some cases the government seeks criminal prosecution of journalists to intimidate them, and in this regard the security services are particularly active in their pursuit of unfounded espionage charges against journalists and research scientists who expose government malfeasance or collaborate with foreign colleagues on sensitive matters.

One of the most glaring cases of such persecution is that of Grigorii Pasko, who was sentenced in 2001 to four years in a maximum-security prison on groundless charges of espionage. The charges derived from Pasko’s alleged intent to give the Japanese paper Asahi Shimbun hand-written notes he had taken at a closed meeting in the headquarters of the Far East Fleet in September 1997. We believe the charges against Pasko are politically motivated, intended to punish him for articles he wrote exposing corruption in the Pacific Sea Fleet and Russian disposal of nuclear waste in the Sea of Japan, and to intimidate journalists like him who seek to investigate sensitive subjects. The Pasko defense team has argued that their client was convicted on the basis of secret regulations.

We hope that in the E.U.’s dialogue with the Russian leadership, European leaders will call for the release of Grigorii Pasko, and will emphasize that widespread infringements of the media freedom and arbitrariness of security agencies are antithetical to a government that strives to position itself in the international arena as free and democratic.

With regard to Chechnya, we respectfully ask that the E.U. urge President Putin to:

· Provide firm and reliable guarantees that internally displaced persons and refugees will not be pressured to return to Chechnya while threats to life and security prevail, and that their basic humanitarian needs will be met in Ingushetia.


· Demonstrate genuine commitment to accountability by instructing the government to provide the international community, including the E.U., with an updated, comprehensive, and detailed list of criminal investigations into abuses committed by federal forces against civilians in Chechnya.


· Instruct the government to issue long-overdue invitations to the U.N. Special Rapporteurs on torture and extrajudicial executions, and the Working Groups on Arbitrary Detention and Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and commit to a firm schedule for a visit by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women and the Representative of the Secretary General on internally displaced persons.


· Instruct the government to allow unrestricted access into Chechnya for journalists and human rights groups.

Should the Russian government fail to cooperate on the above points, we sincerely hope that the E.U. will be prepared to use the upcoming U.N. Commission on Human Rights to make clear that it is not prepared to bargain on human rights, the recent events in Moscow notwithstanding. The E.U. could play a critical role in urging the Russian government’s respect for human rights, while a failure to seek specific improvements in human rights would leave unchallenged the Russian interpretation of the new international environment as a carte blanche for continued abuses in Chechnya. As the E.U. draws closer to Russia, in solidarity following the Moscow hostage crisis, the choices it makes on Chechnya will be of long-lasting consequence.

We thank you for your attention to these concerns and wish you a fruitful summit meeting.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Andersen Executive Director Europe and Central Asia Division

Lotte Leicht Director Brussels Office

cc:
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of E.U. member states
Ambassadors in Brussels of E.U. member states