Russian authorities have literally buried evidence of extra-judicial executions in Chechnya, according to Human Rights Watch. In a 24-page report, Burying the Evidence: The Botched Investigation into a Mass Grave in Chechnya, the organization documents the Russian government’s botched investigation of a mass gravesite discovered in late February 2001.
This week senior European Union and United Nations officials are preparing for meetings with President Putin in Moscow. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will be meeting Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington on Friday, May 18. Human Rights Watch called on the international community to press Russia at these meetings for a new investigation and for the implementation of last month's U.N. resolution on Chechnya.
"This is powerful evidence of some of the worst abuses in Chechnya," said Holly Cartner, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "This week is a key opportunity for leaders to get some answers from the Russian government about the mass grave, and to demand a serious investigation."
In late February, fifty-one bodies were found in Dachny, an abandoned village less than one kilometer from the main Russian military base in Chechnya. According to the report, of the nineteen victims whose corpses were identified by relatives, sixteen were last seen as Russian federal forces took them into custody. Two weeks later, the authorities buried the rest of the bodies without prior notice and without performing adequate autopsies or collecting crucial evidence that would have helped to identify the perpetrators. The Russian government failed to provide help or resources for the only forensic examiner for Chechnya, whose only tools were a scalpel and a pair of rubber gloves.
Last month the U.N. Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution on Chechnya that condemned serious human rights violations by Russia's forces, and raised concern about forced disappearances, torture, and summary executions. Sponsored by the E.U., and with strong U.S. backing, the resolution called for U.N. special rapporteurs to investigate these abuses in the war-torn republic and for credible criminal investigations by domestic agencies into all human rights and humanitarian law violations. Russia rejected a similar resolution adopted by the commission last year, and refused to comply with its requirements. It has vowed to do the same this year.
"The E.U. and the U.S. took a principled stand against impunity at the Human Rights Commission," said Cartner. "Now they have to follow through and send a united message to Russia that is has to uphold its obligations under the resolution. The commission's credibility and effectiveness are at stake, and justice for the victims hangs in the balance."
Secretary General Kofi Annan meets with Putin today, and the E.U.-Russia summit will open on Thursday; U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will meet with Ivanov on Friday.
Human Rights Watch is calling on all three to urge Russia to:
Exhume the 32 unidentified bodies, conduct thorough forensic autopsies, and make all efforts to establish the identity of the victims and the cause of death;
Investigate fully allegations of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including cases of extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances; prosecute all military and police personnel, government officials and their agents found responsible;
Issue invitations to the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; and
Remove all obstacles to the redeployment of the OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya.
