Russia uses death squads and torture in Chechnya, says
Amnesty
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
24 June 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=534594

Russian forces in Chechnya were yesterday accused of
operating South American-style death squads which
routinely target innocent civilians.

With the backing of local militia, Russian troops were
also accused of running unofficial torture centres
known as "filtration camps" and of routinely
committing war crimes and human rights abuses "with
total impunity."

The allegations, in a harrowing report from Amnesty
International, included claims that Russia's occupying
forces indulge in the systematic rape, torture and
kidnapping of innocent civilians. Very few of the
perpetrators have been brought to justice, the report
said.

Amnesty claimed its findings contradicted the Russian
government's claim that the situation in the
strife-torn republic was "normalising" and accused
Russia of failing miserably to live up to its human
rights obligations. "In spite of claims to the
contrary by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen officials,
the situation in the Chechen republic is far from
normal."

The report also accused the international community -
and the United Nations in particular - of being soft
on Moscow and of producing only "muted" criticism of
abuses in Chechnya since the terrorist attacks on New
York in 2001.

Giving credence to claims that the Chechen conflict is
spilling over into other parts of southern Russia,
Amnesty said that similar abuses were starting to be
perpetrated by Russian forces in neighbouring
Ingushetia. Amnesty noted that at least 34 people had
simply disappeared in Ingushetia between September of
last year and March of this year and drew attention to
an incident in which a Russian helicopter gunship had
fired its rockets at a civilian car killing two of its
occupants.

While the report also criticised Chechen separatist
rebels for human rights abuses and for the targeting
of policemen and government officials, the majority of
its findings focused on Russian troops and the
Moscow-backed local militia run by Ramzan Kadyrov, son
of the republic's murdered president. "Russian federal
and security forces continue to carry out human rights
violations such as extra judicial executions,
'disappearances', arbitrary detentions, ill-treatment
and torture, including rape, with impunity," the
report said. "Women have increasingly been targeted --
a number of women described to Amnesty International's
representatives how they were tortured, including with
electric shocks, and raped in detention."

The report quoted the author and human rights
activist, Sergei Kovalev, who used the phrase "death
squads" to describe perpetrators of such abuses.It
highlighted the discovery in April of nine
gunshot-riddled bodies of local men in a ravine after
they had been detained by federal forces and of the
bruised lifeless corpse of Aslan Davletuakaev, a human
rights activist, in January. People who dared complain
about their treatment to the European Court of Human
Rights in Strasbourg had come in for particular
intimidation and violence, the report alleged.

Amnesty also claimed to have received "credible and
consistent reports" of secret unofficial detention
centres known as filtration camps, one of which is in
Grozny, the Chechen capital.

There was an account from a man called Akhmed Gisaev
of having been held in such a facility where the walls
were spattered with dried blood. He claims he was
"kicked, beaten with batons and fists, burnt with
cigarettes and suffered electric shock torture on his
right hand and foot." He was, he said, also deprived
of food and sleep and made to drink alcohol, forbidden
for a practising Muslim.

An Amnesty representative, Mariana Katsarova, also
alleged yesterday that Imran Ezhiyev, head of the
Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, had been detained
17 times and suffered torture, including having his
teeth filed.

But Taus Dzhabrailov, chairman of the Moscow-backed
Chechen State Council, was dismissive of Amnesty's
report. "Nobody in Chechnya hushes up abuses committed
by servicemen," he told Interfax news agency. "All
these facts are characteristic not only of Chechnya or
Russia ... they also happen in any country."

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More news on CHechnya at:
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/6443/Chechnya/






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