Judgment gives hope to families of 5,000 'disappeared'
Chechens
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 28 July 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1201299.ece

The Russian government has been held responsible for
the death of one of Chechnya's thousands of
"disappeared" people for the first time, a judgment
that will embarrass the Kremlin.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday
that Russia bore direct responsibility for the
presumed murder of a 25-year-old Chechen,
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev, who it said was probably
executed by Russian troops in 2000.

The order to execute him was captured on camera by a
television crew, but like many of "the disappeared"
his body has never been found, and there is no
concrete proof that he is dead.

Human rights groups contend that up to 5,000 Chechens
have disappeared since 1999, when Russian troops
entered Chechnya for the second time in five years to
quell separatist rebels. They have long been pressing
for the Kremlin to be held to account, and hailed
yesterday's judgement as a breakthrough.

"This is a landmark judgement with major importance
for the hundreds of other Chechen disappearance cases
still pending before the court," said Ole Solvang,
executive director of Russian Justice Initiative.

Mr Solvang's organisation helped Mr Yandiyev's mother,
Fatima Bazorkina, take the case to the Strasbourg
court. She has been trying to find out what happened
to her son for the past six years and said she hoped
the ruling would finally spur the government into
launching a proper investigation.

The judgment also puts the Russian army in a difficult
position, since the officer who gave the order to kill
Mr Yandiyev is now in command of all Russian forces in
the North Caucasus, and is widely considered a
national hero.

On the face of it, the matter seems an open-and-shut
case as much of what happened was caught on tape. Mr
Yandiyev, who may have been fighting with separatist
rebels, is shown in the custody of Russian forces.
Dressed in camouflage fatigues, he is seen in a heated
argument with Col-Gen Alexander Baranov.

General Baranov is then heard to lose his cool and
say: "Take him away, damn it, finish him off there -
that's the whole order. Finish him off, shoot him damn
it!"

The young man is shown being led away. It was the last
time he was seen. His mother's attempts to discover
the truth have been stonewalled by the authorities,
and General Baranov, who has been questioned twice
over the matter, has denied he sent Mr Yandiyev to his
death. He argues that his "intervention" was meant to
calmMr Yandiyev down, and that the soldiers were not
his direct subordinates and therefore could not have
taken orders from him.

The European Court disagreed, and said Russia had used
"lethal force" and flouted the European Convention of
Human Rights on six counts. It awarded Mr Yandiyev's
mother £24,000 in damages plus costs.

Russia has three months to appeal against the
judgment, but if it remains in force it must come up
with an action plan to show such an incident can never
occur again. Mr Solvang called for a criminal
investigation to be launched into General Baranov's
role in the incident.
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Russia censured over Chechen man
27 July 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5219254.stm

The European Court of Human Rights has held Russia
responsible for the disappearance and presumed death
of a Chechen man, in a landmark ruling.
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev, 25, disappeared after being
detained by Russian troops in Chechnya in 1999.

The case was brought by his mother, Fatima Bazorkina,
after she saw TV footage in 2000 in which a Russian
officer ordered her son to be shot.

Mrs Bazorkina sued Russia for failing to adequately
investigate the case.

Russia had argued that there was no formal order to
execute Mr Yandiyev and no hard evidence that he was
dead.

But the judges said it had to be presumed that he was
dead and they held Russia liable for his death.

This is the first such case the court is hearing from
the Chechen conflict.

It could set an important precedent for the 200 or so
other similar claims which are waiting to be heard,
the BBC's Emma Simpson in Moscow says.

The ruling was posted on the Strasbourg-based court's
official website.

It said that a chamber of seven judges in the case
Bazorkina v Russia unanimously held that:

* there had been a violation of Article 2 (right to
life) of the European Convention on Human Rights in
respect of Mr Yandiyev's disappearance

* there had been a violation of Article 2 of the
Convention in respect of the failure to conduct an
effective investigation into the circumstances in
which Mr Yandiyev disappeared

* there had been no violation of Article 3
(prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) in
respect of the failure to protect Mr Yandiyev from
ill-treatment

* there had been a violation of Article 3 in respect
of Mrs Bazorkina

* there had been a violation of Article 5 (right to
liberty and security) with regard to Mr Yandiyev's
detention

* there had been a violation of Article 13 (right to
an effective remedy) in respect of the violations of
Mrs Bazorkina's rights under Articles 2 and 3

The court awarded Mrs Bazorkina 35,000 euros (£24,000)
in damages and 12,241 euros (£8,400) for costs and
expenses.

The ruling did not specify who would pay the damages
and costs to the applicant.


Caught on camera

Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev was arrested during the
military campaign to regain control of the Chechen
capital Grozny in 1999. He had returned from Moscow,
where he had been studying sociology.

His mother, Fatima Bazorkina, filed the complaint
against Russia in 2001, saying the authorities had
failed to adequately investigate the case.

She spent the last six years trying to find out what
happened and sued the Russian government for violating
the European Convention of Human Rights, alleging
Russian forces killed her son.

The alleged execution order was caught on camera in
the TV footage that Mrs Bazorkina saw in 2000.

Television journalists were travelling with Russian
forces who captured a group of rebel fighters
sheltering in the village of Alkhan-Kala.

Mr Yandiyev, dressed in camouflage, can be seen in the
footage standing injured near a bus.

He is questioned by a Russian general who eventually
shouts: "Take him away, finish him off, shoot him,
damn it!"

Mr Yandiyev was then led away and has not been seen
since.

General Alexander Baranov, who was seen on camera
sending him off to be shot, has since been promoted
and awarded a Hero of Russia medal.

Human rights campaigners estimate that since 1999 -
the start of the second Chechen conflict - as many as
5,000 people have disappeared and are feared dead.
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