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DATE=4/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ROBINSON / CHECHNYA (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260978
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  The top U-N human-rights official has renewed 
her call for an investigation into alleged human 
rights abuses by Russian soldiers in Chechnya.  Lisa 
Schlein in Geneva reports Mary Robinson told the U-N 
Human Rights Commission it is crucial to investigate 
allegations of rape, execution, and torture by Russian 
soldiers.
TEXT:  U-N human rights official Mary Robinson has 
urged Russia to mount an inquiry and to allow 
independent investigations by U-N experts on torture, 
internally displaced people, and so-called extra-
judicial executions.
Ms. Robinson said she was shocked by what she saw and 
heard on a four-day visit to Russia. 
            /// ROBINSON ACT ONE ///
      I have no hesitation in saying, in the light of 
      the information made available to me and my 
      visit to the region, that the scale of serious 
      allegations of gross human rights violations 
      warrants international attention and concern.  
      This is particularly true in the light of 
      eyewitness accounts of mass killings, of summary 
      executions, of rape, and of widespread pillage 
      together with the disproportionate use of heavy 
      armaments in populated areas. 
            /// END ACT ///
Ms. Robinson told the Human Rights Commission that 
Russian authorities had denied her request to visit 
several detention centers in Chechnya.  But, she said 
she spoke to some residents in the capital, Grozny.  
And she heard charges of human-rights violations in 
the stories told by Chechen refugees in Ingushetia.
            /// ROBINSON ACT TWO ///
      I regard these direct accounts and personal 
      testimony as a most significant part of the 
      visit since they bear out the scale and the 
      seriousness of the allegations of human-rights 
      violations by Russian military, militia, and 
      Ministry of Interior forces in Chechnya.  For 
      several hours I listened to harrowing accounts 
      from direct witnesses to events.  I was given 
      photographs and videotape evidence, and shown 
      the wounds and scars of those who had themselves 
      been injured. 
            /// END ACT ///
In response a Russian representative told the 
Commission that his country has never hidden the 
truth.  He said Russia was fighting against a 
terrorist threat and no one had the right to interfere 
with Russia's internal affairs.   (SIGNED)
NEB/LS/JWH/RAE
05-Apr-2000 13:51 PM EDT (05-Apr-2000 1751 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.