Military

DATE=04/02/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=U-N/CHECHEN RIGHTS (L)

NUMBER=2-288264

BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: International Human Rights organizations accuse Russia of using the global fight against terrorism to justify gross violations of human rights in the Republic of Chechnya. Lisa Schlein reports the groups are calling on the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Commission to initiate an international, independent investigation into the situation.

TEXT: Representatives of human rights groups based in Chechnya describe in grim, often gruesome detail the violations they say are committed by Russian troops on a daily basis against civilians there. These include arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, summary executions, indiscriminate fire and large-scale looting. A Director of the Human Rights Center Memorial, Eliza Mousseava says some of the worst abuses occur during so-called mop up operations. Speaking through an interpreter, she says Russian forces typically seal off a village and conduct house-to-house searches for suspected fighters or supporters.

///MOUSSEAVA ACT///

Without any official witnesses of the persecution, searches are carried out in the houses and

so-called suspicious persons are being detained. Impunity and lack of any responsibility that have been going on for the last couple of years have been conducive to the fact that these mop-up operations have become something like punitive operations.

///END ACT///

Ms. Mousseava says these mop-up operations are accompanied by looting and violence. The New York based-Human Rights Watch has just issued a report in which it presents numerous eye-witness accounts of torture, ill-treatment and forced disappearances. The report details at least 100 recent disappearances and killings of 25 civilians. But, Human Rights Watch Representative, Johanna Bjorken says the organization has also documented numerous cases of abuse by Chechen rebels, including abductions and hostage-taking. She says people are afraid to talk about these abuses.

///BJORKEN ACT///

It is very clear that they feel a greater risk in talking about what the Chechen fighters have

done, than what the Russian forces have done. And, we believe that that is partly because it is much easier to find them, they are much more exposable in their own communities by talking about such abuses.

///END ACT///

Malcolm Hawkes is a Researcher on Chechnya for Amnesty International. He says Russia has done nothing to investigate or prosecute Russian forces guilty of human rights abuse. He accuses these people of committing war crimes.

///HAWKES ACT///

It is now incumbent on the Commission this year not to drop the ball on Chechnya. It is

incumbent on the Commission to adopt a very strongly worded resolution condemning the abject failure of the Russian authorities to properly and fairly and in-good faith investigate these very serious crimes and to prosecute them.

///END ACT///

Mr. Hawkes says national commissions of inquiry established by the Russian government have been wholly ineffective. He is calling on the U-N Commission to set up an international, independent body to investigate the human rights situation in Chechnya. The Russian government recently announced that it was setting up another body to investigate the situation. (Signed)

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