Military

DATE=7/16/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-305474

BYLINE=LISA MCADAMS

DATELINE=MOSCOW

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: A senior official of the group Human Rights Watch says Russia's military operations in Chechnya are spreading to neighboring Ingushetia. V-O-A's Lisa McAdams in Moscow reports the official is urging Russia to rein in its forces, or risk further undermining security in the region.

TEXT: The director of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, Anna Neistat, says researchers have documented numerous cases of arbitrary detention, ill treatment and looting, during recent Russian military operations in Ingush villages and settlements of displaced Chechens.

Ms. Neistat says the evidence shows that Russian forces are exhibiting the same patterns of brutal behavior witnessed in Chechnya. And she says that as long as the region remains unsafe, it is the Russian government's responsibility to provide protection and assistance to those displaced in the conflict.

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Ms. Neistat says Human Rights Watch is calling on Russian authorities to comply with Russian and international law, which require the government to ensure that its forces do not target civilians. She says continuing abuses of civilians in Ingushetia could push the region into a civil war like the one in Chechnya.

Ms. Neistat notes that until recently, Ingushetia remained relatively safe and peaceful, hosting thousands of Chechens who fled their homes when the second Chechen conflict began in 1999. But according to Ms. Neistat, the situation changed dramatically late last year, when federal migration authorities started pressuring the Chechens living in Ingushetia to return home.

The Human Rights Watch official says heavy international criticism, coupled with logistical difficulties, ultimately saved the Chechen tent camps from closure. Yet, she says Russian authorities did not abandon the plan and appear to again be intensifying pressure and threats in order to force people to leave.

Meanwhile, Ms. Neistat says Chechnya remains extremely volatile despite the Russian government's claims that life there is returning to normal.

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Ms. Neistat says she holds out little hope that the Russian government's recent amnesty offer in Chechnya, or upcoming Chechen presidential elections, will result in positive change.

In the last few weeks Chechen rebels have again taken their campaign outside Chechnya. A double suicide bombing at a Moscow rock festival killed 13 people, and the two female bombers. A subsequent bombing at a cafe not far from the Kremlin has also been linked to a Chechen woman. The female bombers have come to be known as black-widows, because many of them turned to violence after losing their husbands in the decades-old conflict with Russia. (Signed)

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