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  Background to the Geneva Meeting 
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 Chechnya
Human Rights Watch is calling for a strong resolution at the upcoming session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemning war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law by Russian forces in the Chechnya conflict.
Human Rights Watch has had a continuous research presence in Ingushetia since November 1999, a base from which we have interviewed more than 500 victims of and witnesses to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law--perpetrated primarily by Russian forces. The conflict has taken a dire human toll, causing thousands of civilian casualties, forcing more than 260,000 people to flee Chechnya, and leaving untold numbers of other civilians displaced within Chechnya. Summary of abuses Our research has shown that Russian forces bombed and shelled civilian areas indiscriminately and disproportionately, causing thousands of deaths. We have also found compelling evidence of at least three sets of massacres, in which Russian forces summarily executed at least 122 unarmed civilians, many of them women and the elderly. Russian forces have looted Chechen homes with abandon, raped women, and arrested hundreds of civilians -- men, women, and children -- on suspicion of aiding rebel fighters. Those sent to "filtration camps" for questioning are routinely beaten and tortured. Summary executions. Our research points to a pattern of three murderous rampages committed by Russian soldiers during "mop-up" operations. These included summary executions--which are war crimes in the context of the armed conflict-- rape, looting, and the burning of homes. For example, throughout a two-week period in December 1999, Russian forces shot at least 17 civilians in the village of Alkhan-Yurt. In another example, from the end of December through mid-January, Russian forces summarily executed at least 50 civilians in the Staropromyslovski district of Grozny (including 23 women), mostly thorough shooting at close range. In yet another instance, on February 5 Russian forces executed at least sixty civilians in the Aldi district of Grozny as they were waiting on the streets and in their yards for soldiers to check their documents. Torture in detention. In the past month, Russian authorities have arrested more than 1,000 men, as well as some women and minors, on suspicion of being or assisting Chechen fighters. They were taken to the prison at Chernokozovo and to other undisclosed detention facilities, leaving their relatives desperate to find them. Human Rights Watch has received detailed, credible, and consistent testimony from nine men who managed to pay their way out of these facilities. They told constant beatings, severe torture, and even cases of rape of both men and women. One Human Rights Watch interviewee suffered from a back injury after being hit with a heavy metal hammer; another sustained several broken ribs and suffered from kidney problems from the severe beatings. Indiscriminate and disproportionate bombing. Since the beginning of the conflict, Russian forces have indiscriminately and disproportionately bombed and shelled civilian areas, causing heavy civilian casualties. They have ignored their Geneva Convention obligations to focus their attacks on combatants, and appear to take few safeguards to protect civilians. The shelling of the Grozny market last autumn was but the first example. In the months that followed a carpet-bombing campaign of Grozny and many other towns and villages was responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths in the conflict in Chechnya. It has devastated many parts of Chechnya and reduced the capital, Grozny, to a wasteland of rubble. Russian forces have often refused to create safe corridors to allow civilians to leave areas of active fighting, trapping civilians behind front lines for months. The haggard men and women who fled Grozny after a perilous journey told Human Rights Watch of living for months in dark, cold cellars with no water, gas or electricity and limited food; their small children remained in shock long after having fled the horror of the bombing. Men especially face grave difficulties when attempting to flee areas of fighting: they are subjected to verbal taunting, extortion, theft, beatings, and arbitrary arrest. On several occasions, refugee convoys have come under intense bombardment by Russian forces, causing heavy casualties. The crisis for internally displaced persons. About 220,000 people have fled Chechnya for neighboring Ingushetia, overwhelming the local population, which numbers only some 300,000. Thousands of others fled to Georgia, as well as Daghestan, and still others remain homeless or trapped inside Chechnya-- especially in the southern Argun river gorge, unable to seek safety because of the refusal of Russian forces to create safe corridors. The conditions in the refugee camps in Ingushetia are dire, with inadequate shelter, food, clean water, heating, medical assistance and other essentials. Only a minority of refugees are housed in crowded tent camps or railway cars: the majority live in makeshift shelter in abandoned farms, empty trucking containers, or similar substandard shelter; because many are forced to pay large sums for private housing, they are often forced to return to what is still a very active war zone when they exhaust their resources. Russia is not allowing humanitarian organizations to operate freely in Ingushetia, and is virtually blocking any direct assistance to needy persons inside Chechnya. Displaced children in Ingushetia are not attending school, and their medical needs are more often than not severely negelcted. Russian authorities have repeatedly attempted to force refugees to return to Chechnya by denying them food in the camps or by rolling their train compartments back to Chechnya. Abuses by Chechen Fighters. Chechen forces have shown little regard for the safety of the civilian population, often placing their military positions in densely populated areas and refusing to leave civilian areas even when asked to do so by the local population. Village elders who tried to stop Chechen fighters from entering their villages have been shot, or severely beaten, on several occasions. In short, the Chechen fighters have added to the civilian casualty count in Chechnya by not taking the necessary precautions to protect civilian lives. Recommendations Russian forces have committed the abuses described above crimes in a climate of impunity: the Russian government has shown no interest in a vigorous investigation of the credible evidence of war crimes and other violations gathered thus far, choosing instead to assail the allegations as malicious propaganda. Acting President Vladimir Putin's appointment of Vladimir Kalamanov as Presidential Representative for Human Rights in Chechnya should be no substitute for the international inquiry merited by the gravity of some of these crimes.The Commission on Human Rights should:
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