On August 29, Human Rights Watch published a memorandum detailing the escalation of mob violence against non-Orthodox Christian groups throughout the last two years and the Georgian authorities' apparent indulgence of the violence. The memorandum, which I am enclosing, was addressed to the U.S. government and made policy recommendations to it in the context of the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act.
I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the memorandum's findings and suggest recommendations for bringing the response of Georgian law enforcement authorities to the violence into conformity with Georgia's obligations under international law. A spate of attacks against adherents of non-Orthodox Christian faiths in late September underscores the urgency of effective action to stop impunity for religious violence and to protect non-Orthodox believers.
Human Rights Watch's research, based on first-hand interviews with twenty-two victims of religious violence, documented ten of the more than forty attacks that had taken place from January through August 2001. We found that the police and procuracy have made no serious efforts to criminally investigate-let alone prosecute-the perpetrators, and that as a result attacks have grown more frequent with the ensuing atmosphere of impunity. Assailants stalk worshippers on their way to or from prayer meetings, or break up prayer meetings in private homes. They beat congregants, at times inflicting serious injuries, ransack private homes, destroy property, and burn religious literature. The assailants target the victims because of their faith and seek to intimidate congregants into abandoning their religious practices.
Among our most disturbing findings is that the ringleaders and certain participants in the vast majority of the attacks are well known to Georgian law enforcement agencies, which have failed over two years to arrest them. One of the leaders, Vasili Mkalavishvili, has frequently appeared on Georgian television, openly broadcasting his plans for mob attacks on non-Orthodox Christian groups and their meetings. He has also publicly claimed to receive support from the police and security services. The Tbilisi City Procuracy indicted Vasili Mkalavishvili and his colleague Petre (Gia) Ivanidze on September 3, 2001, on a limited range of charges relating to just five of their many reported violent attacks. However, both they and other participants of the attacks named in the indictments have been allowed to remain free to organize, exhort, and execute further violent mob attacks, endangering the physical integrity, property, and rights to freedom of religion, peaceful assembly and free expression of non-Orthodox Christian believers throughout Georgia.
Three attacks in late September demonstrate the immediate danger that impunity poses to such worshippers. On September 28, Mkalavishvili and a large group of his supporters, together with members of the Jvari (Cross) organization, armed with clubs and stones, reportedly set up their own roadblock near a police checkpoint on the highway south from Tbilisi to Marneuli, intending to prevent Jehovah's Witnesses from attending their planned annual congress in Marneuli. According to the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, the mob then stopped buses and cars, dragged from them approximately one hundred people, and beat them. An hour later, around seventy Mkalavishvili supporters and Jvari members raided the site of the planned congress in Marneuli, entering and damaging a private home, beating congregants, looting and ransacking the site, and burning religious literature. The mobs reportedly caused serious injury to at least fifteen people that day.
The attack on the road is reported to have taken place next to a police checkpoint, but the Jehovah's Witnesses organization told Human Rights Watch that police did not attempt to dismantle the roadblocks or stop the assault. Apparently, police did not enter the congress site until well after the attackers had left. This was despite many telephoned appeals for police help, which the Jehovah's Witnesses organization reports its members began making from 7:30 am.
Moreover, police had plenty of warning that the planned congress could end in violence. The attack in many respects resembled a raid Mkalavishvili supporters had launched in Marneuli in September 2000, under similar circumstances. That precedent, and the police response to it, is described in the attached memorandum. The Jehovah's Witnesses organization told Human Rights Watch that it had urged police to take action to prevent participants in this year's congress from again being victimized.
On September 23, Mkalavishvili and his supporters attacked an Evangelical "Madli" church choir rehearsal. According to the "Madli" church organization the assailants punched and kicked congregants, and beat them with clubs. The church pastor reported in a media interview that twelve members sustained serious injuries.
In yet a third attack that week, on September 30, approximately fourteen men from the Jvari organization raided a Jehovah's Witnesses prayer meeting in Rustavi. The Jehovah's Witnesses organization told Human Rights Watch that the assailants beat members of the congregation, and seized religious literature.
We are also concerned about reports of a rally that Vasili Mkalavishvili and his supporters staged on Tbilisi's central Rustaveli Avenue on September 24. Mkalavishvili's speech and the banners at the rally reportedly called for the violence against Jehovah's Witnesses to be extended to all non-Orthodox religious groups, with the purpose of driving them out of Georgia.
Georgia has a clear duty under international human rights treaties to which it is a party to take active measures to protect all people within its territory from abuses perpetrated by non-state actors. This is sometimes referred to as the duty of due diligence. In the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), this duty is given form by Article 2, which merits restating here:
1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
2. Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such laws or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present Covenant.
3. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes:
(a) To ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity;
(b) To ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities, or by any other competent authority provided for by the legal system of the State, and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy;
(c) To ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies when granted.
In the given cases, the Covenant rights that Georgia is obliged to respect and ensure to followers of non-Orthodox Christian faiths are the right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 7); the right to freedom from arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence (Article 17); the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (Article 18); the right to freedom of expression (Article 19); the right to peaceful assembly (Article 21); and the right to freedom of association (Article 22).
The U.N. Human Rights Committee's General Comment 3 of 1981 emphasized that implementation of Article 2 does not depend solely on constitutional or legislative enactments, which in themselves are often not per se sufficient, but that states must take active measures, or "specific activities," to enable individuals to enjoy their rights.
Therefore, in appointing and setting the agenda for the minister of internal affairs, the procurator general, and minister of national security, I urge you to ensure that the following actions are taken in order to bring Georgia into line with its human rights obligations under international law:
· The police and procuracy should prevent further mob attacks on adherents of non-Orthodox Christian faiths by immediately arresting and prosecuting the known leaders and perpetrators of the attacks-specifically Vasili Mkalavishvili, Petre (Gia) Ivanidze, and other participants of attacks named in the September 3 indictments of Mkalavishvili and Ivanidze. In addition, Paata Bluashvili, leader of Jvari, should be prosecuted for his role in the attacks;
· The police should provide active protection from violent attacks to non-Orthodox Christian groups, by consulting them on their security needs, and by implementing in good faith agreed protection measures;
· Law enforcement agencies should subject every report of an attack upon adherents of non-Orthodox religious groups to a prompt and impartial investigation, and bring the perpetrators of abuses to justice. We ask that the findings-including an account of the scope, methods, and results of investigations of all reported attacks, including the attacks described in this and our previous letters and the attached memorandum-be made public and a copy sent to Human Rights Watch;
· Where applicable, victims of violent attacks should have effective recourse to financial compensation;
· An independent, thorough, and impartial inquiry or review should be instituted into the actions of Georgian law enforcement agencies with regard to the escalating violence against non-Orthodox Christian groups throughout the last two years. The inquiry should include an investigation of alleged links between law enforcement agencies and the perpetrators of violent attacks. The findings of the inquiry should be made public, and should include an account of its scope, methods, and results. Officials found to have been complicit in religious violence should be brought to justice. The inquiry should be mandated to recommend institutional reforms within the law enforcement agencies to bring them to ensure fulfillment of Georgia's human rights obligations with regard to protecting all religious groups from violence.
Human Rights Watch appreciates the pronouncements you have made against religious violence, which we summarized in the attached memorandum. We urge you to take effective action now to stop it.
I thank you for your attention to the concerns raised in this letter and would welcome a response, which may be faxed to +1 212 736 1200 (New York) or 22-10-99 (Tbilisi).
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Andersen
Executive Director
Europe and Central Asia division
cc:
Nana Devdariani, Ombudsperson
Elena Tevdoradze, Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee
Zurab Adeishvili, Chair of the Parliamentary Legal Committee
Nino Burjanadze, Chair of the Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Presidency of the European Union
Chris Patten, European Union Commissioner for External Relations
Javier Solana, European Union Secretary General
Nicole Fontaine, Chairperson of the European Parliament
Elmar Brok, Chairman of the European Parliament External Affairs, Security and Defense Committee
Dr. Condoleezza Rice, U.S. National Security Advisor
The Hon. Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State
Amb. Daniel Fried, National Security Council Senior Director for European and Eurasian Affairs
Amb. Elizabeth Jones, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Lorne Craner, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
Dean Michael Young, Chairman, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
Lord Russell-Johnston, President, Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe
Walter Schwimmer, Secretary General, Council of Europe
Joao Bosco Mota Amaral, Chairman, Monitoring Committee, Council of Europe
Lino Diana, Georgia Rapporteur, Monitoring Committee, Council of Europe
Matyas Eorsi, Georgia Rapporteur, Monitoring Committee, Council of Europe
OSCE Chairman-in-Office Mircea Geoana
Amb. Gerard Stoudmann, Director of ODIHR, OSCE
Torben Holtze, Head of Delegation of the European Commission in Georgia
Amb. Jean-Michel Lacombe, Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia
Deborah Barnes-Jones, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Georgia
Phillip Remler, Charge d'Affaires, U.S. Embassy to Georgia
Harry Molenaar, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Georgia
Michelangelo Pipan, Ambassador of Italy to Georgia
