Russia: Chechnya Monitoring Mission Closed

(New York City, January 1, 2003) — Russia's announcement today that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) must end its mission in Chechnya raises serious human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said today.

The OSCE mission mandate expired December 31 after Russia and the OSCE failed to agree to extend it. The six-person mission had been tasked since mid-2001 with promoting respect for human rights, facilitating humanitarian aid, and promoting peaceful resolution of the crisis in Chechnya. Russian officials reportedly stated that the mission would cease to exist.

"Closing down the OSCE mission is part of Russia's strategy to cut off scrutiny of human rights conditions in Chechnya and portray the situation as normalizing," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "First they announced closure of the camps for people displaced by the conflict and now they are shutting out the OSCE. Unfortunately, the situation remains far from normal."

Negotiations over renewing the OSCE mandate collapsed after Russia insisted that the mission relinquish its human rights and political dimensions. Human Rights Watch praised the OSCE for insisting that these aspects of the mandate remain and urged member governments to heighten pressure on Russia to renew the mandate.

"Russia allowed the OSCE back into Chechnya in June 2001, as a goodwill gesture prior to President Vladimir Putin's first meeting with President George Bush, whose administration had been critical of the war in Chechnya," Andersen explained. "It is very important that the U.S. and other OSCE member states continue to impress upon Russia the importance they place on this mission."

The OSCE monitors are an important check against abuse that is needed now more than ever, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch continues to document extrajudical executions, forced disappearances, and torture of noncombatants in Chechnya by federal soldiers, and has found no evidence that officials are seriously investigating or attempting to stop such crimes. In recent months, Chechen rebel forces have increasingly targeted civilians in their guerilla war against Russian troops. In October, armed rebels took about 800 people hostage at a theater in Moscow and threatened to kill them all. Rebels have also pursued a vicious assassination campaign against Chechen civil servants, policemen and religious clergymen cooperating with the Russian authorities, killing dozens each year.