European Union governments must press the issue of the "disappeared" in Chechnya when Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Stockholm this week, Human Rights Watch urged in releasing a new report The"Dirty War" in Chechnya: Forced Disappearances, Torture, and Summary Executions.
The 40-page report, "The 'Dirty War' in Chechnya: Forced Disappearances, Torture and Summary Executions," details the cases of fifty-two "disappeared" individuals who were last seen in the custody of Russian federal forces. Human Rights Watch believes the actual number of "disappeared" is much higher. The mutilated bodies of some of the "disappeared" were later found in unmarked graves in Chechnya, most bearing unmistakable signs of torture.
Human Rights Watch said that European governments should act decisively at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, currently convening in Geneva, to ensure that an international commission of inquiry is formed to investigate human rights abuse in Chechnya.
The term "dirty war" was coined to describe the campaigns of forced "disappearances" perpetrated by Latin American governments in the 1970s and 80s.
"Russia's war in Chechnya is certainly a 'dirty war,'" said Holly Cartner, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "The Russians have had plenty of time to investigate and prosecute these cases, but they haven't done so. It's time for the international community to act."
In a typical "disappearance," federal agents-from the Russian military, police, or security forces-take someone into custody during "sweep" operations or at a checkpoint. But Russian authorities later deny any knowledge of the individual who has "disappeared."
Family members may visit detention centers all over the northern Caucasus to glean information about their loved ones. Often they are compelled to bribe prison guards to scan prisoners' lists for the name of the "disappeared," or to pay middlemen who claim to have connections to authorities.
Russian legal authorities offer little help. The civilian procuracy charged with investigating such cases cannot compel the military authorities to cooperate. The thirty-four criminal investigations into "disappearances" that the civilian procuracy has opened so far have not resulted in the discovery of the whereabouts of any "disappeared," or in any indictments of perpetrators.
The Human Rights Watch report documents eight mass graves and eight other makeshift burials, where corpses of the "disappeared" and others have been found.
Among the victims whose cases are detailed in the report:
- Akhmed Zaurbekov and Khamzad Khasarov, who were detained on January 14, 2001. Local authorities denied all knowledge of their whereabouts. Two weeks later, their corpses were found in a rock quarry.
- Nina Lulueva and her two cousins, who were detained on June 3, 2000, were selling strawberries at a market in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, when they were detained by masked armed men. Her husband, a judge, searched for information on her whereabouts among all levels of law enforcement. Her corpse was found early this month in a mass grave near the Khankala military base.
- Two minors, Islam Dombaev and Murat Lyanov were detained, together with eighteen-year-old Timur Tabzhanov on June 28, 2000. Although police documents record their initial detention, their relations, after an exhaustive search, have been unable to obtain information about their whereabouts.
Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva to give high priority to a draft international convention on protecting all persons form forced "disappearances."
