The Bush administration should make human rights protections a central part of the emerging new relationship with Russia, Human Rights Watch said today.
In a letter sent on the eve of the Crawford, Texas summit with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, Human Rights Watch urged President George W. Bush to seek new guarantees on political freedoms and on accountability for abuses commited in the Chechnya conflict. Russia has allowed unprecedented military and intelligence cooperation with the United States in the fight against terrorism, which many believe will fundamentally change the U.S.-Russia relationship.
"The Russian government frequently compares the U.S. war on terrorism with its own efforts in Chechnya," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. Russian and international human rights groups continue to document abuses by Russia's forces in Chechnya, including extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary arrest.
"President Bush needs to tell President Putin that the U.S. will not be associated with such atrocities," said Andersen. "The war on terrorism is not blanket permission to commit abuses against civilians with impunity."
When the two presidents met last month in Shanghai, President Bush said that the war on terrorism must not become a "war against minorities," and that it must "distinguish between those who pursue legitimate political aspirations and terrorists."
The Human Rights Watch letter also cited other human rights concerns in Russia, including press freedoms and a spate of criminal investigations of journalists and academics on highly questionable espionage charges.
"President Putin wants Russia's integration with a larger democratic community," said Andersen. "But this can succeed only if he and his government uphold the principles of democracy and human rights at home."
