President Bush should speak strongly and publicly about human rights violations in Chechnya while visiting Russia, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to President Bush on the eve of his summit with President Vladimir V. Putin, Human Rights Watch said that the summit's crowded agenda should not let the world think the U.S. has forgotten about the victims of human rights abuses in Chechnya.
The Bush administration should not allow its warm relationship with Russia to cloud the need for moral clarity on Chechnya," said Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division.
The human rights situation in Chechnya has deteriorated in the past six months. Federal forces continue to detain without charge hundreds of people suspected of involvement in rebel activities. Many are tortured or killed. Some
"disappear"-authorities deny that detained individuals are in custody. Russian authorities have formally opened hundreds of criminal investigations, but for the most part human rights violations remain uninvestigated and unpunished.
"In Chechnya, Russian forces are not held accountable for serious crimes," said Andersen. "President Bush should tell President Putin that this undermines his own policy of promoting the rule of law."
Last month, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) voted down, 16-15, a resolution on the situation in Chechnya that was cosponsored by the United States. The resolution called for Russia to invite U.N. monitors, including the special rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial and summary executions, to visit the region. "President Bush should reaffirm the strong position on Chechnya the U.S. took at the commission," said Andersen.
In its letter, Human Rights Watch asked President Bush to:
Press for an updated, detailed list of criminal investigations into violations by police, military, and other security forces against noncombatants in Chechnya;
Urge Russia to issue invitations to Chechnya to all relevant U.N. human rights mechanisms, as required by past U.S.-backed UNCHR resolutions on Chechnya;
Press for the renewal of the mandate of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Assistance Group to Chechnya
