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The Campaign against Georgians

For several weeks beginning in early October 2006, the Russian government carried out a campaign that targeted Georgians for detention and expulsion, apparently in response to the political dispute between the two countries. Russian courts issued expulsion decisions against more than 4,600 Georgians, and the authorities forcibly expelled 2,300 Georgians, including some residing legally in Russia. At least 2,000 Georgians departed Russia by their own means because they had been issued expulsion decisions. The authorities denied basic rights to many of the detained, including access to a lawyer or consular representation or the possibility of appealing the expulsion decision taken against them. Most were given hearings lasting only a few minutes, and that were conducted in groups. Many Georgian detainees were held in appalling conditions of detention and many were subjected to threats and other ill-treatment. Two Georgians died in custody awaiting expulsion.

Some state agents recognized that the government had taken unnecessary and illegal measures against Georgians. Russia’s state human rights body, the Council on Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights headed by Ella Pamfilova, criticized the campaign against Georgians, saying in a November 8 statement that “administrative and legal measures applied [against Georgians] are unfounded: businesses employing ethnic Georgians are being closed down, visas and registration papers legally obtained by Georgian nationals are being cancelled, people are being illegally detained and [expelled] from Russia.”91

Most government officials, however, claimed that they were initiating new measures to curb irregular migration generally and were not targeting Georgians specifically. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told Human Rights Watch that on October 5 the government began paying greater attention to the problems related to trade in the nation’s farmers’ markets, but that there was no focus on violations of migration laws by Georgians.92 The same official told Human Rights Watch, that there were no orders to pay particular attention to Georgians when conducting expulsions.93 The deputy director of the Federal Migration Service told Human Rights Watch that there had been only a strengthening in the work related to the fight against illegal migrants, and there were no other factors considered.94 Officials acknowledged that there were some violations during these operations, but only because lower level officials took measures too far. Lebedev told Human Rights Watch, “It is possible that, maybe, in the course of these operations [to identify violations of migration laws] that there were individual violations,” and blamed local officials for any rights violations.95

Many officials, including President Putin, attempted to counter accusations that Georgians had been targeted in October and subsequent months by quoting statistics apparently about large numbers of citizens from countries other than Georgia who had been expelled in 2006.96 Requests by Human Rights Watch to government officials to provide monthly statistics of administrative expulsions, including for October, November, and December 2006 went unanswered.97

However, public statements by senior Russian government officials, television broadcasts and newspaper articles, and official written and verbal orders from that period all reveal the government’s clear focus on Georgians. In a rare public statement, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance acknowledged that the campaign against Georgians was “directed by certain public authorities specifically at a particular ethnic group.”98

Official Statements

Immediately following the escalation of Russian-Georgian political tensions in late September 2006, Russian officials made repeated public statements singling out Georgians as illegal immigrants, portraying them as criminals, and calling for measures to be taken against them (for additional statements by government officials, see below, Media Campaign). On September 29, Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service Vyacheslav Postavnin claimed that compared to labor migrants from other countries, Georgians were much more likely to work illegally. According to Postavnin, of the one million Georgians working in Russia, only one percent work legally, compared to 10-15 percent of labor migrants from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine, or 35-45 percent from China and Vietnam. Postavnin was quoted as saying, “In relation to Georgian migrants stronger measures will be taken. It is possible that there will be deportations, expulsions…”99 Postavnin was also quoted as saying “Of course [this focus on Georgians] is at the same time a political decision in light of Georgian-Russian conflict. It is a response to the actions of the Georgian authorities.”100

On October 5, Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service Mikhail Tyurkin said that his agency “had closely analyzed the quotas on employment and came to understand that the regions do not need specialists from Georgia.”101 Also on October 5, when discussing Federal Migration Service policies, the deputy head of the service’s press department stated, “We are not prioritizing [certain groups] here, but every hundredth Georgian commits crimes, meaning he’s involved in criminal activities.102

In an October 5 speech President Putin called for measures to crack down on illegal migrant workers and illegal activities in the country’s markets, comments that were seen by many as targeting ethnic Georgians,103 whom the media and officials portrayed as the main perpetrators of crime in Russia (see below, Media Campaign). In his speech, President Putin claimed that people working in the markets “act like racketeers and … force farmers to hand over their products for nothing. What happens sometimes in trade markets can be defined by a single word: an outrage. Criminal groups, [some of them ethnic], play a major role in markets.”104 The official presidential website claims that in his speech President Putin said only, “Criminal groups play a major role in markets.”105 However, independent media reported that President Putin actually specified “ethnic” groups, apparently in a veiled reference to Georgians, and that the presidential website deliberately changed the language in the official posted version. 106

Media Campaign

Much of the Russian broadcast media, the majority of which is owned or controlled by the government, helped fuel the government’s crackdown on Georgians by portraying them in a negative light.107 The SOVA center, which monitors racism in Russia, documented a sharp rise in racist statements against Georgians in the Russian media in October 2006, and linked this phenomenon directly to the anti-Georgian campaign.108 Coverage frequently emphasized stereotypes of Georgians or other ethnic groups from the Caucasus as inherently criminal people and linked to criminal gangs.109 According to a Federal Migration Service document of November 1, 2006, (see below, Official Orders to Target Georgians), “200 publications appeared in federal and regional mass media, about [the] problem [of the legality of Georgians residing in Russia].”110

At the beginning of October, the editorial boards of several major newspapers, including Komsomolskaya Pravda, Moskovskii Komsomolets, and Tvoi den’, openly supported the Russian government’s actions against Georgians, while other newspapers questioned the anti-Georgian campaign. Some newspapers emphasized stories involving Georgians in their “chronicles of crime.”111 An October 5 Komsomolskaya Pravda article, in direct reference to ethnic groups from the Caucasus, including Georgians, accused foreigners in Russia of living by the “laws of the mountains,” rather than Russian laws.112

Russian television stations actively supported and justified the government’s singling out of Georgians through daily news programs as well as weekly analytic and political programming and special series.113 For example, one-sided news coverage in early October on the government-owned Channel One exclusively presented the position of government officials and agencies and regularly connected Georgians to violations of the law, including organized crime. An October 6 news broadcast about Moscow police inspections of restaurants and casinos stated that “the majority of institutions inspected are run by Georgian citizens” and that the inspections of these businesses found “violations of the law.”114 Another broadcast referred to the Georgian embassy’s allegedly illegal use of the hotel, Guesthouse ‘Tbilisi’, which is located on its grounds.115 Yet another emphasized that one gaming house under inspection was run by a “criminal authority, an arrival from Georgia [who] had been arrested five years ago for murder and kidnapping.”116

Weekly news programs helped publicize the government position by quoting senior officials making strong anti-Georgian statements. On October 7, NTV aired a segment on the weekly program “Maksimum” (Maximum) about Georgian criminal activities including police raids on casinos. The program quoted a senior Ministry of Internal Affairs official stating, “Georgian society has a very strong criminal tradition, stronger than that of any other [group] at this time.”117 “Postscript,” a weekly program on the channel TV-Center, quoted an official saying, “Today Georgian citizens are a risk group. That is [they are] more inclined to crime, say, and violations of Russian laws.”118 The NTV program, “Honest Confession” (Chistoserdechnoe priznanie), aired a series titled “Guests,” which opened by talking about attacks on Russians by “migrants from the south,” and went on to portray Georgians as primarily responsible for a number of different crime rings in Russia, as well as for criminal activities in the markets. Intertwined with these themes are images and commentary about Georgians being expelled from Russia.119

Popular Channel 3 television commentator Andrei Dobrov dismissed the arguments made by those who opposed the anti-Georgian campaign as themselves racist against Russians and supported the government’s position that its campaign sought only to identify illegal residents or criminals. In an October 12 program he quoted a Moscow intellectual, who claimed that “As soon as the hunt for Georgian criminals started in Russia—criminals only—local intellectuals raised a hue and cry: Oh, how terrible, ethnic purges. This is how matters stand: if you join an ethnic gang and kill Russians, that’s fine, this is a democratic process. If you have been detained by the authorities on the territory of a foreign country where you are illegally residing, that’s it, scream [bloody] murder, racism and Russian fascism.”120

Official Orders to Target Georgians

Several Russian government agencies issued specific written and verbal instructions to target Georgians. These instructions served as the foundation for many of the actions taken by police and other officials. The Ministry of the Internal Affairs issued written orders instructing police, the Federal Migration Service, courts and other agencies to take the necessary actions to identify and expel Georgians living irregularly in Russia. The document referred exclusively to Georgians, and did not make reference to any other group of migrants. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that early in the campaign, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued oral instructions to “act maximally harshly [and] pay attention to even tiny violations, to which you had previously turned a blind eye.”121

On November 1, 2006, the Federal Migration Service issued a document regarding actions taken in respect of Georgians (See Appendix B). According to this document, among other actions taken, courts issued 2681 decisions on administrative expulsion of Georgians in the period from September 29 to November 1, 2006. As a result, 1,194 Georgians were expelled. In addition, thousands of applications from Georgians for citizenship, temporary residency, and permanent residency were suspended. Georgians who had already obtained citizenship, temporary residency, and permanent residency were also investigated to determine the legality of the means by which they obtained their status. In this period, officials inspected over 5,700 businesses employing foreigners, including Georgians, and closed 58.122

Order No. 0215 issued on October 2 by the Main Department of Internal Affairs (GUVD) of St. Petersburg goes further, requiring that all resources be put into massive operations coordinated between the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Migration Service, and the courts. The order called on police to “conduct large-scale operations to detect and deport a maximum number of citizens of Georgia illegally residing in the territory of Russia” and “to initiate [court] decisions only on deportation of this category of citizens.”123 (See Appendix C) This order, however, specified that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had agreed in advance with the local courts to issue expulsion decisions exclusively, although the law stipulates punishment for such violations to be a fine “with or without administrative expulsion from the Russian Federation.”124 A separate order issued the same day instructed officials to document daily the number of Georgians breaking specific laws relating to weapons and drugs and to indicate the “amount of ammunition, number of weapons, and narcotics” confiscated from Georgians.125 (See Appendix D)

During the height of the crackdown on ethnic Georgians, at least two Moscow police districts also ordered public schools to produce lists of Georgian children. One such letter from the Taganskii District Department of Internal Affairs requested that school authorities provide the names, birth dates, and addresses of all Georgian students and their parents, as well as parents’ places of employment and information on “disobedience of Georgian children towards their teachers, cases of bad social behavior and unlawful acts.”126 (See Appendix E) In response to a similar letter, Aleksandr Engels, director of school No. 169 of the Western district [okrug] of Moscow, rebuffed the request by replying, “[R]egistration of students according to nationality does not take place in this school.”127 (See Appendix F) On October 6, the spokesperson for the Moscow Department of Education stated that his agency viewed the orders from the Ministry of Internal Affairs negatively and confirmed that all children have the right to study in Moscow schools.128 Many school directors complied with the directives, however, citing fears of confrontation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.129

Targeting Georgian Businesses and Georgian Workers

Beginning on October 2, Russian police, including officials from the departments for economic crimes, organized crime, and terrorism, and often in cooperation with special forces troops, conducted widespread raids and inspections of Georgian-owned and Georgian-themed businesses, shutting many of them down or pressuring their owners to do so “voluntarily.” Russian officials also inspected and pressured businesses and employers who employed Georgians. The police ultimately closed at least six Georgian-run casinos in Moscow and numerous restaurants and raided the hotel, Guesthouse ‘Tbilisi.’130 Moscow police also raided the Georgian cultural center Mziuri. Grigory Chkhartishvili, an ethnic Georgian who lives in Russia and authors popular mystery novels written under the pseudonym Boris Akunin, stated that the tax police questioned his publisher about income from the novels. Russian officials claimed that casinos, restaurants, and other businesses had violated health or other regulatory standards.131

In the wake of the massive operations against Georgian businesses and Georgian workers, many Georgians across Russia felt compelled to shut down their market stalls and businesses out of fear of being raided and expelled from the country.132 Gia Kandelaki, an ethnic Georgian, had lived in Russia for 15 years, was a Russian citizen, and owned a Georgian restaurant in the center of Moscow called “Tsaritsa Tamara.” On October 2, after learning that Georgian restaurants were being raided by the police, he closed the restaurant for one week. The day after re-opening his restaurant, a group of police officers came to his restaurant at 9 p.m. on October 10 to conduct an inspection that lasted five hours. After allegedly finding numerous violations, they took US$7,000 from him.133

The next day Kandelaki was called into the Ministry of Internal Affairs Department for the Fight against Organized Crime. Kandelaki described the experience to Human Rights Watch: “I went into the office and the officer told me, ‘We won’t let you continue working. … Either change your name, or quit as the director, or change the name of the restaurant.’”134 “On that same day, that night … I went to the airport [to leave for Georgia]. I am a Russian citizen. They didn’t have the right to deport me, but I am a Georgian and so I wasn’t able to work in my [restaurant], where I still had a ten-year lease…. [I felt that] they forced me to leave [because they closed my restaurant]. That’s it. I am left with absolutely nothing.”135

At the time of her interview with Human Rights Watch, Ana A., whose husband, Givi G., was expelled from Russia, continued to work in a Moscow market, but did so with fear and felt pressured to quit. “I go to work [at the market] and when an inspection commission comes, they try to say, “You Georgians, get out. They try to make it so that I don’t show up there, as if I’m a fascist, as if I killed someone. … I try not to look anyone in the eye…”136

Arbitrary and Illegal Detention and Expulsion of Georgians

In October and November, police detained Georgians with a view to expelling them for allegedly violating migration, residence, and employment laws. As indicated above, at the time of the expulsions, under Russian law, Georgian citizens in Russia should have been in possession of a visa or a temporary or permanent residency permit, a valid migration card, and a valid residency registration stamped either in the passport or on the migration card. If an individual was employed, he should have been in possession of an official work permit.

In many cases researched by Human Rights Watch and by other organizations and the Georgian ad hoc parliamentary committee examining the expulsions, the arrests and detentions of Georgians were done without cause. As described above, international law prohibits arbitrary arrest, detention and expulsion. Article 22 of the Russian constitution also prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention.137 Police targeted individuals whom they suspected were Georgian on the basis of their appearance, stopped them on the street in order to check the validity of their passports or other documents described above, and subsequently detained them often irrespective of the legality of their documents. In other cases, individuals were detained at their places of work or in their homes.

Police also detained many ethnic Georgians who were either Russian citizens or legal migrants in possession of the necessary, legal documents. In still other cases, police detained Georgians who had up until that point been known to be living in Russia without a visa or other necessary documents, but had not been subject to arrest or expulsion. Police often destroyed detainees’ documents and denied detainees many basic rights, including the right to appeal the expulsion, the right to counsel, and the right to notify a family member or other close person of their detention. Detained Georgians were held in special detention facilities for foreigners (in Russian, priemnik-raspreditel or spetspriemnik) awaiting their expulsion.

Russian authorities expelled more than 2,300 of the Georgians detained in October and November. Most Georgians who were expelled, including those interviewed for this report, were accused of violating migration and registration rules, including failure to follow procedures for registration, which are administrative offenses. Many Georgians were also found to be in violation of the rules of engagement and use of foreign labor in the Russian Federation. According to article 18 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences punishment for such violations is a fine “with or without administrative expulsion from the Russian Federation.”138 In February 2007, in its concluding observations of Russia’s fourth periodic report, the UN Committee against Torture expressed its concern about the Russian government’s “widespread and broad use of administrative expulsion according to article 18.8 of the Code of Administrative Offences for minor violations of immigration rules.”139 Human Rights Watch is not aware of any Georgians being subject to deportation, a rarer procedure, during October and November 2006.140

In the initial days of the campaign against Georgians, Moscow police focused on locations where large numbers of Georgians were likely to gather, such as the Georgian embassy and the Georgian Orthodox church. Speaking from his office at the embassy, the Georgian Consul to Russia, Zurab Pataradze told Human Rights Watch,

[The police] detained people who had come to the consular office in order to leave for Georgia and wanted to receive the necessary travel documents. The Russian OMON [riot police] set themselves up right here. [On October 7,] I came to work at 9 a.m., but people, who had come [to the consulate], our visitors, citizens of Georgia had been detained … right from here. From the [consulate] courtyard. … When I came to work, I immediately instructed [my colleagues] to open the doors and let in anyone who was waiting so that they wouldn’t detain anyone else.141

Ultimately, four Georgians were detained from outside the Georgian embassy that day.142

On October 7, police similarly targeted the Georgian Orthodox Church in Moscow. According to a Georgian Orthodox Church in Moscow representative, Father Miron,

It was Saturday and on Saturday at five o’clock our evening services begin. Father Maxim and I arrived at three o’clock and we noticed two plain-clothed police officers and two uniformed police officers who had stopped one of our regular church-goers. She is a citizen of Russia… They bothered her for a long time but in the end let her go, apparently because we were standing near by and waiting … Then at five o’clock … we were preparing for the service … but our choir members weren’t there And someone said that the police were detaining them. We went out and, indeed, there, across the street these same plain-clothed police officers were standing and were checking … documents. And our choir members were standing there. [I know] that all of our choir members have official visas, invitations from the Patriarch, [Moscow residency] registration; that is, all of their documents are in order. … And [then] I saw that they [the police] started to turn and walk in the direction of the metro together with our choir members; that is, they were detaining them. We crossed the road and asked what was happening. [The police said], “Everything is fine this is just a planned inspection. We are inspecting [all Georgians].”143

Only after a local television reporter approached the police with a video camera did the police release the choir members.144

Officials repeatedly cited official orders as the justification for detentions and expulsions of Georgians. For example, when Moscow police came to detain David Latsabidze on October 10 while he was at work on a construction site, they told him, “There is an [official] order to deport all Georgians.”145 On September 30, 2006, a police officer came to Gocha Khmaladze’s boss and told him that there was “an official order [and] you must fire all Georgians.”146 During his court hearing, police also told Khmaladze, “[T]here is an [official] order to expel all Georgians.”147

Gocha Khmaladze worked as a driver for a minibus company in Moscow. He had been working legally for over four years and had a visa valid through August 30, 2007, a migration card, a work permit, and Moscow registration. However, police detained him in a group of Georgians and three weeks later expelled him to Georgia. He described his detention to Human Rights Watch:

On the night of October 9 they checked my documents. They said that everything was fine with my registration and that I shouldn’t worry. But on the next day I was just standing on the street, taking care of my car when they [the police] asked to see my documents. They took my passport and went into the dorm. I figured that they will come out soon… I knew that everything was fine [with my documents] and that I had nothing to worry about. But then they came out, they had taken another ten guys from our dorm and were pushing them into a car. They had taken only Georgians. … They took us to the police department No. 44 in Vykhino and they immediately started telling us ‘We must deport you.’ No matter what, they would deport everyone. All Georgians.148

Moscow police detained Arthur and Andrei Sarksian and their father on October 9 as they were walking on the street towards the metro. As police stopped them, they tore out the Moscow residency registration and the work permit pages in Arthur’s passport and then demanded that the three men go with them to the police station. The father’s passport had expired. After two hours in the police station they were taken to a special detention facility for foreigners before being brought to a judge. The brothers believed that their detention was not registered, since upon entry to the special detention facility, the authorities did not take photographs or fingerprints from either of the men. They were not allowed to call a lawyer or their family members to inform them of their whereabouts. Their family called numerous detention facilities in the city searching for the young men and their father, but the authorities denied that the men had been detained.149

Ana A. and her husband Givi G. had lived in Moscow. Givi G. worked as a seller in a Moscow market. He had been working for almost ten years and had always obtained a visa, registration, and work permit. On October 4, Givi G. did not go to work, as he had heard a warning that Georgians should not come to the market. In the evening he decided to go to the market to close down his stall, to protect it from possible theft. The police detained him immediately and told him that the receipt he had obtained after submitting his passport for a visa renewal was “not a valid document.” They detained Givi G. together with four other Georgian men and three Georgian women from the same market. He was eventually expelled and forced to leave behind his wife, who is ill and receives treatment in Moscow.150

Tamar T. had lost her passport when her purse had been stolen. When Moscow police detained her, she possessed a certificate from the Moscow police stating that she had lost her passport. She planned to go to the Georgian consulate with the certificate in order to receive a new passport when she was detained. A court later issued a decision to expel her for illegally living in Moscow. She had the decision overturned on appeal.151

During the detention and expulsion campaign, Russian police elected to detain some Georgians whom the authorities knew to be living in Russia without a visa or other necessary documents. Abram Givishvili had lived in the same small village in southwestern Russia for over six years. Although he did not have a visa or migration card, local police officials never seemed concerned about his migration status, and Givishvili engaged in small business activities. On October 10, 2006, the police came to Givishvili’s home and told him to go to the police department for an inspection of his passport. The next day he was taken to court, where a judge issued an order for his expulsion.152 Otar and Manana Palodze worked in a café in a small town outside of Moscow. Although their Russian visas had already expired, the local police knew them and did nothing about their expired visas. Police detained them soon after the order came down to detain and expel Georgians.153

Police destroyed some detainees’ documents upon arrest. Russian NGOs reported several cases of police destroying Russian passports of ethnic Georgians.154 In an interview with Human Rights Watch, Gocha Khmaladze stated that the police threw out his migration card while he was in detention and that he was forced to sign a document stating that he had violated the law by not having a registration stamp.155 According to Ana A., when police detained her husband, “They threw out [the receipt stating that a visa was being processed in his passport] and [during the court hearing] said, ‘he doesn’t have any [documents].’”156 When Moscow police arrested David Latsabidze, they tore out the registration page in his passport and then asked him, mockingly, “Where is your registration?”157

Coerced “confessions”

Human Rights Watch interviewed a number of Georgians who had all of the proper documentation to reside in Russia legally, but whom Russian authorities, including police and judges, coerced into signing documents stating that they had violated residency laws. The authorities would threaten detainees with punishments, such as prolonged detentions, for refusing to sign. Detainees often were unable to familiarize themselves with the documents before signing. On the basis of these forced confessions, many individuals were expelled from the country. As Gocha Khmaladze described to Human Rights Watch,

First in the police lock-up we started to sign [documents]… They started preparing documents, writing something, and told everyone, ‘Well, let’s go! Sign!’ We were forced to sign that we didn’t have any money with us in order to pay a fine. But I told them, ‘... I do have money …!’ But it was useless to talk to them- [they just demanded,] ‘Sign! I asked them to let me read what was written, but [the only response was,] ‘Sign!’ They had written that I didn’t have a registration or visa, and that I was living in Moscow without work. I told them, that I worked and that I could show all of my documents. But they said ‘It doesn’t matter, sign this or else. If you don’t sign, you will just have to sit in the “monkey cage” (in Russian, obyazannik, a slang term used to denote a police lock-up).158

A similar situation occurred the next day when Khmaladze and others were brought before a judge. The judge had a document for Khmaladze to sign stating that he did not have proper authorization to live and work in Moscow. Khmaladze explained that, at the moment of his arrest, he had all the necessary documentation. The judge looked at his documents and asked the police officers responsible for his detention, “Why did you bring this citizen here? [His documents] are all in order.” In the presence of the judge, the police told Khmaladze, “Sign [the document] or else you’ll sit in the “monkey cage” again and you’ll have plenty of time to think about it … there is an [official] order to expel all Georgians.” Khmaladze felt resigned to the situation. “I already realized, that [to reason] with them was useless. I said, ‘Give me [the document] and I will sign it under the gun. I don’t care, just so long as I can get out of here,” he told Human Rights Watch.159

The officials told Khmaladze that once he agreed to the expulsion, he would be released from detention and given 10 days to depart Russia of his own accord. “For this reason, I agreed to sign everything: in 10 days I’ll buy myself a ticket and fly out myself. But they didn’t [allow me to] do this.” Instead, Khmaladze spent three weeks in abysmal detention conditions, described below.160

Ana A. told Human Rights Watch that officials also convinced her husband to sign a document stating that he was in Russia without proper documentation by claiming that he would then be released and have 10 days to leave Russia. However, he was not released and on the next day he was expelled to Georgia.161

Moscow police illegally detained David Latsabidze, who had all of the necessary documentation to live and work legally in Moscow. Authorities at the detention facility told him, “If you want to get out of here, then pay us money. US$500 per person.” He did not have the possibility of paying and was expelled from Russia, even after he refused to sign any document “confessing” to violating the law.162

Police detained Genadii Voronov on October 6 outside of the Georgian consulate in Moscow while he was waiting for a document necessary to process his application for permanent residency in Russia. He had lived in Russia for over 10 years and is married to a Russian. At the time of his detention, he had a valid visa and registration. Although he refused to sign a document stating that he was in Moscow illegally, the judge told him, “[If you don’t], things will get even worse for you.”163

Violation of the rights to counsel and to inform a person of the fact of detention

Georgian detainees repeatedly told Human Rights Watch that despite, in many cases, frequent requests, they were routinely denied legal and consular representation, in violation of both Russian and international law.164 In many cases, officials dissuaded Georgian detainees and their relatives from obtaining lawyers, leading them to believe that doing so would be fruitless or ultimately worse for the detainee. Some detainees also told Human Rights Watch that authorities denied them the opportunity to notify their families of the detention.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has determined that, as a fundamental safeguard, “Immigration detainees should—in the same way as other categories of persons deprived of their liberty—be entitled, as from the outset of their detention, to inform a person of their choice of their situation and to have access to a lawyer and a doctor. Further, they should be expressly informed, without delay and in a language they understand, of all their rights and of the procedure applicable to them.”165 The Body of Principles for the Protection of all Persons in any form of Detention also provides that all detainees should have the right to counsel.166 The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations guarantees detainees the right to request that their consulate be informed of their arrest, and guarantees consular officers the right to visit their national citizens who are detention, converse and correspond with them, and arrange their legal representation.167

Following their detention together with their father, police refused requests by Arthur and Andrei Sarksian to call their families or contact a lawyer. When their father appeared before the judge he was denied access to counsel.168 Immediately upon his detention, Gocha Khmaladze requested, “Give us a lawyer; give us a representative of our country. We are foreigners and have the right to call our embassy. Please give us the opportunity.” The police officers refused. A subsequent request to contact his embassy was met with cursing from the police officers on duty. When brought before the judge, he again requested a lawyer, but officials again rebuffed his request.169

When Ana A. considered hiring a lawyer for her husband, Givi G., a police official convinced her not to pursue this. Ana A. told Human Rights Watch,

The inspector [named] Galina said that it’s not necessary [to hire a lawyer], since nothing could help [my husband] now. She said that [if I hire a lawyer, then my husband] will be detained here, and it’s better [for him] to leave. She said it in such a way, that nothing would help, and I believed her. She said that it’s better to leave quickly, otherwise people can be detained for two to three months. So we decided that that [leaving] was better than writing an appeal or something similar…. I believed her because I came to her for advice because they [officials] know the law better than we do, and we had never been in this kind of situation before.170

Similarly, Abram Givishvili told Human Rights Watch that when police detained him he considered getting a lawyer, but the authorities convinced him otherwise. “I didn’t have [a lawyer] and I didn’t try to get one because they told me that there was no point to getting a lawyer,” he said.171

Violation of the right to a fair hearing

As noted above, under article 1 of protocol 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights all lawfully resident foreigners enjoy due process rights in expulsion proceedings. In addition, all individuals accused of breaking the law also have rights to a fair and proper hearing before an independent tribunal. If they face allegations of criminal acts, they are entitled to a fair trial. This right includes the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Under article 47 of the Russian Constitution, “No one may be denied the right to having his or her case reviewed by the court and the judge under whose jurisdiction the given case falls under the law.”172 Article 6 of the ECHR provides “In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.”173 Article 14 of the ICCPR reiterates this right.174

In cases researched by Human Rights Watch and in similar cases identified by others, the cursory conduct of the hearings and the failure by judges to make any effort to hear detainees’ testimony violated these principles. After detaining Georgians, police almost always brought them to local courts. However, in most cases researched by Human Rights Watch, Georgian detainees appeared before a judge for only a few minutes or were not actually brought before a judge at all. In such cases, judges never asked for any more information than the detainee’s name or address. Trials were often held in groups. In the vast majority of cases, judges issued decisions finding an administrative violation with a punishment of expulsion from Russia. Some judges issued fines of 1000 rubles (US$38) in addition to expulsions. Judges and court officials often pressured detainees to sign documents without allowing them to familiarize themselves with their contents. Only later did people realize that the documents that they had signed were expulsion orders. People were rarely given copies of the documents.

The police who detained Genadii Voronov accused him of having a fake visa and passport. Although he demanded an expert examination to determine the validity of the documents, the police took him to the court on charges of violating Moscow’s registration requirements. He described his brief appearance before a judge on October 6 to Human Rights Watch:

I saw the judge for literally two minutes. … There was this small room with a table and a computer … [where the judge] sat. I go in and he asks me, “Last name, first name?” I give him my name and date of birth, and he types something into the computer, gives me a paper and says, “Sign this.” … The judge issued a decision that I should be [expelled] … I say that I will not sign it or any other document. The judge says, “It will be even worse for you.” I was trying to explain that I wasn’t just simply living in Moscow, but that I had a family to take care of… He didn’t care.175

Tamar T. described to Human Rights Watch a similar situation. She appeared before a judge in a court in Moscow’s Cheremushkinskii district, together with several other Georgians in early October. The judge asked for the detainees’ names and as they all stood he told them, “You are expelled.” Each detainee then signed four documents that they were not allowed to read.176

David Latsabidze appeared before the judge together with five other Georgians who worked with him on a construction site. When David asked the judge for a lawyer, the judge said, “You will now go to the special detention facility. You will wait there. There will be a plane, and they will send you to Georgia.”177

Court officials also pressured Khatuna Dzadzamia to sign documents that she was not allowed to read. Dzadzamia, a Georgian refugee from Abkhazia, was a student in her last year at the Moscow Foreign Language Institute and had paid her tuition for the fall semester. Although she had a visa and registration valid through February 2007, on October 9, 2006 university officials demanded that she go to the local passport agency because there were allegedly problems with her passport. She was instructed to go to court and appear before a judge the next day. Dzadzamia told Human Rights Watch, “I went in and the judge only asked for my name and my address, that’s it. Then he stood up and left. Then they gave me ten copies of the judge’s decision to sign… I said to them, ‘Let me read [these documents].’ But they replied, ‘You can read them later. You can read it from beginning to end. Sign it first and then we’ll give it to you.’ … [T]hey didn’t tell me, what was written there, but then said, ‘You are to be expelled. Tomorrow there is a flight [to Georgia] and you will fly out.’ She was never given a copy of the expulsion order.178

Arthur and Andrei Sarksian were not brought before a judge at all. Their father, whose Georgian passport had expired and was thus in violation of the law, was brought before a judge, but his hearing lasted not more than 10 minutes. According to their father, the judge refused to sign an expulsion order for Arthur Sarksian and Andrei Sarksian because he did not believe that they had violated any laws. But, because the police had torn out the registration and work permit from his passport, Arthur Sarksian understood that it would be difficult to get a new registration, and in the meantime, police would detain him for a few hours at a time and force him to pay fines. Thus, the brothers departed with their father for Georgia, leaving behind their mother and younger brother in Moscow.179

Violation of the right to appeal

Some Georgian detainees were able to appeal the decisions taken against them, including the finding of a violation and the decision to expel them. However, in many cases identified by Human Rights Watch, Russian authorities denied Georgians the right to appeal, either denying detainees lawyers or the paper and writing instruments necessary to submit the appeal themselves, expelling them before the 10-day period granted for submission of an appeal, or dissuading detainees from appealing by threatening them with prolonged detention.180

During his two-minute court hearing, the judge told Genadii Voronov that he had the right to appeal the expulsion decision within 10 days. For unknown reasons, his lawyer encouraged him to write the appeal himself. However, the detention center officials refused to give him any paper and told him, “Well, ok, you can write it later, you still have time.” However, at 6 a.m. the following morning officials took Voronov to the airport in order to expel him. Although Voronov was denied the opportunity to write an appeal of the expulsion order himself, his lawyer had submitted an appeal, which the court upheld, sending the case back to the lower level court for further review. Voronov’s lawyer frantically attempted to come to the airport with the court decision that would have prevented his expulsion. However, the authorities failed to provide accurate information to the lawyer, telling him that they were taking Voronov first to one airport and then another. According to Voronov, “I asked them where we were going, so my lawyer could come. First they said, ‘to Chkalovskii’ [airport]. Then [they said,] ‘to Vnukovo’ [airport]. The lawyer went here and then there but didn’t make it [before I was expelled]. They tricked him.” Voronov was expelled, leaving his wife and four-month old daughter in Moscow.181

Khatuna Dzadzamia’s parents learned that they had 10 days to appeal their daughter’s expulsion order. However, Dzadzamia felt she had no choice but to agree to the expulsion. “They told me that it’s possible [to appeal] in principle, but that I would have to sit in the detention facility [isolator] for two months,” Dzadzamia told Human Rights Watch. “So, I voluntarily signed, stating that I agreed to be sent back to [Georgia]. … I signed [a document] stating that I would not appeal. I couldn’t wait [in detention] for two months. … Furthermore, the situation was such that, they said that all Georgians … to the last—would be expelled.” Dzadzamia was expelled to Georgia five days later. Her sister and parents remained in Moscow.182

Deaths of Georgians in Custody

Forty-eight-year-old Tengiz Togonidze and 51-year-old Manana Jabelia were subjected to harsh conditions of detention, were denied proper medical care, and died in custody during the campaign against Georgians. There were also reports that at least two additional ethnic Georgians were denied medical care because of their nationality and died as a result. There were no investigations opened into the deaths. The Russian authorities are obligated to promptly and effectively investigate every death and serious injury in custody. This obligation is based on the requirement to protect the right to life and the right to bodily integrity, particularly as it relates to persons in custody. For example, article 2 (the right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights imposes a positive obligation on governments to ensure that the law adequately protects the right to life and imposes strict requirements in relation to the investigation of fatal incidents, especially when considered together with article 13, the right to an effective remedy. The European Court has held that the same applies in article 3 (prohibition on ill-treatment) cases, where a detainee has “an arguable claim that he has been seriously ill-treated by the police or other such agents of the State.”183

Tengiz Togonidze, a Georgian citizen, died on October 17 at the Domodedovo airport in Moscow after being transported by bus from St. Petersburg together with 26 other Georgians who were to be expelled to Georgia. Tongidze suffered from multiple ailments, including asthma. The Georgian Consul to Russia, Zurab Pataradze, was called to the airport and witnessed Togonidze’s death. He described the scene to Human Rights Watch:

Seeing the bus [with Georgians arrive] from St. Petersburg, I immediately boarded the bus and saw him [Togonidze]. He looked extremely ill and he [suffered] like a fish that has been taken out of water … He begged, “Take me outside into the air.” … I personally asked the guards to allow us to take him off the bus … because he was very sick … As we were taking him to the terminal, together with Russian police, he thanked us, but at that moment I had to step away. … [After just a few minutes] one of my colleagues called me to say that Togonidze was feeling very bad and that he urgently needed an ambulance. We called the ambulance and called a doctor, but unfortunately they could not save him. That was the actual situation with this person. … If you saw the autopsy report, you would see that he was a walking corpse. … To detain him in such [poor] conditions was unacceptable and to transport him was also unacceptable. 184

Both the conditions of Togonidze’s 12-day detention and the conditions of transport from St. Petersburg to Moscow apparently contributed to his death. According to the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian authorities detained Togonidze on October 3, and denied him medical treatment and fresh air during the period of his detention.185 As described below, OMON riot police refused to allow Togonidze and his fellow passengers to exit the bus for fresh air or open the bus windows for the duration of the nine-hour bus ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow unless they paid a bribe.186 According to Nikoloz Gvaramia, the chair of the ad hoc Georgian parliamentary commission set up to examine the expulsions, Russian authorities refused to allow Georgian representatives to participate in the autopsy and issued an autopsy report claiming that 30 minutes before his death Togonidze had taken a large dose of methadone. The authorities did not explain how Togonidze, who had been in Russian custody until the moment of his death, obtained the methadone.187 The Georgian parliamentary commission report on the expulsions stated that the Moscow Department of Health’s autopsy of Togonidze’s body found six broken ribs caused by a blow by a dull, heavy object.188 Human Rights Watch has no information about the cause or timing of these injuries.

Manana Jabelia, an ethnic Georgian refugee from Abkhazia, died in a detention center in Moscow on December 2, eight weeks after she was detained by police and two days after a court overturned the decision for her expulsion. Manana Jabelia had lived in Russia legally with her husband and three children for 13 years, after fleeing the war in Abkhazia in 1993. Russian authorities detained Jabelia on October 4 at the Domodedovo market where she worked. She had an official certificate from the Georgian consulate stating that the consulate was preparing a new passport for her. On October 5 the authorities brought her to the Nagatinskii District Court in Moscow, which, during a 20-minute closed hearing of five individuals including Jabelia, ordered her expulsion to Georgia. According to her son, who spoke with Jabelia following the hearing, Jabelia was not allowed to speak during the hearing and did not receive a copy of the court decision. Jabelia refused to sign a document admitting that she lived in Russia illegally and agreeing to be expelled, but an official forged her signature.189

Russian authorities held Jabelia in special detention facility No. 2 in Moscow while her family appealed the decision. Her family had submitted a petition requesting that Jabelia be released pending the appeal, due to poor health associated with high blood pressure and other ailments. Although the Nagatinskii District Court authorities confirmed receipt of the petition, they never responded to the request. According to her son, while in detention, officials pressured Jabelia to withdraw her petition, saying, “You won’t win [your appeal] anyway. Not a single Georgian has won. You’ll be leaving [Russia] anyway, why torture yourself here [in detention].”190

The Moscow City Court heard the Manana Jabelia’s appeal on November 30 and overturned the expulsion order, issuing her a fine instead for failure to have a valid Moscow residency registration stamp. The judge refused to release Jabelia from detention that day, stating that the decision must first be sent to the judge issuing the lower court decision on December 1, the next day, after which Jabelia would be released. Jabelia accepted these circumstances, and, according to her husband, told him, “I already sat in detention for two months. It’s not like I can’t sit for three or four more days? What’s the worse that could happen to me?” Her husband told Human Rights Watch, “She said she was overjoyed that the truth had been found and satisfied that she would be with us soon.” Although her family went to the Nagatinskii District Court on December 1 to ensure the decision was implemented, the court claimed that it had not received the decision and so could not authorize Jabelia’s release. The family later learned that the decision had indeed arrived on December 1, but the court did not acknowledge this fact to Jabelia’s family.191

Jabelia fell ill early the next morning, on December 2. According to her relatives, a fellow cellmate unsuccessfully attempted to revive Jabelia. She apparently died from heart failure. Jabelia’s family was informed of the death only at 3 p.m., and when they went to the special detention facility to find out what had happened were told by a guard on duty, “It’s no big deal. It was a natural death.”192

Inhuman and Degrading Treatment

The Russian authorities subjected many detained Georgians to inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of the Russian constitution and Russia’s international legal obligations. Some detainees complained of racist insults. Many detainees were subjected to inhuman treatment as a result of the poor conditions of detention and expulsion. Detainees were held in overcrowded cells, and denied food and water. More than 100 Georgians were expelled from Russia on a Russian government cargo plane.

Article 21 of the Russian constitution prohibits“torture, violence or any other harsh or humiliating treatment or punishment.” The European Convention on Human Rights,193 the European Convention on the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment,194 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,195 and the Convention against Torture]196 all prohibit inhuman and degrading treatment. The European Court of Human Rights has held, including in cases against Russia, that detaining persons in sub-standard conditions of detention as well as ill-treatment of detainees will violate the prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment.197

Conditions of detention

Gocha Khmaladze described being held in a two-by-three meter holding cell in a police station. “There were about 15 or 16 people and during the night they added a few more… We had to stand all night. There was even a woman in there with us, together with her two [adult] children. We begged them to let her go home … but [the answer was], ‘No!’” The police officers denied the detainees food and water. When detainees asked for water, the police answered, “There’s a bathroom. [When we take you there,] drink from the toilet.” Later in the day, having received no food or water for nearly 36 hours, the detainees believed they were expected to drink from the toilet if they wanted water.198

A police van transferred Gocha Khmaladze and the other detainees from the police lock-up to a special detention facility for foreigners. On the way, the van encountered very slick roads due to a heavy rain and rolled over. Khmaladze told Human Rights Watch, “One guy even cut his head a bit; he banged up his head. And we were forced to get out and help them turn the van upright. Then they took us to the holding facility and I told them that this one guy had hurt his head. But they said, “That’s ridiculous. It’s nothing [serious], just a little cut.”199

Khmaladze was initially put into a cell designed for 12 people but holding approximately 50 people from Georgia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. There were no mattresses on the 12 metal beds where he spent his first night. The next day, he was moved to a cell for 12 people that was not crowded. He stayed there for three weeks. The cell was extremely dirty. He described the experience to Human Rights Watch:

They put us in there like pigs. It was a dirty place. Everywhere was dirty. We started to ask them [the guards], “Look, we are civilized people…, just treat us as people would treat people; we aren’t savages. Give us a broom and we’ll clean [the cell] ourselves.” But they told us, “We don’t have a broom.” We sat there until lunchtime and only at lunch did they bring us food. It was already the third day, and we were really hungry. They brought us food and brought us water. There were 12 of us [in the cell] but they only brought us [food] for nine people. We said, “What is this? Give us some more, so people can eat.” But they said, “There isn’t anymore.” This affected our psychology a bit.200

The detainees demanded more food and eventually the head of the facility came and provided them with 12 portions of food and a broom. The detainees cleaned out the cell themselves. Khmaladze reported that for the three weeks in this facility before being expelled, he and his cellmates continued to have difficulties exercising their rights and getting food, water, or access to toilet facilities. When Khmaladze threatened to commit suicide, the guards told him, “If you complain too much, we’ll call the doctor right now, give you some injections and send you off to the mental hospital, and there you can go and show them your rights.”201

Arthur and Andrei Sarksian described to Human Rights Watch the conditions in an overcrowded cell in the special detention facility. There were not enough beds in the room for all of the detainees and not even enough room for all of the detainees to lie on the floor at the same time. “[Sleep] happened in turns,” they said. “Standing, sitting, each found a way.”202 When Ana A.’s husband Givi G. was brought to a detention facility, the guards used hoses to wash him and other detainees.203

Authorities in Moscow detained Tamar T. for two months while appeals of her expulsion order were pending. During those two months she only had two opportunities to take a shower. In an attempt to stay clean, she would try to wash using water from the sink when guards took her to use the toilet. Detainees were allowed to use the toilet only three times a day, according to a strict schedule. Tamar T. described the food provided by the guards as barely edible. When one of Tamar T.’s cellmates fell ill, Tamar T. and the other detainees banged on the cell door asking the guards to take her out. The guards initially refused to take her to the toilet, saying, “Why are you banging like that? Now we won’t open the door at all. And you’ll have to use a bucket [as a toilet]!” Only after more efforts banging on the door, did the guards let the ill woman use the toilet. A woman from this same cell, Manana Jabelia, died on December 2 (see above, Deaths of Georgians in Custody).204

The authorities detained David Latsabidze in Moscow’s Serpukhovo special detention facility for foreigners for one week before he was expelled to Tbilisi. For the first three days, none of the detainees were taken out of his cell to use a toilet, but were forced to use a bucket in the cell. The authorities provided food only once per day. When the authorities removed Latsabidze from the cell in order to take him to the airport, they refused to return the money in his possession at the time he entered the facility. They told him that different staff members were on duty and he could get his possessions only by waiting for the next staff change.205

After police detained Khatuna Dzadzamia and took her to the court to receive her expulsion order, they kept her in the police station until midnight. They then drove her around Moscow for much of the night attempting to find a place for her in a detention facility. She told Human Rights Watch,

The police drove me around Moscow because they didn’t know where to take me because every place [of detention] was overfilled. There were Georgians detained everywhere. They took me first to the temporary holding cells, to the place where men are detained. [The guards] there told them, “We don’t accept females.” Then they took me to [the] Butyrka [pre-trial detention facility]. [The guards] there told them, “She’s not a criminal,” and they also wouldn’t accept me. And then they took me to where the psychiatric patients are kept, but they also refused to take me. And then they didn’t know where else to take me. [Eventually] they brought me to the temporary detention facility where women were detained. I entered there at about 6 a.m. I spent all night in the [police] car. And my parents followed us the whole time in another car. They didn’t know where [the police] were taking me.206

Conditions of expulsion

On October 6, the Russian government expelled a group of approximately 150 Georgians from Moscow to Tbilisi on a Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) cargo plane. The Georgian government protested this transport and on October 8 denied permission for any future MES flights to land in Georgia. As a compromise, Georgia allowed an MES cargo plane equipped with passenger seats for 119 Georgians to travel from Moscow to Tbilisi on October 9.207 Otar and Manana Palodze, husband and wife, were among the passengers on the cargo plane on October 6. Police had detained the couple the day before for having expired visas. Manana Palodze described the cargo plane to Human Rights Watch, “When I entered the plane, I nearly lost my mind. There were wires and things coming out of the walls and there were … only these beams to sit on … rows of benches. And they were all full of people. … There were about 15 children and some elderly people. We were all crying. The plane was awful, just awful…”208

In many cases, Russian authorities coerced detainees into buying their own tickets to depart Russia. Following four days in detention, Abram Givishvili called and asked a friend to buy him a plane ticket to Georgia. The police had told Abram, “You will sit [in detention] for a long time, so long as [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili doesn’t buy you a ticket.”209 Like others, he was forced to travel through Armenia to Georgia because Russia had suspended all airplane travel between Russia and Georgia. While in a Moscow detention facility for foreigners, the authorities told Arthur and Andrei Sarksian, “Either you buy a ticket, because no one is going to get you out of here, or you will be forced to do some labor to earn some money for the tickets.” The authorities refused to give the two access to a court hearing until they had purchased the tickets. They were not brought before a judge in any case.210

Detainees also faced ill-treatment during their transport from detention facilities to the airports where their expulsions would take place. OMON riot police escorted the detainees on the buses. Genadii Voronov told Human Rights Watch that on the trip from Moscow to the Domodedovo airport, on the southern outskirts of Moscow, “someone asked to go out to toilet, but the guards were unwilling to stop the bus and let anybody out, in case someone might run away.”211 According to Consul Zurab Pataradze, who interviewed 26 detainees whom police brought by bus from St. Petersburg to Moscow for their expulsion on October 17, “the fellow passengers uniformly told me … on the road from St. Petersburg to Moscow [the guards] did not let the passengers get off the bus, for physical needs, for the whole nine hours [of the trip] unless they paid a bribe. The guards [also] refused to allow the passengers to open the windows …”212 This bus included 48 year-old Tengiz Togonidze, who died almost immediately upon arrival at the airport (see above, Deaths of Georgians in Custody).

As noted above, Georgians who were expelled in later weeks were forced to undertake long, indirect routes through Armenia or Azerbaijan in order to reach Georgia due to the Russian blockade on transport between Georgia and Russia. Abram Givishvili stated that he was sent by plane from Saratov to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. He told Human Rights Watch, “They sent me to Yerevan. I told them that I’m not Armenian, so why are you sending me to a different country? They sent me using my own money. I called a friend who bought me a ticket using my money. He brought me the ticket [while I was in detention] … they detained me on the border, at the customs point in Armenia, when the plane arrived. They detained me for 24 hours. Employees from the Georgian embassy met me. I spent the night in the hotel and then they gave me permission to enter the country, my homeland. I also came [to Georgia from Yerevan] using my own money.”213

Expulsion of Georgian Refugees from Abkhazia

Human Rights Watch did not examine whether Russian authorities violated the government’s obligations under international refugee law in the campaign against Georgians. It is worth noting, however, that the expulsions of Georgians posed an additional hardship for the large numbers of ethnic Georgians from Abkhazia who have few, if any, family or economic ties to the rest of Georgia and little possibility of effective integration in the country. Approximately 250,000 Georgians were displaced from Abkhazia as a result of the conflict between ethnic Abkhaz separatist forces and Georgian troops in 1992-1993.214 According to the Georgian consulate in Moscow, some 50,000 Georgians from Abkhazia settled in Russia, where most lived legally using their Soviet passports until the 2002 law on the legal status of foreign citizens made Soviet passports obsolete. Many Georgians from Abkhazia sought and received Georgian passports to help legalize their status. Very few sought refugee status in Russia, because they did not have the necessary documents, were unwilling to commit time and resources to the difficult bureaucratic process of receiving refugee status, or believed that they would not receive the status if they applied.215

The vast majority of displaced Georgians from Abkhazia, including the large number of them in Russia, has no possibility to return to Abkhazia because the de facto Abkhaz government is not able to provide basic security or other necessary prerequisites for the displaced to return.216 There is also no real alternative of living in other parts of Georgia, where the situation for the internally displaced remains fragile, since the Georgian government has done little to help them integrate. 217 Many of the people interviewed by Human Rights Watch for this report were originally from Abkhazia, but had moved to Moscow during or soon after the war there.

Khatuna Dzadzamia, also a student, moved with her family from Abkhazia to Moscow in 1993, immediately after the war. The Russian authorities returned her to Georgia, while her parents and sister remained in Moscow. She described her life in Tbilisi following her expulsion, “I live with relatives. First one, then another. I don’t have a permanent place to live.”218 She had been in her final year of foreign language university studies and was hoping to resume her studies in Georgia. “I have been here for over a month. I submitted a lot of petitions [to resume my studies]. I’ve written and I’m waiting for an answer. … There have been no answers so far from anywhere.”219

The experience of one Georgian from Abkhazia, Dato D., who was forcibly returned to Georgia from Moscow just prior to the Russian government’s campaign, also illustrates the difficulties for Georgians from Abkhazia who are forced out of Russia. Border guards detained Dato D., a 20-year-old law student enrolled in a Russian university, at the airport on September 12 when he arrived from Georgia together with his sister to begin the school year. Dato D. had a valid passport and student visa, yet the border guards detained him and sent him back to Tbilisi.220

Dato D. told Human Rights Watch that he and his family lived for 14 years as displaced people in different Georgian cities, before going to Moscow in search of work and educational opportunities in 1999. He said that since his expulsion, his family remains in Moscow, and that he is in Zugdidi, a town in Western Georgia, struggling to maintain a basic existence. Dato D. told Human Rights Watch, “I am living here somehow. I have no money, no apartment, no classes.” He has made efforts to enroll in a Georgian university to resume his studies. “I appealed to the [Georgian] ombudsman, but they only sent a letter to the Ministry of Education asking that they accept me … But there has been no answer whatsoever. I must go there myself and clarify things, but it’s very difficult to clarify things, because everywhere here I am different [chuzhoi],” he told Human Rights Watch. Dato D.’s parents planned to leave Moscow to join him in Georgia, but he worried that the situation would be similarly difficult for them. “And what are they going to do here?” he said.221




91 “Russia’s State Human Rights Body Blasts Anti-Georgian Campaign,” RIA Vesti, November 8, 2006, as carried in BBC monitoring.

92 Human Rights Watch interview with Mikhail Lebedev, deputy director, Department for Humanitarian Affairs and Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow, March 28, 2007.

93 Ibid.

94 Human Rights Watch interview with Vyacheslav Postavnin, deputy director, Federal Migration Service, Moscow, March 30, 2007.

95 Human Rights Watch interview with Mikhail Lebedev, deputy director, Department for Humanitarian Affairs and Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow, March 28, 2007.

96 For example, in an October 25 hotline with the press, President Putin stated that “15,300 citizens from one [unnamed] republic were expelled from Russia, and about 13,400 citizens, I believe, from another republic, And Georgians - five thousand. Do you see the difference? And therefore to say that the process is selective [against Georgians] is wrong. That is not true.” President Putin did not explain which period these figures covered. “Putin on the line- 2006,” (Putin na line- 2006), lenta.ru, http://lenta.ru/articles/2006/10/25/putin/ (accessed June 12, 2007). In an interview with Human Rights Watch, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that for the first 10 months of 2006, there were 5,622 decisions on administrative expulsion against Georgians, and 1,151 Georgians were expelled from Russia. In comparison, more than 2,000 citizens of Tajikistan and 1,700 citizens of Uzbekistan were expelled. He could not specify how many Georgians were expelled in October or November 2006. Human Rights Watch interview with Mikhail Lebedev, deputy director, Department for Humanitarian Affairs and Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow, March 28, 2007.

97 Human Rights Watch interview with Mikhail Lebedev, deputy director, Department for Humanitarian Affairs and Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow, March 28, 2007 and Human Rights Watch letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, April 4, 2007 (see Appendix A). Human Rights Watch made a subsequent phone call to the Ministry of Internal Affairs regarding the letter, but the ministry declined to provide any substantive information.

98 European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, “European Commission against Racism and Intolerance on recent events affecting persons of Georgian origin in the Russian Federation (adopted on 15 December 2006 at ECRI’s 41st plenary meeting),” December 15, 2006, https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1074551&BackColorInternet=F5CA75&BackColorIntranet=F5CA75&BackColorLogged=A9BACE (accessed September 6, 2007).

99 Ivan Buranov, “Georgian migrants are following right behind the wine,” (Gruzinskie migranty poshli vsled za vinom), Kommersant, No. 183 (3514), September 30, 2007 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=709006 (accessed August 1, 2007). In the same article, the vice-president of the Society of Georgians in Russia stated that the figures regarding Georgian labor migrants were inaccurate. 

100 Ibid.

101 Nikolai Sergeev, Ivan Tyazhlov, Ander Chevrakov, “The law wasn’t wasted on Georgians,” (Na gruzin ne pozhaleli zakon) Kommersant, No. 186 (3517) October 5, 2006, http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=710392 (accessed July 31, 2007).

102 Ibid.

103 According to the New York Times, “Officials’ remarks … have left little doubt that they have singled out Georgians for enforcement.” Steven Lee Meyers, “Russia Deports Georgians and Increases Pressures on Businesses and Students,” New York Times, October 7, 2006, p. 8. See also, “Putin orders a government-scale ethnic cleansing from the marketplaces,” (Putin velel nachat etnicheskuiu chistku gosudarstvennovo mashtaba s rynkov), NEWSru.com, October 5, 2006, http://www.newsru.com/russia/05oct2006/rynok.html (accessed March 8, 2007).

104 “Opening Address at the Session of the Council for the Implementation of Priority National Projects and Demographic Policy 5 October 2006,” President of Russia website, http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2006/10/05/1156_type82913_112091.shtml (accessed April 24, 2007).

105 Ibid.

106 Interfax reported that Putin used the word “ethnic” in his speech. “Putin wants immediate steps to regulate retail markets,” Interfax, October 5, 2006, http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11599826 (accessed May 23, 2007); The Moscow Times noted that on the Presidential website the word “ethnic” was eliminated. See, Nabi Abdullaev, “Tougher Migrant Laws Proposed,” The Moscow Times, October 6, 2006, http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/10/06/001.html (accessed April 23, 2007). See also Fred Weir, “Putin Taps into a Growing Anti-Minority Fervor,” The Christian Science Monitor Europe Edition, October 10, 2006, http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1010/p01s04-woeu.html (accessed May 23, 2007) and Steven Lee Meyers, “Russia Deports Georgians and Increases Pressures on Businesses and Students.”

107 The Russian government effectively controls the major media outlets in Russia, including the three largest television networks- Channel One, RTR and NTV- and the newspapers with the largest circulation. See Yevgenia Albats, “A Dead Man Still Walking,” Global Integrity website, January 31, 2005, http://www.globalintegrity.org/reports/2004/default6efd.html?act=22 (retrieved June 7, 2007); Owen Matthews and Anna Nemtsova, “War with the Media: Moscow’s crackdown on independent news outlets harkens back to the dark days of the Soviet era,” Newsweek International, July 2-9, 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19388715/site/newsweek/ (accessed August 9, 2007); and Alex Nicholson, “New Concerns on Russia Media Freedom,” Guardian Unlimited, May 19, 2007 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6645425,00.html (accessed June 5, 2007).

108 The SOVA center documented a general increase in hate speech in the media from September- December 2006, and determined this to be related to the anti-Georgian and anti-migrant campaigns as well as to events in Kondopoga. Galina Kozhevnikova, “Hate speech: after Kondopoga,” (Iazik vrazhdy: posle Kondopogi).

109 The SOVA center’s monitoring in September-December 2006, found that when the Russian media spoke about the criminality of an ethnic or religious group, more than 57 percent of the time it referred either to Caucasians as a whole, Chechens, or other groups from the Caucasus, including Georgians. Over forty percent of “degrading or offensive” references to ethnic groups targeted Caucasians as a whole, Chechens, or other groups from the Caucasus, including Georgians. Galina Kozhevnikova, “Hate speech: after Kondopoga,” (Iazik vrazhdi: posle Kondopogi).

110 The document was about actions taken towards Georgians in response to a Ministry of Internal Affairs order. Summary Note on the Situation as of 3 p.m., November 1, 2006, (Obzornaia Spravka po sostoyaniyu na 01 noiabria 2006g. 15.00 chas), Federal Migration Service of Russia, on file with Human Rights Watch.

111 “Criminal: Who are the Georgian “thieves-in-law’?” (Kriminal: Kto takie gruzinskie ‘vory v zakone?’) Komsomolskaya Pravda, October 12, 2006. http://www.kp.ru/daily/23789.3/58488/ (accessed June 6, 2006); and Galina Kozhevnikova, “Hate speech: after Kondopoga,” (Iazyk vrazhdy: posle Kondopogi).

112 “Portrait of the phenomenon,” (Portret iavleniia), Komsomolskaya Pravda, October 5, 2006, http://www.kp.ru/daily/23785/58177/ (accessed June 6, 2006).

113 Galina Kozhevnikova, “Hate speech: after Kondopoga,” (Iazyk vrazhdy: posle Kondopogi).

114 “Moscow police prepares to conduct new inspections in restaurants and casinos,” (Moskovskaya militsia gotovitsya provesti novye proverki v restoranakh i kazino), Channel One, October 6, 2006, http://www.1tv.ru/owa/win/ort6_main.main?p_news_title_id=94579&p_news_razdel_id=7 (accessed June 8, 2007).

115 “As a result of inspections by law enforcement agencies, a casino in Moscow was closed,” (Rezultatom proverki pravookhranitelnikh organiov stalo zarkytie kazino v Moskve), Channel One, October 3, 2006, http://www.1tv.ru/owa/win/ort6_main.main?p_news_title_id=94467&p_news_razdel_id=1 (accessed June 8, 2007).

116 “In St. Petersburg, inspections of gaming houses, controlled by Georgian criminal groups,” (V Peterburge proveriaiut igrovye kluby, kontroliryemye gruzinskimi gruppirovkami,” Channel One, October 6, 2006, http://www.1tv.ru/owa/win/ort6_main.main?p_news_title_id=94604&p_news_razdel_id=7 (accessed June 8, 2007)

117 Igor Vyatkin, the head of Department for the Fight against Ethnic Criminal Groups of the Main Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District, stated, “V gruzinskoi srede ochen silnye vorovskie traditsii, kak ne v kakoi drugoi v nastoiashee vremya.” “Gruzinskie grazhdane eto kategoria gruppi riska, to est, naibolee podverzheni [k] prestupnosti, skazhem tak, i narusheniyam rossiskogo zakonodatelstva.” http://xeno.sova-center.ru/213716E/21728E3/922A24B (accessed May 23, 2006).

118 Ibid.

119 A thorough search of NTV’s website could not locate this program. The program was posted on the popular website YouTube, however. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0irEpZ_Uz0 (accessed May 2, 2007).

120 “TV Commentator ridicules Russian opponents of anti-Georgian campaign,” BBC Monitoring October 12, 2006.

121 “Georgians in Moscow where shown ‘The Elephant and Moska:’ An anti-Georgian campaign has begun in Russia,” (Gruzinam pokazali “Slona i Mosku:” v Rossii nachalas antigruzinskaia kampania), Kommersant, No. 185, October 4, 2006, http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=709919 (accessed May 15, 2007). The title of the article refers to a Russian fairytale in which a small dog, “Moska,” barks loudly at an elephant, who pays no attention to the noisy but non-threatening creature. Protestors outside of the Georgian embassy in Moscow put on a performance of this fairytale. One protestor wore a NATO soldier’s uniform and carried a little “Moska” dog labeled “Georgia,” while another protestor wore an elephant costume with the label “Russia.”

122 Summary Note on the situation as of 3 p.m., November 1, 2006, (Obzornaia spravka po sostoyaniyu na 01 noiabria 2006g. 15.00 chas), Federal Migration Service of Russia, on file with Human Rights Watch.

123 Emphasis added.

124 Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, No. 195-FZ of December 30, 2001, with Amendments and Additions, art. 18, parts 8 and 10.

125 On file with Human Rights Watch.

126 On file with Human Rights Watch.

127 On file with Human Rights Watch.

128 “Moscow department of education stands up for Georgian children,” (Department obrazovaniya Moskvi zastupilsia za gruzinskikh detei) Lenta.ru, October 6, 2007, http://lenta.ru/news/2006/10/06/departament/ (accessed April 17, 2007).

129 See Maria Zheleznova, Evgenia Pismennaia, Artyom Vernidub, and Alesandr Raskin, “Werewolves in tiger skins,” (Oborotni v tigrovikh shkurakh) Russian Newsweek, No. 40 (118) October 16-22, 2006, http://www.runewsweek.ru/rubrics/?rubric=country&rid=1403 (accessed March 19, 2007).

130 Within a few weeks, most of the casinos were again open for business. One restaurant, Genatsvale, was closed for just one day. “The majority of casinos closed by the police are open,” (Bolshinstvo zakritikh militsii kazino otkrilis), Lenta.ru, October 25, 2007, http://lenta.ru/news/2006/10/25/open/ (accessed May 15, 2007).

131 Steven Lee Meyers, “Russia Deports Georgians and Increases Pressures on Businesses and Students.” Private actors also took actions against Georgians. The Web server “GarantHost.ru” cut ties with 16 web pages and one web design studio run by Georgians. On October 21, unknown individuals attacked the Marat Gelman gallery in Moscow which was showing the work of the Georgian artist Aleksandr Jikia. “Conclusions of the Ad Hoc Commission of the Parliament of Georgia to Study Acts committed by the Russian Federation towards Citizens of Georgia,” February 22, 2007, on file with Human Rights Watch.

132 David Nowak, “Fearful Georgians Shut Down Stalls and Eateries,” The Moscow Times, October 9, 2006, http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/10/09/014.html (accessed April 23, 2007).

133 Human Rights Watch interview with Gia Kandelaki, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

134 The restaurant’s name, Tsartisa Tamara, is a reference to a Georgian queen. Human Rights Watch interview with Gia Kandelaki, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

135 Human Rights Watch interview with Gia Kandelaki, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

136 Human Rights Watch interview with Ana A. Out of concerns for her safety, pseudonyms for the interviewee and her husband are being used at the interviewee’s request. Moscow, December 18, 2006.

137 Article 22 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states, “ 1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom and personal inviolability. 2. Arrest, detention and keeping in custody shall be allowed only by an order of a court of law. No person may be detained for more than 48 hours without an order of a court of law.” Constitution of the Russian Federation, Adopted December 12, 1993, http://www.russianembassy.org/RUSSIA/CONSTIT/index.htm (accessed July 31, 2007).

138 Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, No. 195-FZ of December 30, 2001, with Amendments and Additions, articles 18.8 and 18.10.

139 Committee against Torture, “Conclusions and recommendations of the Committee against Torture, Russian Federation,”CAT/C/RUS/CO/4, February 6, 2007, http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G07/403/38/PDF/G0740338.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 1, 2007), paragraph 18.

140 A deportation order is issued by the Federal Migration Service against a foreigner in three cases: in the event that a foreigner does not voluntarily depart Russia within the specified time frame if his or her permission to stay in Russia has been shortened or his or her temporary or permanent residency permit has been annulled, in accordance with article 31 of the Federal law on the legal status of foreigners in the Russian Federation; in the event of a decision taken on the undesirability of a particular foreigner entering or staying in Russia in accordance with article 25.10 of the Law on the Exit from the Russian Federation and the Entry into the Russian Federation; and in the event of a denial of refugee status in accordance with the Federal Law on Refugees. “Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Order of August 26, 2004 No. 533, Moscow. On the organization of the activities of organs of internal affairs of the Russian Federation and the Federal Migration Service on deportation or administrative expulsion of foreigners or stateless persons from the Russian Federation.” (Prikaz Ministerstva vnutrennikh del Rossiiskoi Federatsii ot 26 avgusta 2004 g. N 533 g. Moskva Ob organizatsii deyatelnosti organov vnutrennikh del Rossiiskoi Federatsii i Federalnoi migratsionnoi sluzhby po deportatsii libo administrativnomu vydvoreniyu za predely Rosiiskoi Federatsii inostrannogo grazhdanina ili litsa bez grazhdanstva). The media and many of those expelled frequently mistakenly used the term ‘deportation,’ when referring to the administrative expulsions of Georgians.

141 Human Rights Watch interview with Zurab Pataradze, Consul of Georgia to Russia, Moscow, November 28, 2006 and December 14, 2006.

142 Ibid.

143 Human Rights Watch interview with Father Miron, Moscow, December 13, 2006.

144 Ibid.

145 Human Rights Watch interview with David Latsabidze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

146 Human Rights Watch interview with Gocha Khmaladze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

147 Ibid. In one incident reported by The Moscow Times, in exchange for a bribe, a police officer allowed the Georgian driver of a Canadian businessman to escape deportation. The police officer admitted, “Ethnically based? Of course it is ethnically based. We are taking in all Georgians. This should teach them some respect for their neighbors.” David Nowak, “Fearful Georgians Shut down Stalls and Eateries,” The Moscow Times, October 9, 2006, http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/10/09/014.html (accessed April 23, 2007).

148 Human Rights Watch interview with Gocha Khmaladze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

149 The brothers believed that the other 20 people detained with them in the cell of the special detention facility also had not been brought before a judge. Human Rights Watch interview with Arthur and Andrei Sarksian, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

150 Human Rights Watch interview with Ana A., Moscow, December 18, 2006.

151 Human Rights Watch interview with Tamar T. Out of concerns for her safety, a pseudonym is being used at the interviewee’s request. Moscow, December 11, 2006.

152 Human Rights Watch interview with Abram Givishvili, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

153 Human Rights Watch interview with Otar and Manana Palodze, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

154 Svetlana Gannushkina, Press Conference, Moscow, October 10, 2006.

155 Human Rights Watch interview with Gocha Khmaladze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

156 Human Rights Watch interview with Ana A., Moscow, December 18, 2006.

157 Human Rights Watch interview with David Latsabidze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

158 Human Rights Watch interview with Gocha Khmaladze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

159 Ibid.

160 Ibid.

161 Human Rights Watch interview with Ana A., Moscow, December 18, 2006.

162 Human Rights Watch interview with David Latsabidze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

163 Human Rights Watch interview with Genadii Voronov, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

164 Article 48.2 of the Russian constitution guarantees that “every person who has been detained, taken into custody or charged with a crime shall have the right to legal counsel (defense attorney) from the moment of, respectively, detention or indictment.” Constitution of the Russian Federation, Adopted December 12, 1993. The Code of Administrative Offenses guarantees that, at the request of a detainee, the authorities will inform his relatives, his place of employment or study, and a lawyer of the detainee’s whereabouts. Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, No. 195-FZ of December 30, 2001, with Amendments and Additions, article 27.3.3.

165 The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), “The CPT Standards, Substantive Sections of the CPT’s General Reports,” p. 42, para. 30.

166 Principle 17: 1. A detained person shall be entitled to have the assistance of a legal counsel. He shall be informed of his right by the competent authority promptly after arrest and shall be provided with reasonable facilities for exercising it. 2. If a detained person does not have a legal counsel of his own choice, he shall be entitled to have a legal counsel assigned to him by a judicial or other authority in all cases where the interests of justice so require and without payment by him if he does not have sufficient means to pay. Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment (Body of Principles).

167 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, adopted April 24, 1963, U.N.T.S 596, entered into force on March 19, 1976.

168 Human Rights Watch interview with Arthur and Andrei Sarksian, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

169 Human Rights Watch interview with Gocha Khmaladze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

170 Human Rights Watch interview with Ana A., Moscow, December 18, 2006.

171 Human Rights Watch interview with Abram Givishvili, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

172 Constitution of the Russian Federation, Adopted December 12, 1993.

173 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

174 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976.

175 Human Rights Watch interview with Genadii Voronov, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

176 Human Rights Watch interview with Tamar T., Moscow, December 11, 2006.

177 Human Rights Watch interview with David Latsabidze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

178 Human Rights Watch interview with Khatuna Dzadzamia, Tbilisi, December 2, 2006.

179 Human Rights Watch interview with Arthur and Andrei Sarksian, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

180 Article 50 of the Russian constitution guarantees, “Everyone sentenced for a crime shall have the right to have the sentence reviewed by a higher court according to the procedure instituted by the federal law, and also the right to plea for clemency or mitigation punishment.” Constitution of the Russian Federation, adopted December 12, 1993. Article 30.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences reiterates this right and article 30.3 allows 10 days for the appeal to be submitted. Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, No. 195-FZ of December 30, 2001, with Amendments and Additions.

181 Human Rights Watch interview with Genadii Voronov, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

182 Human Rights Watch interview with Khatuna Dzadzamia, Tbilisi, December 2, 2006.

183 For European Court findings specifically related to effective investigation into alleged violations of article 3, see Assenov and others v. Bulgaria, no. 24760/94, judgment of October 28, 1998, para. 102; and Sakik and others v. Turkey, no. 31866/96, judgment of October 10, 2000, para. 62, all available at www.echr.coe.int.

184 Human Rights Watch interview with Zurab Pataradze, Consul of Georgia to Russia, Moscow, November 28, 2006 and December 14, 2006.

185 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, “Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia,” October 17, 2006, http://www.mfa.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=36&info_id=2504 (accessed May 13, 2007).

186 Human Rights Watch interview with Zurab Pataradze, Consul of Georgia to Russia, Moscow, November 28, 2006 and December 14, 2006.

187 Human Rights Watch interview with Nikoloz Gvaramia, Chair of the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Commission of Georgia to Study Acts Committed by the Russian Federation towards Citizens of Georgia, Tbilisi, December 1, 2006.

188 “Conclusions of the Ad Hoc Commission of the Parliament of Georgia to Study Acts committed by the Russian Federation towards Citizens of Georgia,” February 22, 2007, on file with Human Rights Watch.

189 Human Rights Watch interview with Noko Kvartatshelia and David Kvartatshelia, Moscow, December 8, 2006.

190 Human Rights Watch interview with Noko Kvartatshelia, Moscow, December 8, 2006.

191 Human Rights Watch interview with Noko Kvartatshelia and David Kvartatshelia, Moscow, December 8, 2006.

192 Ibid.

193 Article 3, European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

194 European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

195 Article 7, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

196 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture).

197 See, Kalashnikov v. Russia, no. 47095/99, judgment of July 15, 2002. See also, inter alia, Peers v. Greece, no.28524/95, judgment of April 19, 2001; Dougoz v. Greece, no. 40907/98,judgment of March 6, 2001; Melnik v. Ukraine, no. 72286/01, judgment of March 28, 2006; Nevemerzhitsky v. Ukraine, no. 54825/00, judgment of April 5, 2005; Khokhlich v. Ukraine, no. 41707/98, judgment of April 29, 2003; and Mathew v. the Netherlands, no. 24919/03, judgment of 29 September 2005, all available at www.echr.coe.int.

198 Human Rights Watch interview with Gocha Khmaladze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

199 Ibid.

200 Ibid.

201 Ibid.

202 Human Rights Watch interview with Arthur and Andrei Sarksian, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

203 Human Rights Watch interview with Ana A., Moscow, December 18, 2006.

204 Human Rights Watch interview with Tamar T., Moscow, December 11, 2006.

205 Human Rights Watch interview with David Latsabidze, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

206 Human Rights Watch interview with Khatuna Dzadzamia, Tbilisi, December 2, 2006.

207 “Saakashvili refuses to accept [Russian] Ministry of Emergency Situations flights carrying Georgians expelled from Russia,” (Saakashvili zapretil prinimat samoleti MChS s vyslanami iz RF gruzinami), Lenta.ru, October 8, 2007, http://lenta.ru/news/2006/10/08/cargo/ (accessed April 17, 2007); and “Georgia agrees to accept Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations flights,” (Gruzia soglasilas prinyat samoleti MChS Rossii), Lenta.ru, October 10, 2007, http://lenta.ru/news/2006/10/10/planes/ (accessed April 17, 2007).

208 Human Rights Watch interview with Manana Palodze, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

209 Human Rights Watch interview with Abram Givishvili, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

210 Human Rights Watch interview with Arthur and Andrei Sarksian, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

211 Human Rights Watch interview with Genadii Voronov, Tbilisi, December 5, 2006.

212 Human Rights Watch interview with Zurab Pataradze, Consul of Georgia to Russia, Moscow, November 28, 2006 and December 14, 2006.

213 Human Rights Watch interview with Abram Givishvili, Tbilisi, December 4, 2006.

214 The actual numbers are disputed. See International Crisis Group, “Abkhazia: Ways Forward.”

215 For more information and an analysis of the shortcomings of Russia’s refugee laws and policy, please see, “Report from an International Research Mission: Migrants in Russia,” published jointly by the La Fédération Internationale des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH) and Grazhdanskoe Sodestvie (Civic Assistance Committee), July 26, 2007, http://refugee.memo.ru/C325678F00668DC3/$ID/90119D01A56DAEA5C325732500476C85 (accessed July 30, 2007).

216 In recent years approximately 45,000 Georgians have returned to the Gali region of southern Abkhazia, but no large-scale returns have happened in any other parts of Abkhazia. In addition to lack of security guarantees, major problems for returnees include the lack of property rights and restitution of their homes, as well as access to Georgian-language schools. International Crisis Group, “Abkhazia: Ways Forward,” pp. 19-23.

217 Ibid, p. 18.

218 Human Rights Watch interview with Khatuna Dzadzamia, Tbilisi, December 2, 2006.

219 Ibid.

220 Human Rights Watch interview with Dato D. Out of concerns for his safety, a pseudonym is being used at the interviewee’s request. Tbilisi, December 2, 2006.

221 Ibid.


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