The situation in Chechnya[1]
Doc 7532
23 April 1996OPINION[2]
Rapporteur: Mr BINDIG, Germany, Socialist Group
I. Introduction
1. On 28 February 1996, the Russian Federation became a member of the Council of Europe, following a positive vote in the Assembly on 25 January 1996. Upon its accession, the Russian Federation entered into some specific commitments regarding the conflict in Chechnya, which are enumerated in Opinion No. 193 (1996), namely
a. "(that) those found responsible for human rights violations will be brought to justice - notably in relation to events in Chechnya" (par. 7 vii.);
b. "to settle international as well as internal disputes by peaceful means (...)" (par. 10 vii.);
c. "to respect strictly the provisions of international humanitarian law, including in cases of armed conflict on its territory" (par. 10 xxiv.);
d. "to co-operate in good faith with international humanitarian organisations and to enable them to carry on their activities on its territory in conformity with their mandates" (par. 10 xxv.).
2. As the Assembly reiterated in Opinion No. 193 (1996), "the Chechen conflict cannot be resolved by the use of force". The Assembly also stated that there would be no peace in the region, nor an end to terrorist attacks, without a political solution based on negotiation and on European democratic values. Sadly, recent developments in Chechnya have proved the Assembly right: According to reports by international organisations such as the OSCE, international humanitarian organisations such as the Red Cross, non-governmental organisations (both national and international), as well as media reports, the carnage in Chechnya continues to this very day.
3. Since there was no possibility for the Ad Hoc Committee on Chechnya to visit the region before this part-session, the Assembly has been unable to verify itself the truthfulness of the accounts mentioned above. However, since most of the sources are highly respectable organisations, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights deems their reports and accounts to be correct, unless proven otherwise.
4. According to these reports, neither the Russian authorities nor the Chechen combatants have stopped violating international humanitarian law. In particular, Russian troops are responsible for an unnecessarily high loss of civilian lives in the Chechen conflict - as the Minister of the Interior of the Russian Federation himself admitted in a newspaper interview, 90% of victims are civilians. In contravention of the Geneva Conventions, access to combat areas, prisoners of war, the wounded and the dying, has in several cases been denied to international organisations, including the International Red Cross. Gross human rights abuses have been reportedly perpetrated by Russian servicemen, who are apparently not being brought to justice. The Chechen fighters have not stopped their brutal terrorist attacks, taking hundreds of hostages, and have continued to provoke Federal attacks on Chechen civilians by taking up positions near civilian dwellings and not giving civilians clear warnings to evacuate before taking up such positions.
5. The Committee is of the opinion that such developments on the ground cannot be ignored. Fine words uttered by President Yeltsin in the course of the presidential election campaign are not enough, if they are not followed up with concrete actions. Refusing to negotiate, as the Chechen leader Mr Dudayev seems to be doing, is equally unhelpful. The current situation, as it has evolved since Russia's accession to the Council of Europe, is totally unacceptable from a legal and human rights point of view. The Assembly - with the help of its Ad Hoc Committee on Chechnya, as well as the other committees responsible - should take concrete actions to ensure that the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law cease immediately, and that a politically negotiated peaceful solution is found to the conflict.
II. Violations of human rights and international humanitarian law
6. I do not want to enumerate here all the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that have been perpetrated by both sides in the last few months, but I do want to highlight some of the most horrific in order to give some examples on what is actually going on in Chechnya at the moment.
A. The Russian side
7. The most typical violations of international humanitarian law on the Russian side consist in the use of indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force affecting civilian centres, such as aerial bombardment, long-range artillery shelling and indiscriminate shooting. Reports of such actions have come in from Novogroznensky in February 1996, Vedeno, Dargo, Sernovodsk, Argun, Bamut and Shali in March and April 1996. Direct attacks on civilians and collective punishment against civilians have allegedly also not ceased, with the village of Samashki becoming the victim of a reported second civilian massacre in March 1996 (the first haven taken place in April 1995). Human rights abuses in the course of disarmament - i.e. the setting of arbitrary totals of weapons to be turned in by village elders, under the threat that military action would otherwise be taken against the village - are also reportedly continuing.
8. Human rights abuses by individual members of the Russian troops, especially the Ministry of the Interior and the OMON-troops[3], are commonplace: Robbery and looting, wanton destruction, extortion, and - to a lesser extent - arson, rape, torture, manslaughter and murder are still being reported. The problem is that no effort seems to be made by the Russian authorities to have these cases investigated, let alone catch and punish the guilty. Beatings and torture on the way to and in the filtration points, where Chechen youngsters and men are brought for questioning on their possible involvement with rebel activities, and from where they sometimes "disappear", might even be an officially sanctioned policy.
B. The Chechen side
9. The Chechen fighters' most well known violations of human rights are their terrorist attacks, which no cause can justify. For example, Chechen fighters took hundreds of vulnerable hostages in their attack on the Kizlyar hospital in January 1996 which ended in the bloodbath of Piervomayskoye on the Dagestan-Chechen border. Chechen fighters still hold several tens of hostages, including civilians (construction and power-plant workers, truck drivers and even two Russian Orthodox priests), all of them taken since December 1995. Obviously, such hostage-taking cannot but be condemned in the strongest terms.
10. However, the Chechen fighters' most routine tactic which violates international humanitarian law is to use civilian dwellings and public buildings as a starting point for military action and the civilian inhabitants as a kind of human shield, without giving clear warnings to evacuate beforehand. Usually, by the time the provoked Russian troops react - often with the use of disproportionate force - the Chechen fighters have long withdrawn, leaving the civilian population to bear the brunt of the attack. Thus the Chechen fighters themselves disregard the loss of civilian life as a consequence of their war tactics.
III. Possible solutions to the conflict
11. Several proposals have been made in Russia to develop and implement a peace plan. President Yeltsin's "plan to solve the crisis in the Chechen Republic" of 31 March 1996, which is mentioned in the draft resolution, is only one of many. Some deputies of parliament[4] have presented a peace plan, which also merits attention. As emphasised in the draft resolution, it is not important whose peace plan is actually implemented, as long as concrete steps are finally taken.
12. Obviously the most basic elements of any peace plan would have to include a negotiated (and respected) cease-fire, as well as the cessation of terrorist attacks on the one side, and a phased withdrawal of Federal Russian troops on the other side. Talks would then have to begin on the future status of Chechnya. These talks can only be successful if they involve all parties to the conflict, and do not exclude certain factions or persons such as Mr Dudayev.
13. As in all armed conflicts, be they internal or external, justice will have to be done to ensure that a new cease-fire does not falter and fail like the last one. Documented human rights abuses[5], for example by Federal Russian troops in filtration camps and Chechen villages, have to be investigated and the guilty punished. Free and fair elections to positions of authority in the Chechen Republic will have to be held with the participation of international observers. Only then can the reconstruction of Chechnya with the aid of foreign countries and international organisations begin.
IV. Conclusions
14. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights cannot but condemn the recent developments in Chechnya, for which both sides involved in the conflict - the Russian authorities and the Chechen combatants - bear responsibility. This is not the first resolution the Assembly is passing on the Chechen conflict: In January 1995, the Assembly deemed the human rights violations in Chechnya to be reason enough to suspend the procedure on Russia's application for membership of the Council of Europe. By September 1995 the situation had improved so far that the membership procedure could be resumed, but since Russia's accession to the Council of Europe has worsened again. In actual fact, the current situation is probably even worse than in January 1995, since the Chechen side had not yet resorted to hostage-taking and terrorist attacks at that time.
15. Regrettably, it must thus be concluded that Russia, only two months after she became a full member of the Council of Europe, is blatantly disregarding the standards and principles of the Council of Europe in respect of her conduct in Chechnya. For the time being, it would seem best if the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights opened the procedure for the honouring of commitments and obligations by member States under Order No. 508 (1995) on Russia as soon as possible, to give the Committees involved the opportunity to ensure that Russia does not continue to openly flout its commitments and obligations. However, the Russian authorities should be aware of the fact that - in accordance with Order No. 508 (1995) - persistent failure to honour commitments freely entered into will have consequences.
16. Since I had the opportunity, following a meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Chechnya, to present a considerably revised draft resolution and a draft order to the Political Affairs Committee on Monday night, which accepted practically all my proposals, I see no further need to amend the draft texts to be adopted. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights thus endorses the draft resolution on the conflict in Chechnya.
Reporting committee: Political Affairs Committee
Committee for opinion: Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights
Opinion approved by the committee on 23 April 1996
Secretaries to the committee: Mr Plate, Ms Chatzivassiliou and Mrs Kleinsorge
[1]. See Doc. 7531
[2]. of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.
[3]. A special police force - the abbreviation stands for "Special Mission Militia Detachment".
[4]. MM. Abdulatipov, Borchev, Gaidar, Kovalev, Lukin, Molostvov, Ponomarev, Rybakov, Sheynis and Yavlinskiy.
[5]. In the report on the Sub-Committee on Human Rights' visit to Chechnya in June 1995, for example, included in Doc. 7384 of the Assembly.