Doc. 9688

28 January 2003

Evaluation of the prospects for a political solution of the conflict in the Chechen Republic

Opinion1

Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights

Rapporteur: Mr Rudolf Bindig, Germany, Socialist Group

I. Conclusions of the Committee

1. The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights fully supports the Political Affairs Committee in its analysis of the situation and its findings. In particular, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights aligns itself with the Political Affairs Committee in its call to postpone the referendum on the draft constitution of the Chechen Republic. The Committee agrees that the necessary conditions for the holding of such a referendum are not and cannot be met by 23 March 2003, in view of the rising insecurity in the Republic. There is no possibility for a free and democratic vote when even the 80.000 law enforcement-troops stationed in the Republic (at a ratio of 1 soldier to six adult civilians), the presence of multiple barricaded checkpoints (I counted 28 on a 40 km stretch of road from Grozny to the Ingush border) and severe restrictions on the freedom of movement and assembly do not guarantee the safety of civilians in the Chechen Republic.

2.        The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights would like to draw particular attention to the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic, which remains dismal. Civilians are targeted by both sides to the conflict, in violation of international humanitarian law. Some Chechen fighters have been perpetrating gruesome terrorist attacks, and routinely kidnap and kill their countrymen involved in the administration of the Republic. Some members of the Russian forces have also been continuing their harassment and brutality against civilians, culminating in illegal arrests, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial executions. The Russian authorities seem to be unwilling or unable to stop these grave human rights violations from happening. The prosecuting bodies seem equally unwilling or unable (or are being systematically obstructed in their efforts) to find and bring to justice the guilty parties. A climate of impunity thus reigns in the Chechen Republic which makes normal life in the Republic impossible.

Amendments proposed by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights to:

To the draft resolution:

Amendment A

Add the following new paragraph after paragraph 4:

Amendment B

In sub-paragraph 5 b, add the following words before “and that”:

      “Order No 46 is fully respected during operations to check citizen’s registration,” Am

Amendment C

In sub-paragraph 5 d, add at the end:

Amendment D

Add the following sub-paragraph after sub-paragraph 5 f:

Amendment E

Add the following paragraph after paragraph 5:

To the draft recommendation:

Amendment F

Add, after paragraph 2, the following new paragraph:

To the draft order:

Amendment G

Add, after paragraph 2, the following paragraph:

*****

III.       Explanatory memorandum

      by Mr Rudolf Bindig, Rapporteur

1.        It is becoming a sort of sad duty for me to report, every year, on the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic. Over the years, the political and military situation in the Republic has been evolving; but, unfortunately, the human rights situation has remained the same. The concerns the Assembly has expressed year after year remain, essentially, unaddressed.

2.       What are the main human rights concerns of the Assembly? In 2001 and 2002 the Assembly singled out gross human rights abuses on both sides of the conflict, and the lack of effective remedies for the victims which had led to a climate of impunity in the Chechen Republic.

3.        Chechen fighters have increasingly been targeting the civilian population in flagrant violation of international law. Some of them have perpetrated two abominable terrorist acts, one in Moscow and one in Grozny. They have also been intimidating, kidnapping and killing persons involved in the administration of the Chechen Republic (and their family members).

4.       However, some of the Russian forces have also continued their campaign of intimidation and terror of the civilian population of Chechnya. NGOs continue to report, almost daily, of people “disappearing” in Chechnya after having been arrested (often arbitrarily and illegally). More often than not, their mutilated corpses are found some time later, in mass graves or simply left by the roadside. According to Memorial and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, in the first two weeks of this month alone, 11 men disappeared from one Grozny district, four more were abducted during a raid near the central market, and 10 mutilated corpses were found – whom several witnesses identified as persons who had been abducted by Federal forces three weeks earlier. In addition, three international and one Russian NGO allege that Russian forces were responsible for the unlawful killing of a former pro-Moscow Chechen official, Mrs Umazheva, on 29 November 2002, apparently in retaliation for her public statements against abuses by Russian forces.

5.        Russian forces apparently routinely harass, intimidate and beat Chechen civilians. Since journalists and international NGO workers find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enter Chechnya proper, most of these crimes go unnoticed und unreported on the big stage of world affairs.

6.        What is even worse, they also go unpunished. None of the high-profile cases of human rights violations that the Assembly has been following has been brought to a satisfactory conclusion by the Russian authorities. To the unsolved crimes of the alleged massacres of civilians in Alkhan-Yurt (1999), Staropromyslovski (2000) and Aldi (2000), can now be added the one in Mesker-Yurt (late May 2002), as well as the mass-grave containing 51 bodies near Khankala military base (found in 2001). To the unsolved disappearance of the former Speaker of the Chechen Parliament, Mr Alikhodzhiyev, can now be added that of Mr Said Mgoved Imakayev, an applicant to the European Court of Human Rights. Even the seemingly clear-cut case of Colonel Budanov, originally indicted for the rape and murder of a young Chechen girl, did not result in his conviction – although the Prosecutor’s Office is currently appealing this verdict.

7.        The Russian authorities have provided the Council of Europe with statistical data on criminal cases investigated by the different prosecuting authorities concerning crimes committed against the civilian population in the Chechen Republic (reproduced as Appendix III of the Document tabled by the Political Affairs Committee). In 2002, the military prosecutor’s office dealt with 44 cases in all; since 1999, with 162. Only a small fraction of these have led to indictments (46 in over three years!), even less have resulted in convictions. The figures are not much better in the prosecutor’s office of the Chechen Republic. Their number pales in relation to the thousands of complaints received by NGOs and by the Office of the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation (Mr Sultygov) – whose efficiency is also increasingly cast into doubt by NGOs.

8.        Since, in addition, the Russian authorities have never provided an update to the detailed list of the current status of all criminal investigations by military and civilian law enforcement agencies into crimes against the civilian population by servicemen and members of all police and special forces and also into crimes committed by Chechen fighters against the civilian population, the local Chechen administration and the federal forces in the Chechen Republic (as, inter alia, demanded by the Assembly a year ago in Resolution No. 1270 (2002)), it is very difficult for me to judge all the efforts of the prosecuting bodies. However, I was given the same answer by the prosecutors I talked to last week on every case I mentioned, from the mass killing in Alkhan-Yurt in 1999 over the mass grave in Khankala in 2001 to the murder of Mrs Umahzeva just two months ago: “the case is under investigation”. After a certain number of years, to be told that the case is still under investigation with no tangible results, leads me to the following conclusion: The prosecuting bodies are either unwilling or unable (or are being systematically obstructed in their efforts) to find and bring to justice the guilty parties. Personally, by now, I suspect that all three factors play a role in the ineffectiveness of the prosecution when the crimes in question are those committed against Chechen civilians.

9.        I must thus conclude that a climate of impunity reigns in the Chechen Republic which makes normal life in the Republic impossible. This climate exacerbates the bad security situation in the Republic, where even the 80.000 law enforcement-troops stationed in the Republic (at a ratio of 1 soldier to six adult civilians), the presence of multiple barricaded checkpoints (I counted 28 on a 40 km stretch of road from Grozny to the Ingush border) and severe restrictions on the freedom of movement and assembly do not guarantee the safety of civilians in the Chechen Republic.

* * *

Reporting committee: Political Affairs Committee

Committee for opinion: Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights

Reference to committee: Res 1227 (2000), Res 1240 (2001), Res 1270 (2002)

Opinion approved by the committee on 28 January 2003

Secretaries to the committee: Ms Coin, Ms Kleinsorge, Mr Ćupina, Mr Milner

1 See Doc. 9887 tabled by the Political Affairs Committee.