|
|
|
|
TITLE: Amnesty International Calls for Russia to Admit to Abuses in Chechnya |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: Agence France Presse |
DATE: January 25, 2001 |
|
Amnesty International urged the Council of Europe Wednesday to demand that Russia admit to numerous human rights violations in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. "As a defender of human rights the Council of Europe has a responsibility to ensure that strong pressure is applied to Russia ... to remind Russian authorities that no country is above the law," the London-based rights group said in a statement received here. The Council of Europe parliamentary assembly is due to rule on Russia's voting rights on Thursday, after monitors Frank Judd of Britain and Rudolf Bindig of Germany report on their fact-finding mission to Chechnya to assess the human rights situation there. Amnesty International accused Russian troops of various crimes in Chechnya, citing numerous cases of rape, torture, arbitrary detentions and summary executions. Ethnic Chechens had also been targeted throughout Russia, persecuted and sometimes convicted on allegedly fabricated charges of possessing drugs and weapons, the group claimed, adding that it registered at least 50 such cases in Moscow alone. However, the group charged, even though Russian authorities received reports of compiled testimonies and Amnesty International's investigations, only 47 investigations had been initiated. Amnesty International called on the Council of Europe to set up an international investigation into the group's findings, since none of the bodies established by Moscow has the mandate to undertake such inquiries. "The government of the Russian Federation has proved that it lacks the political will to investigate human rights abuses in Chechnya. We are convinced that any domestic investigations will prove ineffective," the statement said. The Russian delegation's right to vote in the assembly was initially suspended in April, a first in the Council of Europe's 50-year history. Russia poured troops into Chechnya in October 1999 to clamp down on separatist fighters it accused of waging terrorist attacks across the country. Despite seizing control of the republic's capital Grozny and other key centers a year ago, pro-Moscow soldiers and administrators continue to be subject to daily rebel attacks. END |