TITLE: Duma Member of Parliament for Chechnya Lambastes Detentions, Disappearances

AUTHOR:

PUB: BBC Monitoring

DATE: February 28, 2001

MOSCOW-- (BBC Monitoring) Aslanbek Aslakhanov, State Duma Member of Parliament for Chechnya, has criticized the practices employed by the Russian forces in the republic. In an interview with Russian Ekho Moskvy radio on 27 February, he backed reports by journalist Anna Politkovskaya about the inhumane conditions in which local residents suspected of involvement with the rebels are often held. Aslanbek Aslakhanov, State Duma MP for Chechnya, has criticized the practices employed by the Russian forces in the republic. In an interview with Russian Ekho Moskvy radio on 27 February, he backed reports by journalist Anna Politkovskaya about the inhumane conditions in which local residents suspected of involvement with the rebels are often held. He said there was nothing new in Politkovskaya's claims, as there were many reports by those who at one time or another were held in such facilities. Verification was compounded by the military's refusal to open the garrisons for outside inspection. He remained skeptical about the real ability of the Chechnya human rights envoy, Vladimir Kalamanov, to mount checks. "I have always said and sought to prove that, on the territory of Chechnya, there are private prisons, zindans and so forth where, contrary to the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation and contrary to the instructions of the Russian president on the supremacy of law, residents of the Chechen Republic are unlawfully held and tortured, in pits and other places wholly unsuitable for human existence," he said. He added: "This has been confirmed by those who were able to break out." "Some of them were left for dead. They say that it was hell. They were confined in pits, some metal containers and some sort of carriages - it does not matter where - packed full of people, tied up and sacks over their heads." He said that the Russian military leadership expressly prohibited and condemned such practices, yet cases abounded of unwarranted detentions and other repressive operations which as a rule were carried out by masked personnel with the use of vehicles without identification marks. He went on to accuse the federal authorities of "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide", aimed particularly at the "elimination of young men". He described the situation as one of complete lawlessness. "At the parliamentary hearing, I informed its participants about what goes on in Chechnya, about ethnic cleansing, about genocide, about the elimination of young lads. I presented the same facts as those cited by Anna Politkovskaya." "If anything, as regards this - as regards abductions - this lawlessness, as it is termed in literature in respect of government, has got even worse." He moderated his remarks by an admission that these actions were most likely perpetrated by individual "thugs", rather than the Russian forces at large, who in this way wreaked revenge on the Chechens. He said such people should be "executed, exterminated", and their commanders should be held criminally responsible. He called for the withdrawal of the main forces from Chechnya. At the same time, he doubted the sincerity of the Russian top brass in their assurances that the pullout was imminent. He said such security arrangements as checkpoints were ineffective and often used for the capture of civilians, who would be groundlessly detained and, in many cases, disappear without trace. He cited support from the military on efforts to abandon the regime. So far, there was little evidence that the Federal Security Service, put in charge of the operation, was really in control. Nor was it likely that the local law-enforcement agencies would be able to deal with the situation, as neither the police nor the judiciary were fully formed yet. Overall, there have been few if any changes for the better. What worries the local population most are disappearances and the "hunt for young people". That must end for the Chechens to have some trust in the federal authorities. Source: Ekho Moskvy radio, Moscow, in Russian END top