Memorial HRC Employees’ Meeting with Chechen Republic President

Memorial HRC Employees’ Meeting with Chechen Republic President

On February 22, 2008, in Grozny in the House of Government, a meeting was held at the initiative of the President of the Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, with representatives from Memorial Human Rights Center.

The following people were present at the meeting:

Chechen Republic governmental authorities: Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Republic of Chechnya; Adam Delimkhanov, member of the State Duma of the Russian Federation; Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov, speaker of the lower chamber of the Republic of Chechnya parliament; Abdulkakhir Izrayilov, Director of the Administration of the President and Government of the Republic of Chechnya; Nudri Nukhazhiev, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Chechnya; Ruslan Alkhanov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Chechnya; Shamsail Saraliev, Minister for , national politics, and print and information for the Republic of Chechnya********; and Muslim Khuchiev, the head of Grozny administration.

Memorial HRC representatives: Oleg Orlov, Chief of the Memorial HRC Council; Svetlana Gannushkina, Memorial HRC Council member; Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, acting director of the Grozny branch of Memorial HRC; Dokka Itslaev, director of the Urus-Martan branch of Memorial HRC; Lilya Yusupova, director of the Gudermes Branch of Memorial HRC; Sultan Irbaiev, director of the Sernovod branch of Memorial HRC; Shakhman Akbulatov, director of the Nazran branch of Memorial HRC, and Natalya Estemirova, Memorial HRC employee.

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The issues to be discussed were agreed upon the night before, on the evening of February 21, at a preliminary meeting between Chechen Republic President R. Kadyrov and O. Orlov, S. Gannushkina, and E. Sokiryanskaya, which took place at the president’s residence in Gudermes. The following issues were discussed at the meeting at the House of Government on February 22:

1. The principles for human rights organizations’ work;

2. The possibility of reviewing falsified criminal cases against residents of the Chechen Republic;

3. The terrible treatment of prisoners from the Chechen Republic in places of detention outside of the Republic;

4. The impunity of the grievous crimes committed in the Chechen Republic and the lack of investigation into crimes committed against citizens of the Chechen Republic by members of power structures;

5. The absence of news about people who have “disappeared” (the lack of investigation of abductions and identification of dead bodies);

6. Torture and fabricated criminal proceedings;

7. Illegal detention centers in the Chechen Republic;

8. Internally displaced people in the Chechen Republic and the expansion of temporary resettlement centers;

9. Residents’ return to their mountain villages;

10. The position of Chechens outside the borders of the Chechen Republic.

Speaking about the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic, representatives from Memorial HRC noted the marked improvement in this region over the past year and a half. Yet, they also spoke abut the serious human rights violations still taking place as before, about the thousands of people lacking information about people who have “disappeared” over the past years, about the lack of punishment for crimes committed against peaceful citizens, etc.

As a result of this discussion, we articulated the following points of view on a series of problems and on the possible general approaches that Chechen Republic authorities and human rights activists can take to resolve them, as well as disagreements occurring during the meeting. The most important result of this meeting, according to Memorial HRC, is the stated readiness of all the participants in the discussion to work together to improve the human rights situation in the Republic of Chechnya.

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The meeting achieved the following concrete results:

1. The President of the Republic of Chechnya authorized the Grozny administration chief,

M. Khuchiev, together with Memorial HRC employee N. Estemirova, to verify all information regarding violations of the rights of internally displaced persons and returned refugees (including their resettlement from temporary resettlement centers), and, if this information proves true, to correct the situation.

Such checks began that very evening. The mayor of Grozny went with N. Estimirova to several addresses where families evicted from temporary resettlement centers were living. Two instances were detected where rapid intervention from the authorities was needed to correct the situation. An apartment was allotted for one family on February 26. This work will continue from now on.

2. The President of the Republic of Chechnya authorized the Grozny administration chief, M. Khuchiev, to check information contained in a letter from an inhabitant of the Grozny housing development called “Shanghai,” erected by people without a place to live, without authorization (see: http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2007/04/m89699.htm; http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2007/04/m75580.htm; http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2007/04/m78470.htm).

The author of the letter complained that authorities were destroying the housing development and throwing its inhabitants out onto the street.

That very evening, the mayor of Grozny, along with representatives from Memorial HRC, visited the “Shanghai” housing development and conversed with its inhabitants. It was clear that the letter contained many inaccurate assertions. At this present moment, no one has been cast out “onto the street.” The Grozny administration allotted 16 apartments and 26 territorial plots, as well as building materials, for the inhabitants of this housing development, at the discretion of the inhabitants themselves. However, at this, the inhabitants of the “independent” housing development brought to the mayor’s attention the fact that they faced the problem that whenever the authorities allotted them new apartments, those apartments already had legal inhabitants. The mayor of Grozny strongly asserted that this would not happen again.

3. During the discussion of the issues of those inhabitants returning to their mountain villages, Memorial representatives raised the issues of the village Zumsoy. People were forced in 2005 to leave this village due to the violence of soldiers and militants (see: http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2005/07/m41685.htm; http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2005/02/m31398.htm;

http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2005/01/m31402.htm; http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2005/07/m41686.htm). Memorial HRC has given both legal and humanitarian help over the past three years to the inhabitants of Zumsoy, both before and after they were forced to leave.

The President of the Republic of Chechnya stated that Chechen Republic authorities will rapidly prepare to include Zumsoy in their governmental program to restore mountain villages, as long as even just ten families can be found who are ready to return to the village to live there permanently. Because of this, on February 26, a meeting was held between the director of the administration of the president and government of the Republic of Chechnya, A. Izrayilov, and Memorial HRC employee E. Sokiryanskaya and an initiative group of inhabitants of Zumsoy. A list was drawn up of the first twenty families who want to return to their village. A. Izrayilov stated that Chechen Republic authorities are beginning to work on the village’s restoration, the first stage of which will be the removal of landmines from Zumsoy’s territory and the clearing of the roads to the village. The issue of which security agency will be responsible from now on for the safety of those returning to the village was also discussed at the meeting.

4. Memorial HRC employee N. Estemirova has been introduced into the cabinet of the recently created Grozny Public Council for securing human rights and civic freedoms (see http://www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2008/02/m120614.htm).

5. Memorial HRC representatives again reasserted, at the meeting on February 22, their support for the initiatives of the Chechen Commissioner for Human Rights, N. Nukhazhiev, regarding the necessity for the creation of an interdepartmental commission, including representatives from human rights NGOs in its cabinet, to search for citizens kidnapped and disappeared in the Republic of Chechnya without any further information given. Cooperative steps have been outlined for Chechen Republic authorities and the general public to achieve the goal of setting up such a commission.

6. During the discussion at the meeting on February 22, the lack of punishment for serious crimes committed in the Republic of Chechnya by members of the authorities was addressed. Memorial HRC representatives offered a proposal to Chechen Republic authorities on the necessity to begin setting up a commission to check the progression of investigations into such crimes. Representatives from the general public should be included in such a commission, in addition to representatives from governmental departments. The Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Chechnya expressed his readiness to work cooperatively on finalizing this proposal and putting it into action.

7. During the discussion at the meeting on February 22, Memorial HRC representatives also drew attention to the problems of torture and falsified criminal cases in such circumstances that, though the prosecution has investigated into many appeals regarding the use of torture, even despite obvious evidence, these investigations have not ended with any results. Memorial HRC representatives and the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Republic of Chechnya have asserted their readiness to take cooperative steps to clarify the circumstances of these prosecutorial investigations of appeals regarding the use of torture. Such work can from now on give support to demands for review of many sentences.

8. Immediately after the meeting of February 22, Memorial HRC employees agreed with the minister of internal affairs of the Republic of Chechnya, R. Alkhanov, on a separate special meeting dedicated to the issues of identifying unidentified bodies.

After the meeting on February 22 was concluded, the president of the Republic of Chechnya suggested to its participants that they meet again in a month to take stock of the cooperative operations outlined.