Human Rights Center "Memorial"

On the situation of Chechens outside Chechnya

July 2005 – February 2006

Svetlana Gannushkina

The MEMORIAL HRC

The Civic “Assistance Committee”

Introduction

In 2002 it was officially announced that the military operations in Chechnya had been accomplished and the period of reconstruction had started. From that year on the “Memorial” Human Rights Center and the “Civic Assistance” Committee have been issuing annual reports devoted to the description of the situation of Chechen residents, both within Chechnya and outside it.

Unfortunately, the analysis of the situation invariably leads us to two main conclusions.

1. The minimum level of public safety is not guaranteed in the Chechen Republic.

The latest events show that the situation of Chechen residents in the Russian Federation has not changed for the better. The level of safety in the Chechen republic still cannot be considered acceptable. Kidnappings and disappearances continue in the Chechen Republic. On 7^th October 2005, the Chechen Republic President Alu Alkhanov told the RIA Novosti news agency: Since the beginning of the year, 143 cases of kidnapping have been registered in the republic. The figure for the same time last year was 128. The number of robberies and other grave crimes has increased by 50%. The number of kidnappings registered by human rights organizations is much higher. The Memorial human rights centre, which monitors about 30% of the territory of the Chechen Republic, registered 214 cases of kidnapping in the same period.

Despite the fact that a significant decrease in the amount of registered cases of abductions can be noted compared to 2004, when 411 abductions were registered, still the situation is far from being encouraging. The victims’ relatives are now less willing to turn to human rights organizations with their problems, fearing retribution from local law enforcement agencies, which are currently the biggest source of violence and infringement of citizens’ rights.

2. The residents of Chechnya at present have no alternative opportunities for settling on Russian territory.

Places of compact living of IDPs in Ingushetia are gradually being demolished, and no alternative to returning to Chechnya is offered to their residents.

Those few Chechen residents residing in TACs (not more than 1000 residents) are being evicted thus being compelled to return.

The difference in compensation amounts for lost property is of a great concern – payments within the Chechen republic exceed those outside its territory twice. Such a situation lays the foundation for a conflict between Russians who fled Chechnya and Chechens who are living there, which is very actively abused by the political forces of nationalistic nature.

Chechens are still discriminated against while obtaining registration at a place of sojourn, employment or securing medical or social support.

The fabrication of criminal cases endangers any resident of the Chechen republic on the territory of the RF. It might be noted that the judicial system turns into one of the main means of persecution and extermination of a young generation of Chechens.

Situation of the residents of the Chechen republic outside its territory

1. In the republic of Ingushetia. By summer of 2004 all the tent camps had been abolished on the territory of Ingushetia, some of their residents succeeded in securing accommodation in places of compact living. In fall 2005 it became obvious that places of compact living will also be abolished without providing their residents with any other accommodation on the territory of either the Republic of Ingushetia or any other region of the RF. On the basis of the Regulation of the Chief Sanitary Inspector of the Republic of Ingushetia of 11 November 2005 # 8 “On the cessation of functioning of places of compact living for IDPs in the Chechen Republic on the territory of the Republic of Ingushetia” the owners of the territories where places of compact living are located were notified of the breach of lease contracts by the Department of Migration Affairs of the Interior Ministry of the Republic of Ingushetia. It first of all meant that the electricity, water and gas costs were no longer reimbursed to the owners, and all the life-supporting systems would be cut off even before IDPs leave the places of compact living.

The Chechen Mission in the Republic of Ingushetia addressed the President and the Chief Sanitary Inspector of the Republic of Ingushetia with a request to abstain from these actions to prevent more than 10 thousand citizens from becoming homeless. Russian NGOs turned to the Federal Migration Service with a similar request, reminding that during the eviction of camp residents places of compact living were offered as an alternative to the return to the Chechen republic, at that it was known beforehand that the premises were not suitable for accommodation and did not meet any sanitary norms. Thus the trust of the citizens to the promises made by the authorities at the highest level is being undermined.

As a result the lease contracts with the owners were prolonged for another half a year. However, the question concerning the abolition of places of compact living in Ingushetia is sure to arise again by summer.

2. Centers of temporary accommodation outside North Caucasus. All in all about 1000 Chechen IDPs were settled in centers of temporary accommodation located outside North Caucasus. However, in 2005 the management of the TACs starts turning to courts in various regions of Russia with a suit on eviction of IDPs without providing them with any other accommodation. These suits end differently, sometimes refusal to evict is secured, but almost all residents of the TACs have already been deprived of nutrition, and the management demands they should pay the rent for the premises. Considering the fact that TACs are located quite far away from big settlements, and there are no employment opportunities there, such a demand turns out unrealizable. It is also offered to TAC residents to return to Chechnya. The fact that mostly Russian residents of the Chechen republic live there without intending to return to Chechnya is not taken into account. The denial of a forced settler status, which would be a legal ground to reside in a TAC, serves as grounds for eviction.

3. The problem of acquiring papers. One of the main problems is still that of acquiring documents, and above all passports. Interior Ministry order No. 347 of 24^th May 2003, which made it possible for Russian citizens to obtain passports at their actual place of residence rather than at the place of their permanent registration (the so-called propiska), technically gave people from Chechnya the opportunity to obtain documents without returning there. This order, however, was not widely applied in practice. Local passport offices often failed to inform people of this opportunity, or refused to accept applications from Chechens. Since, in accordance with the order, passports had to be sent in from the place of permanent registration, and lines of communication with Chechnya were erratic, the receipt of passports by people from Chechnya was often delayed, or failed to materialize altogether.

Later, on 6^th June 2004, Interior Ministry order No. 415 revoked the procedure for obtaining passports at the actual place of residence, i.e. order No. 347. Most Chechens never managed to take advantage of it.

At present, in order to obtain an internal passport all citizens registered in Chechnya have to travel to Chechnya, where they face mortal danger and where corruption is rampant. It is therefore impossible to obtain a passport without paying.

The level of corruption affecting individuals in Chechnya is much higher than in other parts of the Russian Federation. This was noted, in particular, in a report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Alvaro Gil-Robles. To obtain a general (internal) passport in Chechnya, one has to pay an equivalent of €50-100, while one’s “gratitude” for help in obtaining a passport necessary for foreign travel amounts to €400-500. Passports obtained outside Chechnya require even bigger bribes, yet may well prove to be counterfeit.

The re-issuance of the papers ascertaining the right to housing, to seniority, confirming the education received, etc. present additional difficulties, since the archives in the Chechen republic were destroyed during the military campaign.

4. Registration at a place of sojourn and residence. The problem of registration (propiska) of Chechens outside the Chechen republic has not been resolved. The landlord needs to have a very strong incentive, a good knowledge of the law and a lot of energy to ensure that police register a Chechen family in a property he owns. Furthermore, this takes a lot of time. Police officers, who are required to pay regular visits to the houses where Chechens live, often threaten the landlords with all kinds of trouble. As a result, in most cases landlords refuse to provide registration for Chechens, preferring either to turn down the inconvenient tenants altogether, or to allow them to stay without registration. The latter happens when the landlord can find no other tenants. With the existing shortage of accommodation, this means that accommodation in question is normally of a very poor standard, often owned by alcoholics or by severely ill people who live in together with the tenants.

NGOs can only help with registration when landlords agree to this, which is quite rare. Even in those cases, however, the struggle for registration may take months or even years.

The visitors often obtain forged registration. This only lasts until their first visit to a police station, because for the most part it would not be recorded in the Interior Ministry database, and this is fraught with serious consequences: a detention, a fine, or even criminal charges.

Registration problems arise even in villages and small towns, where the administration is often afraid of letting Chechens stay because of the negative image the mass media have heaped on this ethnic group. In a small town or a village, however, one cannot live without the permission of the administration because one cannot get melt into the local population as one would in a city. There are known cases when even Chechens married to local Russian women were refused registration in small town or villages.

5. Compensation payments for lost property and housing. At present, two resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation on compensation for the housing lost in Chechnya are in force. Resolution No. 510 of 30^th April 1997 sets the maximum payment to those who left Chechnya and gave up their housing there at 120,000 roubles. This is about €3,500 at the present rate of exchange, which is one-fifth of what it was prior to Russia’s debt default of 1998.

Resolution No. 404 of 4^th July 2003 provides for the payment of compensation in Chechnya in the amount of 350,000 roubles, or €10,000. The disbursement of funds under either resolution proceeds slowly, and is sometimes suspended for long periods of time. With all that, as Mr Gil-Robles, among others, noted in his report, in order to have one’s compensation processed one has to give between 30% and 50% of the sum received as a bribe.

Resolution No. 404 contained Paragraph 10, which gave the government two months to amend Resolution No. 510 to change the amount of compensation.

People waited for these changes in expectation, not for two months but for two years. Instead, on 4^th August 2005, in its resolution No. 489 the government revoked, among many of its other decisions, Paragraph 10 of Resolution No. 404. No explanation was provided.

As a result of all this, it is practically impossible, not just for Chechens but also for ethnic Russians from Chechnya, to settle in other regions. The meagre compensation leaves them unable to obtain housing. This point was acknowledged by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. In accordance with its ruling of 31^st October 2002, the provision stating that citizens receiving compensation for the housing lost in Chechnya thereby lose the right to any other form of state assistance in acquiring accommodation was excluded from the wording of Russian Government Resolution No. 510. However, having allowed its citizens to retain the right for assistance, the state has not undertaken any additional obligations.

People from Chechnya who have received compensation and who have nowhere to live, no work or welfare payments, have little choice but to spend it on food and rent. This does nothing to resolve their housing problem because rent rates are so high that the compensation hardly lasts them one year.

6. Social welfare provision and employment opportunities. Other components of social welfare provision in Russia have also deteriorated. Thus for the first time child benefits are no longer paid to Chechen families with three or more children at their actual place of residence. Under the new Federal Law No. 122, these payments are to be made from local budgets, but local authorities are unwilling to take up the extra burden of providing for «temporary» residents. The problems of pensions and medical care have become even more acute. These are not discriminatory provisions, but people from Chechnya were hit the hardest because it is they who normally have no permanent registration in other regions and have lost in hostilities the documents required to receive welfare benefits. The new social welfare provisions have become yet another mechanism for pushing Chechens back to Chechnya.

It is might be noted that Chechens are also discriminated against while entering higher educational establishments or being employed. From time to time interior affairs bodies and secret forces exert pressure on employers “not recommending” or openly forbidding them to employ Chechens. In November 2005 16 Chechen drivers were simultaneously dismissed from fleet of cars # 20 in Moscow. Their management openly announced that it was the FSB demand. Later on the representatives of the FSB denied their being a party to this dismissal, however, none of the Chechens, including Moscow permanent residents, resumed their employment.

7. Imitation of terrorism fighting. During the last few years a number of terrorist acts have swept across Russia. The most horrifying of them which made the world shudder, was the hostage-taking in Beslan. There is not a single reasonable man on earth who would not welcome the fight against terrorism and most decisive measures aimed at its prevention.

Unfortunately, we have to admit that energetic efforts of the law enforcement agencies in this direction too often turn into an imitation. Hitting the capture and exposure of potential terrorists targets the representatives of the MVD and the FSB structures put any Chechen in their field of vision under suspicion.

When facts testify to the innocence of those under suspicion, proofs are forged, without much ingenuity or variety.

A lot of examples of fabricated criminal cases under the charge with purchasing, keeping or selling drugs or guns, which were planted on Chechens, were cited in the reports of the “Memorial” Human Rights Center.

On 6 April 2005 President of the Chechen republic Alu Alkhanov stated in his interview with the INTERFAX agency that he is intending to appeal to Russian law enforcement agencies with a request to revise the criminal cases under these charges with regard to Chechen residents.

The case of «strapped werewolfs» who, with high-ranking officials at head, planted guns, drugs, ammunition on law-abiding citizens thus sending them to prison with the help of fabricated cases, is being considered in court now», reminded Alu Alkhanov during his meeting with journalists in Grozny.

In this connection, as the Chechen president announced, «he thinks it necessary to request for a thorough revision of cases against Chechens who were detained for these reasons in Russian cities and were afterwards convicted».

It is clear that such a revision was not conducted, and dozens of innocent young Chechens are still languishing in prison, serving their sentences under fabricated charges.

Russian law enforcement agencies are still pursuing this line, but nowadays cases on terrorism come to the fore. Chechens convicted without any evidence presented, are sentenced to long-term imprisonment in heavy detention conditions. During investigstion those under suspicion are often subjected to illegal methods of exerting pressure, including tortures.

Recommendations.

1. A campaign aimed at the rehabilitation of the Chechen people in the opinion of Russian society and conducted on a government level is necessary.

2. It would be reasonable to accept the suggestion of the President of the Chechen republic Alu Alkhanov concerning a thorough large-scale prosecution examination of the cases, in accordance with which residents of the Chechen republic were sentenced to imprisonment, especially under the articles of the Criminal Code of the RF connected with keeping drugs, guns and explosives, as well as in connection with charges with terrorism.

3. It is necessary to regulate provision with passports and re-issuance of other documents for Chechen residents. The opportunity to acquire all the necessary documents should be guaranteed for Chechen residents who fled its territory.

4. Compensation payments to residents of the Chechen republic should be equalized throughout the territory of the RF and increased up to an amount allowing for a housing purchase on the territory of the RF.

5. Elaboration of special programs aimed at receiving and providing work opportunities for Chechen residents in various regions of Russia. Every Chechen resident should be provided with choice: whether to return to the Chechen republic or to arrange his or her life in other parts of Russia.

6. It is necessary to provide residents of places of compact living and centers of temporary accommodation in the subjects of the RF where they are located with housing. Funds from federal budget should be allocated for this purpose.

7. It is necessary to allocate funds for special medical and social programs aimed at sanation and social re-adaption of Chechen residents. All round clinical examination is necessary on the territory of Chechnya.

8. It is necessary to restore law and order on the territory of the Chechen republic and make sure local force structures, who are at the moment enjoying uncontrolled power over the local population, comply with Russian legislation.

9. Before Chechen residents are provided with all the rights and freedoms of the citizens on the territory of the RF, those Chechen residents arriving in other countries should be considered as coming within the 1951 UN Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees and should obtain asylum and protection in accordance with these documents.