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HR news |
Situation with Violations of Human Rights in Chechnya June-July, 2000
- Residential areas under fire
- Detained and "disappeared"
- Law and order
- Social and economic situation in Chechnya
- Conclusion
Though the large scale combat operations have been stopped by the summer of 2000 at the territory of Chechnya, the armed conflict was transformed into a guerrilla fighting. Near the mountains and in the mountainous regions there were continuing confrontations between the Russian Federal Forces and Chechen fighters, artillery and aviation bombardments. The "mine" war was still going on in the valleys, the marching troops, check points and dislocations of the Federal Forces were attacked. The Federal Forces were also fighting and performed "clearing up" operations in the residential areas, which were accompanied by arbitrary detentions and violence towards civilians. All those actions, as well as restrictions in the free travel (check points, a demand to be out of the streets by a certain hour in the evening, etc.) made the life of the civilian population in Chechnya really hard and dangerous, making the return of the displaced persons from Ingushetia impossible in the near future.
1. Residential areas under fire
The Chechen forces were still guerrilla fighting during June and July on the major part of the territory of Chechen Republic, and the official statistics (though the record is incomplete) states, that it resulted in 90 casualties among the Federal Forces and Internal Security Forces of the Russian Federation in June and 115 of them in July.
The greatest losses were recorded at the beginning of July, since several "kamikaze" drivers detonated the lorries, loaded with explosives near the headquarters of the Federal Forces in Argun, Gudermes, Urus-Martan and in Neibere-village.
Since commandants' offices, checkpoints and headquarters of the Federal Forces are either in or near the biggest residential areas in the Republic, the major part of the civilian population is exposed to a danger as a result of these actions and counter actions from the Federal Forces.
Thus, for example, in the center of the town of Urus-Martan there are several buildings where the commandant's platoon is dislocated, as well as officers of the Internal Security Forces of the Russian Federation, at nights one can hear a random firing from those buildings. In the night of June 26 such a firing ignited a residential building.
When the neighbours run out to fight the fire, two of them were detained for the violation of the commandant's regime of staying out of the street at nights.
In the daytime of June 26 a meeting, that had not been sanctioned, was held by the local people, who demanded to stop firing at nights. However, representatives of the commandant's office and those of the Internal Security Forces declare "they just answer back to the fighters' firing".
At dawn of the 2nd of July the trucks column of the Federal Forces was attacked at the verge of the town of Urus-Martan.
Soon this area was circled and the "clearing up" started. The military threw grenades into the basements of the houses, there was looting, racketeering, ill-treatment and humiliation of the local population recorded.
At 18.10 on the 2nd of July a suicide-maker in an URAL lorry, loaded with explosives, broke the fence of the former boarding school, where at present a Temporary Internal Security Office is located, the lorry exploded killing two sentries at the gate. Immediately after that there was severe firing from three points - the boarding school, the commandant's office and the sewing factory, as observers noted.
There were victims among civilians.
Enissa Umarova (born in 1953) died of the wounds caused by the firing. She worked as a peddler in the center of the town. Makka Ustarkhanova (born in 1935) was killed with the fragment from the explosion. Thirteen people were wounded, mainly with bullets, a 72-year old man and a 12-year old girl being among them.
In the western part of the town of Urus-Martan helicopters and armoured vehicles started firing. It resulted in a partial destruction of houses in Gastello, Stepnaya and Griboedova Streets.
Villages located far away from the Federal Forces' places of dislocations are periodically under fire. We give just a few examples.
Starting from 11.30 on the 5th of July Ermolovskaya village was under mine fire from the direction of Alkhan-Urt, where the Federal Forces are positioned.
Avzaev Shamil Surkhoevich, Director of the State Farm "Ermolovskaya", fell the victim to the firing and he was the father of five children.
Suleiman Darsaev and two more local people were badly wounded.
On the 16th of July Agishty village was under mine fire, the Federal Forces are positioned from seven to eight km from the village. As a result of that firing 8 persons were killed and 28 local people wounded.
The investigation of the case by the Military Procurator's Office showed the Federal Forces have had nothing to do with this firing, as they reported.
The Procurator's office of the Chechen Republic has started criminal proceedings in connection with that case, but at present they abstain from comment.
On the 16th of July Krasnopartizanskaya Street in Assinovskaya village was under fire from tanks and helicopters. One local citizen was killed, several houses were destroyed, as well as the local mill.
The Military explained their actions as a back fire, since there was a firing at them from that region.
We can go on with the examples. Though the large scale combat operations have been stopped at the territory of Chechnya long ago, the people go on suffering from random bombardments and firing, and they fear the renewal of the combat actions. And of course, after A. Maskhadov declared the entry of the Chechen Military Forces into the biggest residential areas, there was a sharp rise in the number of the refugees fleeing to Ingushetia.
2. Detained and "Disappeared"
The most grave and mass violations of the human rights in Chechnya in the first half of the summer of 2000 were connected with the work of the system of the so called "filtration" of the detained. Violence is going on - in the preliminary investigation cells of the Internal Security Forces in Chechnya, in "unofficial" detention cells at checkpoints and at the places of the dislocation of the troops, and not only in the detention center in Chernokozovo.
In Summer 2000 people, who had been detained by the Federal Forces, continued "disappearing" in Chechnya. This bad practice has begun from the first days of the military conflict in Chechnya. After people are detained either by the Russian Military Forces or by the Federal Security Service or representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, their relatives can often find out neither of the reason for their detention, nor about the whereabouts of their relatives, nor whether they had already been accused of and the like. Thus, the detained people cannot invite an advocate.
Most of those "disappeared" were found either in the preliminary investigation cells, or in "filtration" camps several weeks, or even months, later. However, we regret to mention many cases, when the people thus "disappeared" many months ago are not mentioned in the lists of those detained in a cell or camp.
In reality, we have to mention the facts of kidnapping many people by representatives of the Military Forces of the Russian Federation.
Human Rights Protection Organizations managed to find out of many such cases of the breach of law. Later we shall give several examples.
In the morning of June 3, 2000 people wearing masks and camouflage uniforms detained three women near the houses 5 and 7 in Mozdok Street in Grozny. They were: Nura Lullueva (born in 1960) and two of her relatives - Raissa Gakaeva and Markha Gakaeva. The women cried for help when they were being detained. Zavalu Tazurkaev run to their rescue from the nearby cafe and he was also detained by the camouflaged people. Zavalu Tazurkaev' relative, who works at the same cafe, run for help to the nearby militia station. However, the militia men who came to the scene and the gathered local people were dispersed by the fire from the automatic rifles of the camouflaged people. The witnesses told that they put a bandage over the eyes of the four detained, and sacks over their heads, then they threw the detained to the armoured vehicle with no plates or signs on it, and left, nobody knows where to.
Said-Alvi Lulluev, Lullueva's husband and a former judge of the Gudermes District Court, has approached many officials to find out of his wife's whereabouts: I.I. Babitchev, Commandant of the Chechen Republic, V.P. Kravchenko, Procurator General, A.H. Kadyrov, Head of Chechen Administration, V.I. Kadiaev, Head of the Local Department of the Federal Security Service, V.A. Kalamanov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in charge of Human Rights in Chechnya.
However, nobody could give any information of his wife to him: neither who had detained her, nor that of her whereabouts.
Early in the morning on the 11th of June a 47 year old Zuziev Rashid Abdullkhamidovich was kidnapped from his house (165, Kirova Street, Grozny) by the military men who had come over to the house in two cars; his relatives had still been unaware of his fate by the end of July.
On the 28th of June three young people - Murad Azitovich Lianov (born in 1983), Islam Kazirovich Dombaev (born in 1984) and Timur Serggevich Tabzhanov (born in 1982) - were kidnapped in Grozny from Sadovaya Street, where they were all living.
Three of them had just left Tabzhaev's house (53, Sadovaya Street), one of the young men had a guitar in his hands. An armoured vehicle (side plate No. T-110) approached the house at that moment and the military men detained the young men and brought them to the nearby military regiment headquarters.
The relatives of the detained brought an appeal to the Temporary Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There an investigator found out quickly, that the young men had been transferred to the military base in Khankale, however, the relatives could get no information of the young men there. And neither the Procurator's Office, nor the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in charge of Human Rights in Chechnya could yet help the relatives to find out of their fate.
There are rare cases when one can find the people who are responsible for human rights violations and the breach of the Russian Law. Thus, V.P. Kravchenko. The Procurator General, is fully responsible for Vakha Murtazaliev's disappearance for a period of about one month.
The absolute majority of the citizens, living in Chechnya, cannot feel safe, since they are not protected against similar actions of the Federal authorities (as it was earlier, when bandits kidnapped people).
One has to safeguard a free and ready at hand information about the detained and arrested from the officials, when the relatives try to find out of the fate and whereabouts of and accusations against the detained. Those who are responsible for the "disappearances" of the people have to be brought to justice.
Many appeals on the part of the "Memorial" to the Procurator's Office to this end remain with no answer.
The activity of the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in charge of Human Rights in Chechnya (further on - the Special Representative of the President of the RF) has brought no results so far.
Bodies of several people, who had been detained by the Military Forces, were found later bearing the traces of torture and forced death.
We have no information whether there is at least one such case that could have been investigated in the Procurator's Office or Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Since many people were kidnapped during "the clearing up" operations in villages and towns, there are several witnesses to the facts, who had memorized the plate Nos. of cars, lorries and armoured vehicles, used by kidnappers. It is quite evident, that neither the Procurator's Office nor Ministry of Internal Affairs want to investigate these cases.
At the end of July the officers of the Special Commission at the President of the Russian Federation started to accept citizens' appeals concerning prisoners of war, displaced persons and lost in battle (or disappeared) in the Office of the Special Representative of the President of the RF. The future will show, whether the Russian authorities are ready to take real steps in the search of the kidnapped people, and to stop the practice of "disappearances" and to bring those, who are guilty, to justice.
There is one Preliminary Investigation Office in Chechnya - in Chernokozovo. The Preliminary Investigation Office in Grozny is temporarily out of action. Besides there are Preliminary Investigation Camps (PIC) at every out of eighteen Temporary Departments of the Internal Affairs.
Starting from the beginning of 2000 the attention of the international mass media has for many months been concentrated on the PIC in Chernokozovo. As a result the detention there has become better, tortures and beatings up were stopped. However, in the meanwhile, when international delegations were visiting the PIC in Chernokozovo tortures and violence, brutality and executions were transferred to other detention centers, as well as to the "unofficial" detention places. Allegations of those who have been liberated from Chernokozovo detention center testify to the renewal of tortures and beatings up there in spring and they became still worse in summer.
We regret to state that there is no proper Procurator's control of the PICs and they are still beyond the monitoring on the part of international organizations and the Special Representative of the President of the RF. Representatives from the International Red Cross have so far visited Chernokozovo and five more detention centers in Chechnya.
The Human Rights Protection Center "Memorial" has many times informed the world of ill-treatment and tortures of the detained in the PIC in Urus-Martan.
At the end of June Urus-Martan newspaper "Marsho" informed the readers that since now on there will be a PR officer working at the gates to the PIC to help people to receive information on the detained relatives.
Besides, the Internal Security Service has started functioning at the Temporary Local Department of the Internal Affairs, whose officers would accept appeals from the people who had suffered from the ill treatment on the part of the Russian Departments of the Internal Affairs. Though Urus-Martan people say, that they see no changes for the better.
An existence and functioning of unofficial secret prisons is of a special concern. The prisoners there are not registered anywhere as detained or imprisoned.
The most famous place of that kind is at the Military Base in Khankale (the suburb of Grozny). Most of the people who are detained there are put into holes dug in the ground, though earlier there were reports that people had been detained in cars and carriages meant for the transportation of criminals. There was numerous information on the central TV channels of the people allegedly Chechen bandits being brought to the Military Base in Khankale.
Officers of the Procurator's Office also know of this illegal prison, as well as the Chechen Civil Administration and the Office of the Special Representative of the President of the RF. And nonetheless it goes on functioning.
Moreover, such illegal prisons do exist in other places of dislocation of the Military Forces, special detachments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or Guarding Platoons at the Ministry of Justice, and not only in Khankale.
Arbitrariness was and still remains one of the major features of the actions of the Federal Forces in Chechnya.
Every time after the attack of Chechen fighters at the Federal Forces, the Russian Military Forces undertake arbitrary detentions.
This was the case after a series of explosions on the 2nd of July. Naturally, many people, who have nothing to do with Chechen Military Forces, opposing the Federal Forces, have been arrested. Nonetheless, many of them are being accused of the participation in the illegal armed forces and a standard criminal case under Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is brought against them. However, when investigators see that there is nothing to be incriminated to certain persons they do not liberate them due to the lack of proof, but liberate them under the amnesty.
Thus, those who have fallen under the amnesty, prove to be not at all guilty. The practice continued in June and July: the people, who had been arrested for the participation in the illegal armed forces, were being liberated from the PICs under the amnesty.
The relatives of those who had been liberated informed the "Memorial" representatives, that they had have to pay considerable sums of money for their liberation to representatives of the justice departments of the Russian Federation (using the services of the intermediaries out of the local people).
A system of the "filtration" is not only the main source of the human rights violations in Chechnya at present. It seems to be a major obstacle on the way to the solution of the conflict: disappearances and executions, tortures and humiliation fill in the rows of fighters against the Federal Power.
3. Law and Order
The return of Chechnya back to the law space of the Russian Federation, stabilization of social and economic situation, putting an end to a criminal violence against citizens were declared as the major targets of the "counter terrorism operation" in the Northern Caucasus.
By now neither of the targets, that had been set, was reached. There are no legal authorities in Chechnya, and not only that - many people there are deprived of the identification papers. Social and economic infrastructure is destroyed, there is no supply of the necessities. Those who have to fight against criminals - officers of the Military structures - the ones who stay at checkpoints and who perform "clearing up" operations - are engaged in looting and extortion.
Having no passports is a very serious problem for many citizens of Chechnya. There were no exchange and issue of passports in Chechnya within the period between 1996 and 1999. In the first place it was connected with an unclear status of Chechnya. As a result the young people, reaching the age, and the one, who had lost the documents, turned to be living without the main identification document. Part of the people have lost their documents during the firings, or when they flew from the military actions. Without a passport citizens lack freedom of movement, since they may easily be detained during the "clearing up" operations in residential areas. The process of issuing passports has started in Chechnya. However, only those who have just left the school only receive passports. Other citizens have to do with temporary identification cards at the best. However, the officers of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, who check up documents, do not take those identification cards as serious documents, and the people holding them have to bribe the officers.
The Department of Justice has been set up in Chechnya, as well as several official posts have been allocated for the Supreme Court of the Republic and 15 regional courts.
However, so far, the courts have not been formed and they have not started functioning. And that means that citizens of Chechnya are deprived of the main structure that could protect their legal interests.
That leads to the extension of the term of the detention as well.
Courts at other regions of the Russian Federation do not start proceedings in connection with the violation of the rights of Chechen citizens at the territory of Chechnya.
The lack of legal protection during the armed conflict in Chechnya makes it legal if citizens of Chechnya would apply to the European Court of Justice (Human Rights) in Strasbourg.
In June and July the College of Lawyers has renewed its functioning in Chechnya (U. Abdullkadyrov - the Chairman, 39 advocates). This fact, by all means, has a positive effect on the situation with the human rights in Chechnya. However, the legal assistance is still unattainable for the major part of the citizens in Chechnya.
On the one hand, the number of the acting advocates is not enough.
On the other hand, the major part of the detained, arrested or their relatives have no money to pay for an advocate's services.
The fact, that the only PIC in Chechnya is located in Chernokozovo (Naursky region), while investigating teams are based in Mozdok (Northern Ossetia), is an additional difficulty.
Lawyers, who take cases of the arrested people, have to travel a lot along the roads of Chechnya and outside. Under the existing conditions it is connected with many difficulties and dangers. Sometimes the lawyers cannot make officers of the Procurator's Office or investigators meet them.
At many checkpoints (and those, located along the route between Rostov and Baku) there is an open bribery. First of all, drivers of the trucks and buses are bribed. Sometimes the bribe is enough not to present one's car for a check up.
Military men and militia men who come to Chechnya from different regions of Russia, sometimes curse, humiliate women and elderly men. They treat men so that such a treatment provokes an answer back sharp reaction.
One has to note that the military men at checkpoints, as a rule, wear no insignia, that enable to refer them to a certain regiment or post. They do not identify themselves either.
Many victims on both of the parts in the conflicts similar to the one, which is in full swing in Chechnya, account for the ethnic illiteracy. Russian soldiers and militia men in Chechnya demonstrate an absolute ethnic illiteracy and lack of culture. Sometimes one may fall under the impression that they are mocking the local people, allowing the things absolutely impossible for a vainakh.
All these facts do not contribute to the creation of the atmosphere of respect between the local population and the Russian Federal Forces.
Hence, a joint patrolling in several residential areas, in particular in Grozny, of the Federal Forces together with the local militia, contribute to a lower level of criminal behavior on the part of the Federal Forces, whose contingent is enlisted in different parts of Russia.
Looting of the local population in Chechnya is still widely spread among the Russian Federal Forces. "Clearing up" operations in towns and villages are often accompanied by misappropriation of somebody else's belongings.
Looting is often quite open.
One has to mention an organized cargo transportation alongside with the misappropriation of money and valuables.
This planned looting may take place only if the military commanders participate in it. A systematic looting of Komsomolskoye village may serve an example.
There is information of raped women - both in the process of "clearing up" operations and in detention camps.
One cannot judge of the real scale of this violence, since the victims thoroughly conceal the facts. In the traditional Chechen society this means an infamy: no marriage in the future or an indispensable divorce. The reaction of the local population to that crime is extremely sharp: a hatred to "the Federals" and support to the bandits.
A stabilization of the situation in Chechnya, normal relations between the Federal Forces and the local population are impossible without an objective investigation into many crimes, performed by the Federal Military Forces against the civilians of this republic.
The Parliamentary Assembly called on the Military Procurator General of Russia to perform a systematic, real and full investigation and bring to justice those military men and militia men, who took part in the war crimes and human rights violations.
However, the Procurator's offices demonstrate their unwillingness to investigate many crimes against the civilians, performed by the Federal Forces in the process of the conflict.
Thus, for example, human rights protection organizations, such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Human Rights Protection Center "Memorial", have gathered numerous testimonies of the intentional killings of the civilians, looting and destruction of the personal belongings by the Russian Federal Forces in December 1999 in Alkhan-Urt. Malik Saidullaev, the Head of the Pro-Russian State Council of Chechen Republic, has informed the interested parties of that.
Nikolai Koshman, a representative of the Government of the Russian Federation in Chechen Republic was a witness to the burglary of the property of the population of Alkhan-Urt, and the process of the transportation of the property by the Federal soldiers was recorded by correspondents and demonstrated by the Russian TV.
However, the Procurator's General Office informed the "Memorial" in answer to their claim, that "in the process of the preliminary investigation the partiality of the Russian Federal Forces to that crime was not confirmed".
The Human Rights Protection Center "Memorial" and other non-governmental bodies have gathered evidences to the execution of civilians in Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny.
Some evidence was given by the victims who have by chance survived the execution and who were in hospitals in Ingushetia.
However, the letters, sent in February 2000 by our organization to the Military Procurator's General Office to start criminal proceedings in connection with these cases either remain unanswered or we are informed that: " the partiality of the Russian Federal Forces to the crime mentioned in your letter was not confirmed".
There is quite similar reaction of the Procurator's General Office to other facts, of which our Human Rights Protection Organizations inform them.
An investigation of the circumstances of the summary execution of the civilians in the village of New Aldy is unpardonable delayed, and nobody was accused of the crime. The facts of firings, resulted in victims among civilians, children being among them, are just not acknowledged, despite of the fact that wounded children are still in hospitals.
Russian Procurator's Offices take remarkable steps to bring to justice those, who are to blame for the looting and racketeering. By the end of June, under an official statistics, only 14 cases out of 467 under the investigation has to do with the assaults against civilians. To everyone, who has reliable information of the situation in Chechnya, it is evident that this figure is ridiculously small as compared to a number of different crimes performed by the military men against civilians. We shall draw one more official figure from a different source. A report, dated July 2000, of the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in charge of Human Rights in Chechnya states that by the 1st of July the Special Representative and his officers had received 5 689 people. 50 per cent of their appeals are connected with the lack of information of their detained and disappeared relatives, restrictions in traveling, violence, humiliation on the part of the Federal Forces, arbitrary detentions, beatings up, illegal imprisonment.
4. Social and economic situation in Chechnya
Many citizens of Grozny, who stayed there, are at present in a very serious situation. There no working places in a destroyed city, it is very difficult to find the way to earn some money. The people, whose salary is to be paid from the budget, got their payment far from full. Thus, the people working at schools in Grozny, got their payment only once since March: teachers got RBL. 700= and technical aids - RBL. 350=. Pensions are not paid regularly either. At the same time free food has stopped being supplied to the citizens of Grozny since May. Starting from the 1st of June once in two days only bread is distributed free among the people over 65 years old and invalids of the 1st and 2nd groups. Having regard the above mentioned one can see that major part of those living in Grozny has been deprived of the means of existence.
Under these circumstances it is quite essential to create the most favoured conditions for the functioning of international humanitarian organizations.
Opposite to that international humanitarian organizations encounter a hostile treatment at checkpoints (and in the first place at the checkpoint Caucasus-1, located at the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia), ungrounded demands, detentions, and direct racketeering on the part of the Russian military men.
A special regime of entry to and leaving Grozny declared at the end of July makes practically doubtful the functioning of international humanitarian organizations in this city. A.H. Kadyrov, Head of Chechen Administration declared in July of his intention to send to the checkpoint Caucasus-1 his own representative to monitor the functioning of this checkpoint.
This measure might contribute to an improvement of the functioning of this key checkpoint through which the major part of humanitarian aid is transported.
Population of the destroyed villages are also in a very serious situation.
Two intact houses only were left as a result of March combat actions in Komsomolskoye village, and there are 5 200 inhabitants there, all the other houses have been destroyed, most of them cannot be reconstructed. Their citizens are now mainly living with their relatives and acquaintances in Urus-Martan.
But they cannot live there for ever. The authorities do not offer any feasible perspective for the restoration and infrastructure renewal in the village. The Ministry of the Extraordinary Situations have donated to the population of the village 130 tents, and of course, these are not enough. Moreover they may not be positioned beyond the territory of the village. However, in the village there is the space for the tents only where the people grow vegetables, and under the circumstances this is the only chance to feed themselves.
The people have been receiving aid both from international organizations and the state, but it is not enough. Their ration is below the physiological minimum standards.
The Ministry of the Extraordinary Situations donated: in March - 2.5 kg of flour per a person, in April - 200 g of butter per a person, in June - 2 cans (600 g) of stewed meat per a family, 1 piece of canned milk per a family.
Danish Committee on Refugees donated: in March - 10 kg of flour per a person and 800 g of sugar per a person, in July - 10 kg of flour per a person and 800 g of sugar per a person, 1 litre of vegetable oil per a person.
The UN Committee on Refugees donated: in April - - 2 cans of stewed meat per a family, 1 litre of vegetable oil per a family.
Children allowances were paid for three months, pensions just once for March.
The situation with the displaced persons at the territory of Ingushetia worsened in the middle of June in connection with the stop of the flow of funds from the Federal Structures.
If the attitude of the Russian Government towards this problem is not changed quickly, one hundred and fifty thousand displaced persons at the territory of Ingushetia will be on the verge of a catastrophe by the beginning of autumn.
Anyway, there they are at least granted security. While the situation with the displaced persons at the territory of Chechnya is much worse and more dangerous.
Food rations are distributed among the inhabitants of the temporary dwelling camp in Znamenskoye: 4.5 cans of stewed meat (328 g each), 4 pieces of canned milk, 125 g of tea, 600 g of flour per every 10 days per a person. Bread is brought regularly to the camp.
However, displaced persons, living in the building of the local theatre, are poorly supplied.
Thus, for example, displaced persons, living in Znamenskoye village in a private sector have been receiving nothing but bread since February 15 till July 1.
Only after a personal intervening of the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in charge of Human Rights in Chechnya they received 15 days food rations on July 4 till 6 containing 1.5 cans of the stewed meat and one piece of canned milk per a person. There were no other distributions till July 23, as far as Human Rights Protection Center "Memorial" knows.
Multiple appeals of the displaced persons to representatives of the authorities to provide them with detergents and bed linen remained unanswered.
5. Conclusion
The armed conflict in the Northern Caucasus, later on renamed into a "counter terrorism operation" by the Russian Authorities, started in August 1999. This report of the situation in Chechnya in June and July 2000 in fact draws a conclusion at the end of one year of the war.
Russian officials draw conclusions as well. Mr. Vladimir Putin told on the 2nd of August:
"... Our decisive actions only, targeted at the restoration of the law, Constitution, protection of citizens' rights, their lawful interests and lives, put an end in reality to the beginning of the process of the state's disintegration... We are paying a high price for it, but it is not in vein..."
We cannot agree to this appraisal of the Federal Forces' actions in the Northern Caucasus and the results obtained.
The internal armed conflict has come over to a new phase of a guerrilla fighting, and there is no end to it. The official statistics (though doubted by many non-governmental institutions and mass media) account for over two thousand and a half casualties on the part of the Federal Military Forces, those of the Ministry of Internal Affairs including. Victims among civilians have not been counted by the State, by the estimation of the Human Rights Protection Organizations there are over ten thousand of them. Both soldiers and civilians continue to die. Bandits do not kidnap people any more and do not sell them, now, it is the "legal armed forces" who do that. Over ten thousand people have come through the system of "filtration", many of them were bought out by their relatives. Russian Law is not applicable in Chechnya - moreover, there is the reign of the breach of law and arbitrariness in the place of the law. Production and social infrastructure, hardly reinstated after the 1st war and started functioning, is now completely destroyed. The people, who had left Chechnya till 1999, cannot come back to their houses, they have been destroyed once again. Moreover, thousands more people added to the hordes of the displaced ones. And in the ongoing autumn many of them might face a humanitarian catastrophe.
Yes, the situation in the Northern Caucasus in the previous summer seemed hopeless, and the invasion of Bassaev's detachment in Dagestan made the armed conflict inevitable. However, methods, means and manner of the action, chosen by the Federal party resulted in that no target, that had been set by Mr. Putin, was reached. Moreover, the consequences of the "counter terrorism operation" proved to be catastrophic. And today there are neither signs of the improvement of the situation, nor wish on the part of the Federal Authorities to change it.
06.08.2000
