Human Rights Center "Memorial"

Deputy Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic Contradicts Facts

On Oct 28, 2003, ITAR-TASS published a statement issued by Alexander Nikitin, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic. According to the news agency, Nikitin “refuted information provided by a number of human rights organizations” on the number of missing persons in the Chechen Republic during the second Chechen War. In its article, ITAR-TASS mentioned only one human rights group by name: Memorial. It is our duty to respond to the Chechen Deputy Prosecutor’s statement, in which he claims that 2,000 names have been added to the list of missing persons since 1994. Furthermore, according to the Deputy Prosecutor, these lists include persons “who disappeared in 1994-1999, but who were reported missing only after the creation of the Republic’s Prosecutor Office on February 8, 2000.”

We do not dispute the fact that many people disappeared or were kidnapped before 1999. Memorial’s staff has seen the official list of missing persons and has found that it includes only a handful of cases dating back to before the beginning of the second Chechen War in October 1999.

It is unclear exactly which list Mr. Nikitin has in mind. The Prosecutor’s Office of the Chechen Republic reported 1,663 cases of missing persons as of January 2003. It is possible that this list now has 2,000 entries. Nonetheless, the Chechen government has been keeping its own lists which include more than 2,800 missing persons. The federal forces are suspected in the overwhelming majority of cases on these lists.

According to information provided by relevant government agencies in Chechnya, the disappearances have continued since January 2003. Official statistics published by the Interior Ministry of the Chechen Republic indicate that between January and March 2003, an average of 60 individuals disappeared each month (typically individuals detained by the federal forces). In October of this year, Movsar Khamidov, the official responsible for relations between the Chechen government and the federal forces, announced that approximately 300 people have disappeared in Chechnya since January.

Therefore, even the Chechen Republic’s own official statistics show that over 3,000 individuals have disappeared in Chechnya to date. But for some reason, the Deputy Prosecutor is disputing statistics reported by human rights advocates.

Memorial’s information shows that the number of missing persons reported by Khamidov is clearly an underestimate. Memorial’s materials confirm that just five months following the referendum, 250 non-combatants have disappeared in Chechnya. Our ability to monitor the situation in Chechnya is obviously limited, as we monitor roughly 25-30% of Chechnya’s territory. Therefore, the total number of missing persons for the above period must be higher. It is also possible that the number of missing persons cited by Khamidov reflects the number of missing persons reported in 2003 to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Commission on Missing Persons. The number is probably much higher, since over the past months, access to the government building complex, where the Prosecutor’s Office and other government agencies are located, has been significantly limited for “security reasons.”

Nikitin further states: “We have recently received a report from Memorial, a human rights organization, that includes a list of persons whom they consider missing. But while verifying this information, we spoke with families and established the contrary. Many of those reported missing were actually at home, and no kidnappings had taken place.”

This statement is unfounded. The last time that Memorial sent a similar list to the Chechen Prosecutor’s Office was in March 2002, during the functioning/performance of the Working Group, formed by the Civil Forum.

Memorial has not received any official refutation of any names or facts we have reported. It would appear that the processing time in the Prosecutor’s Office is such that its officials consider events that are eighteen months old to be “recent.”

Nonetheless, Memorial has sent a letter of inquiry to the Prosecutor’s Office for each disappearance case known to us. On more than one occasion, these letters contained new facts that the Prosecutor’s Office had not been aware of and which were later confirmed during an investigation.

Since November 1999, when Memorial began its correspondence with the Prosecutor’s Office (which now includes over 700 letters), officials have been able to claim that there was “no disappearance” in only two cases. In several other instances, Memorial has been able to show the Prosecutor’s Office that its officials incorrectly denied the disappearance of detainees.

For this reason, Deputy Prosecutor Nikitin could not substantiate his words with any examples other than the case of Dik Altemirov. He alleged that international organizations inquired on account of Altemirov’s disappearance, but that “Chechen officials established that he was at home.” However, Mr Nikitin failed to mention that the Altemirov case took place in May 2001. He also failed to mention that Dik Altemirov, a prominent public figure in Chechnya, was taken by the military from his home and brought to an illegal detention facility at a military camp.

Memorial immediately sent inquiries concerning this matter to various authorities. We had not included Altemirov on our list of missing persons. A number of international organizations that were concerned about Altemirov’s fate also sent inquiries to Russia. Fortunately, Altemirov was released shortly afterwards and many inquiries reached their addressees after his release. If Chechnya’s Deputy Prosecutor had not stated the facts selectively, he would hardly have chosen this episode to illustrate his dubious statements.

Now, Memorial is waiting for a response to its letter to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Chechen Republic requesting complete information on all cases in which it is alleged that our reports of disappearances in Chechnya were inaccurate.