Human Rights Center "Memorial"

Appeal to the UN Commission for Human Rights
59th Session 2003
March 2003

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We appeal to you out of our profound concern for the life, safety, health, and dignity of hundreds of thousands of people in the armed conflict zone in Chechnya and the adjacent regions of the Russian Federation, and for the future of democracy in Russia. The current armed conflict in Chechnya continues, and two years ago it acquired the nature of guerilla warfare.

Federal forces continue to subject the mountainous regions of Chechnya to artillery fire and aerial bombardment, and to conduct "mop-ups" [zachistki, or lit. "cleansings"] of settlements. The Chechen fighters in turn continue to attack military convoys and places where federal troops are deployed. Soldiers of the Russian army and agents of the Interior Ministry [the police] are dying from land-mines and shelling. Civilians frequently become victims of those onslaughts on the Russian Federal Forces. Certain fractions of Chechen combatants use terror against civilians killing everyone who cooperated with the federal authorities. These were exactly civilians who in October 2002 were taken hostages in Moscow.

Russian official propaganda claims that the war in Chechnya is a component of the battle against international terrorism that the civilized world is currently fighting. The Russian leadership demands that the international community support the actions of Russian troops in Chechnya. Nevertheless, the international community must know and take into account that in response to attacks, sabotage, and terrorist acts committed by the armed formations opposing the federal forces of the Russian Federation, the latter use terror against the civilian population of Chechnya. These actions cannot be justified in any way. Using such methods only compromises the combat on terrorism, and enlarges the support base for the Chechen fighters.

Now, when the battle against terrorism has been launched, the international community should clearly and unambiguously condemn the methods by which Russia is applying armed force in Chechnya.

During the last year since the previous session of the UN Commission for Human Rights the population suffered of 'zachistki' or mop up operations of towns and villages.

The word zachistka means a special operation during which a population center is blockaded, and without a prosecutor's warrant, and without witnesses, house-to-house searches are conducted by soldiers and police, and all suspicious persons are detained. Officially, these "sweeps" are called "special operations to verify the registration of citizens according to domicile and to reveal the participants illegal armed formations." In reality these special operations mostly have turned into collective punitive raids on the citizens of entire localities.

Often during these sweeps, mass detentions of local residents were made. The detainees were taken to temporary "filtration points" located outside a city or village, where they were subjected to beatings and torture. In this way, federal forces try to get information about who in the village is supporting the fighters, where weapons are hidden, and the like. Not infrequently the detained went missing.

Usually during the mop-up operations the representatives of the federal forces behaved rudely, humiliating the civilians and often physically abusing them. The looting that went on during the sweeps was well-organized. The soldiers openly carried all the valuables out of peoples' homes and loaded them up into trucks. Often the soldiers extorted money from the owners of the home they were checking, and issued threats that they would take away all the young men of that family to a "filtration point" if they don't pay up.

The Commandment of the Allied Forces in Chechnya were usually resound to deny the crimes committed during mop-ups, failed to invest any serious effort in investigating reasons of the occurred or in aborting such crimes.

In response to numerous complaints of the local population the Procurator General of the Russian Federation and the Commander of the Allied Forces have repeatedly issued orders on the necessity of representatives of prosecution to be present during the mop-ups. In 2002, unlike in the previous years, the prosecutors actually started to be present during most of the operations. However, the presence of one or several prosecutors during the mop-up operation could not essentially change the situation. Those of them who tried to prevent crimes often encountered strong resistance on behalf of the military servicemen.

The military servicemen and the policemen entering the houses during mop-ups never introduced themselves, their faces were frequently covered with masks. The military vehicles they used, normally had no designated registration numbers; plates with numbers were intentionally wiped in dirt or in paint. This made it very difficult to determine who committed atrocities against civilians.

The human rights organizations tried to press the Commandment of the federal troops in Chechnya to comply with the following basic rules:

* All armored personnel carriers must bear their designated registration numbers;

* During special operations in towns and villages, the senior officer with each group of federal forces that enters a home or building should introduce himself to the residents and present his identification;

* Upon completion of the special operation, the leader of the operation must give the head of administration of the village a complete and exhaustive list of all those persons detained in that location during the course of the operation, with an indication of the reasons for their detention and the place where they will be taken.

One year ago on March 27, 2002 just before the discussions in the UN Committee for Human Rights on Chechnya, the Commander of the Allied Forces issued order N 80. The order required the officials in charge of the special operations to follow the mentioned above basic legal norms. Nonetheless, in the last year the order was next to never complied with.

We hereby quote only some of the examples:

In May 21 - June 11 2002, in village Mesker-Yurt mop-up operation was carried out. Since the first day of the operation a military prosecutor lieutenant colonel of justice Tereshuk V.V was present in the village; in spite of his presence the operation was going on with widespread looting. During the mop-up operation the military servicemen blew up the building of the village administration, beat up the head of administration Mansur Aliev when he tried to defend the rights of the villagers. Totally, according to the prosecution, 208 persons were brought to the filtration camps. There they were subjected to torture. Thus, Barzaev Husein was sliced with a knife on his back, then the wounds were filled with salt. One of the three brothers Khadzimuradov, Ibragim Khadzimuradov, was tortured in front of his two other brothers. The military servicemen cut off his ears and phalanxes of fingers on his hands and feet and then blasted him. The two other brothers were released after severe beatings and torture. Eighteen of the detained disappeared without a trace. The fragments of blasted corpses of three other persons detained during the same operation were found by the locals in the proximity of the filtration camp.

Below is the citation from the official response of the Procurator's Office of the Chechen Republic to the inquiry of 'Memorial' (15/39-232-02 of 08.10.2002):

"21.06.2002 in the village Mesker-Yurt during the special operation by unidentified persons dressed in the camouflage uniform from his house in Lenin street 157 under the pretext of document check up Ortsuev Islam Abdulaevich, born 1980, was transferred to the filtration point and later disappeared ". Furthermore, the Prosecutor lists 21 persons. On each of the cases a criminal case was opened. The investigation of these cases is currently suspended due to the 'impossibility to detect persons who should be summoned as accused.'

On August 16, 2002 on the outskirts of village Tevzini an armored personnel carrier of the Russian federal forces exploded on a land-mine, several military servicemen were injured. Soon the mop up of the village was launched. The armored personnel carriers breaking gates and fences entered the private yards. The military servicemen jumped out, broke into the houses and made pogroms inside - beating up civilians, destroying and damaging furniture, breaking utensils, clothes, taking valuables from the houses along with them. The military vehicles destroyed several dozens of trucks and automobiles, which belonged to the locals. The first men who happened to be nearby, be it men, elderly persons or teenagers, were detained. Two male-teachers and the principle of the local school were taken away from the school building during the meeting of the pedagogical council.

The detained were transferred to the outskirts of the village and ordered to lay down on the ground with their faces down. This way they were laying for several hours in a row. The military servicemen beat them up with machine gun butts, kicked them, jumped on their backs. Then some of the detained were released, but more than 70 persons were transferred to the quarters of a military base, where they were interrogated for three days. The interrogated were beaten, subjected to torture by electric shock, ordered to tell who planted mines in the road. The electric wires were connected to the lobes of ears and the lower lips of the detained.

Mop ups were likewise carried out in the neighboring villages of Khatuni, Mahkety, Selmentauzen, Agishty, Elistanzhi. The detained persons were released only after the women-dwellers of those villagers protested in Grozny near the house of Government. This action resulted in a wave of mass social unrest.

In autumn 2002 the number of large-scale mopping up operations, previously carried out in the lowland areas of Chechnya gradually reduced. In the beginning of November 2002 the President of the Russian Federation announced that large scale special operations should not be carried out in Chechnya. However, such operations are still taking place, although significantly less frequently than in the previous period of time.

In some cases the mop-ups were carried out in compliance with the rules:

As a rare positive example one should quote a long-term mopping up operation of December 2002-January 2003 in the village Starye Atagi carried out by the Chechen OMON. The operation was led by Musa Gazimagomadov, the head of the Chechen OMON, who for this occasion also commanded several units of the Russian Federal Forces. During the operation a few Chechen combatants were killed and several civilians detained (including adolescents under 18); items of weaponry found. Serious human right violations were not reported during that event.

Nevertheless, often the sweeps followed the old scenario:

At night on January, 8 in the town of Argun, the representatives of the federal forces started a mopping-up operation, which went along with burglary, heavy mugging, kidnapping and murder. The military servicemen broke into the houses, dragged people out of beds and without letting them put their clothes on took them away. The detained were tortured in the quarr between the towns of Argun and Khankala, and afterward transported to the military base in Khankala. The relatives of the detained found two blasted corpses in the area of the quarry. Only one corpse was identified by the clothing. This was a citizen of the town Argun, Ortsukhaev Al'manzor Mazhidovich, 36 years old, residing in Sheripova street, 12. He was arrested by the military servicemen at night January, 8. Ortsuhaev was wounded in his leg when detained.

Under the pressure of mass protests of the citizens of Argun, the local and republican authorities were forced to interfere. The representatives of the Federal Forces released most of the detained. All of them were heavily mutilated and needed urgent medical help. The detained Aliev Azamat Vakhaevich disappeared; by the start of February his fate was unknown.

Salataev Khoz-Akhmed Aslambekov, detained during the same operation deceased, Eskerkhanov Halid Ramzanovich and Suleimanov Apti Rizvanovivh remain hospitalized, in a bad physical condition.

In Chechnya people continued to disappear. In the majority of cases they were not kidnapped by bandits or terrorists but conversely were detained by those who carried out the 'anti-terrorist operation', i.e. by the military servicemen, the stuff of the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.

In one year since the previous 58 session of the UN Commission for Human Rights the scale of such 'disappearances' has enlarged. In 3,5 years since the beginning of the second armed conflict in Chechnya thousands of people 'disappeared' this way. The Commission for Searching the Missing Persons in conjunction with the Government of the Chechen Republic has registered 2,800 of such cases. Obviously, in reality there were much more of them. Given the size of the population in Chechnya the scale of terror is quite comparable to mass terror of the Stalinist period.

As mentioned above people frequently disappeared during the mop-ups. In November, 2002 on the issue of the necessity to stop large scale special operations in the Chechen settlements the President of the Russian Federation said that the so-called 'addressed operations' should be carried out instead of the massive events. Indeed, by autumn 2003 the number of 'addressed' operations had increased. At the same time the number of 'disappearances' had likewise increased. Experience shows that 'addressed operations' the President of Russia invests so much hope in can likewise become a method of terror, no less cruel than the mopping up operations themselves.

During such 'addressed' operations the representatives of federal forces at nights blockade private houses, search, detain one or two of their inhabitants. The military servicemen, policemen and the representatives of special services do not introduce themselves upon entering private houses, during operations they wear masks, their cars and the armored vehicles do not have plates with registration numbers. People detained during such operations frequently 'disappear'. Sometimes the dead bodies of the 'disappeared' with marks of torture are later found by the local citizens.

The growth in numbers of kidnappings and murder of the civilians in Chechnya, committed by the representatives of the federal forces is arousing protest even with the officials of Kadyrov Administration and the government of the Chechen Republic. Thus, in November 2002 the leaders of Ministries and Departments of the Chechen Republic, the heads of local administration and the members of the Consultative Council in conjunction with the Head of Administration of the Chechen Republic appealed to the President of the Russian Federation asking to put the end to mass human rights violations of the federal forces against civilians. Quoting the appeal:

"We are forced in such an emergency to appeal to you as the highest civil servant of the Russian state and the highest warrant for observance of the constitutional rights of all citizens of the Russian Federation, of which the Chechen Republic with all its civilian population of over 1 million is an inexorable part <...> In the days immediately proceeding the terrorist act in Moscow the illegal actions of the Federal Forces in Chechnya have radically worsened the social and political situation in the Republic. This concerns kidnappings of the civilians, committed by the military servicemen using military vehicles late at night. For all of the numerous cases we have reports to the Republican Procurator's office, Commandants of the districts, Commandant of the Republic, the military authorities of the armed forces in Chechnya. <...>. All our appeals are unfortunately left without attention <...> "

Nevertheless, the criminal malpractice was not stopped. Tens of civilians continued to disappear monthly . Human Rights Center 'Memorial' holds information only on a part of them. Below are some of the examples:

On January 13, nine (ten) blasted corpses were found in the area of Petropavlovk highway. The next day the Procurator of the Chechen Republic V. Kravchenko reported that the dead bodies belonged to the people kidnapped earlier by the Chechen combatants. These statements of the Procurator, however, were false. Two of the corpses had been identified and they both belonged to the persons detained by the Federal Forces in December 2002. The body of Kagermanov, the director of a state collective farm "Soviet Russia" located in the village Berdykhel (Komsomolskoye) of Groznensky (Rural) district, was identified almost immediately. Conversely to the declaration of Kravchenko he was not kidnapped by Chechen combatants, but detained by the representatives of the federal power structures in the second half of December 2002 near village Prigorodniye (he was driving a car together with two of his employees). According to the employees of Kagermanov, all of them were detained by the military servicemen on a BTR, and the car "YAZ". They were put into "YAZ", and taken in the unknown direction; afterwards the colleagues of Kagermanov were thrown out of the car, but the director of the collective farm was kidnapped. Another corpse belonged to the citizen of Grozny Tepsuev, employed in the State Taxation Service. On December 22, he was detained by the military servicemen- this fact was reported to 'Memorial' by the relatives the detained. After the blast the rest of the dead bodies were torn into pieces. According to the police experts, it was hardly possible to identify them.

In January 2003 Human Rights Center 'Memorial' registered five similar cases of in Grozny, when military servicemen arrived by armored personnel carriers and kidnapped civilians. Totally 16 people went missing. The dead body of one 'disappeared' was later found by the locals.

The Human Rights Center 'Memorial' holds information on 14 cases of disappearances in Urus-Martan district from January 2003 when persons were detained from their houses by representatives of federal forces and 'disappeared'. The corpses of one woman and one men who were detained during these operations were later found.

Similar things happened in other districts of Chechnya.

The kidnappings and murder continued in March 2003. Human Rights Center 'Memorial' holds information on cases of 'disappearances' of ten persons, detained by the representatives of federal forces. The corpses of two of the detained were later found.

On March 2, 2003 in village Alkhan-Yurt the military servicemen and the representatives of other power structures detained and kidnapped two civilians: Ismailov and Abubukarov. The detained worked in the Chechen police. The witnesses affirm that persons who carried out arrests arrived to the village on several armored personnel carriers. On March 10, in half a kilometer from village Goyty the militiamen who guarded the gas pipe found disfigured corpses with numerous bullet wounds. The identification determined that the corpses belonged to Ismailov and Ababukarov. According to the findings of the forensic medical expertise both were killed on the third day after detainment. On the face and in the area of ears of the killed were marks of repeated torture by electric shock as well as wounds by sharp subject, bruises on the necks, marks from hand-cuffs on the wrists.

There are cases when in one collective grave non-combatants detained in different periods of time and from different are buried.

For instance, on September 6, 2002 in the forestry line near the checkpoint of Russian federal forces on the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia was found a collective grave. The military servicemen revealed the location of the grave to the relatives for a big amount of money. The exhumation was carried out in the presence of the representatives from prosecution. In the grave the corpses of seven persons were found. Four of them-Musa Kariev, Aslan Kariev, Rustam Kariev and Azizbek Bitsalov were detained from their private houses by the representatives of federal forces during the 'addressed operations' in Krasnostepanovsk at night from May 13- to May 14 on the border of Ingushetia and Chechnya. The detained were put in an automobile and taken to the outskirts of the village where the armored personnel carriers had been placed.

Two other corpses belonged to Vakhid Magomadov and Beslan Dadaev detained from their houses by representatives of power structures in the course of the 'addressed operations' in village Oktyabr'skaia at night from May 13-14 2002. In the village 12 other persons were detained. By September the fate of Magomedov and Dadaev remained unknown.

Obviously, we are confronted not with the individual actions of undisciplined military servicemen or policemen, but with the existence of organized criminal groups within the state power structures functioning in the capacity of 'squadrons of death'.

The scale of trafficking in people in today's Chechnya is far greater than under Maskhadov's rule.

It has become standard practice for people to purchase the release of their relatives detained by federal forces through the paying of bribes.

As before, at many checkpoints on roads, soldiers and police are openly extorting money from drivers of cars passing through.

In summer 2002 a particularly complicated situation was reported in some mountainous districts of Chechnya. The local citizens were forced to leave their villages in the mountains east of the Chechen Republic and flea for the plain.

People fled from endless aerial bombing, violence and murder.

Many localities of Vedensky, Nozhai-Yurtovsky, Kurchaloevsky1 districts are abandoned. Almost completely neglected were the villages Gansolchu, Upper, Middle and Lower Kurchali, Sherdi-Mokh, Tazen-Kale, Gezinchu, Zhani-Vedeno, Yalkhoi-Mokh, Akhinchu-Barzoi, Dzugurty, in village Tsentaroi only three inhabitants left, so did most of the inhabitants of Gordali-Yurt, Bas-Gordali, Shuani, Small Shuani (Chari-Mokh), Turty-Hutor, Hashki-Mokh and other settlements. People continue to flea from villages Khaltuni, Makhety, Tevzani.

The estimated total number of migrants of this wave numbers dozens of thousands of people. This happens two years after the end of large-scale military operations, when the Russian officials declare the normalization of the situation in the Republic.

The mountainous districts have been practically cut off from the rest of Chechnya by military check points; independent observers are not allowed. What happens there rarely becomes public. At the same time these are the areas where the federal forces act particularly ruthlessly and cruelly. The authorities accuse the civilians of catering food for the combatants. In their turn the combatants exterminate everyone who cooperates with the federal authorities. The inhabitants of mountainous villages are caught in the crossfire.

While in the plains the number of mop-ups has been reducing in the mountains they were carried out with the same intensity as before and became increasingly more cruel. Additional military units were transferred to the mountains, some of them were deployed in the outskirts of the villages. By autumn 2002 the flight of inhabitants from the mountainous villages acquired the nature of mass exodus. However on the plains, where these forced migrants settle down they receive no help from the state.

In autumn and in the beginning of winter 2002 on the forced migrants temporarily residing in the tent camps in Ingushetia direct pressure was exerted by the authorities at different levels aimed at forcing them to return back to Chechnya.

Various methods were used- from creating unbearable living conditions in camps to direct threats issued by the authorities. In the beginning of December 2002 a tent camp "Iman" near village Aki-Yurt was forcefully liquidated. The forced migrants who resided in the camp were made return to Chechnya against their will to the places unprepared even for temporary residence.

Since January 2003 such pressure on the forced migrants was ceased.

Stabilization of the situation in Chechnya, normalization of relations between the representatives of federal forces and the civilian population is impossible without serious and impartial investigation of numerous crimes committed by the military servicemen, the representatives of Interior Ministry and the special services against the non-combatants of this Republic.

On March 3, 2003 the Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe for Legal Issues and Human Rights suggested to set up an International Tribunal for Investigating military crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the course of armed conflict in the Chechen Republic. Such a tribunal would have been aimed at carrying out a fair and impartial investigation of crimes irrespective of who committed them.

The Human Rights Center 'Memorial' regards this initiative correct and timely. Nonetheless, we are well aware of the fact that real attempts at setting up such a tribunal will, unfortunately, stumble over political obstacles coming from Russia and many other countries.

However, the necessity of international investigation of numerous crimes which have been committed and are still daily committed against civilians during the armed conflict in Chechnya is clearly obvious. The situation with investigating crimes against civilians in the zone of armed conflict should be characterized as that of 'impunity'. Moreover, as selective impunity. If the crimes committed by Chechen combatants are effectively investigated and severe sentences are issued, in respect of crimes committed by the representatives of the federal forces the picture is quite different. No one has been convicted for mass murder in the villages New Aldy (February 2000) and Alkhan-Yurt (December 1999), in Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny (January-February 2000). Punishment of persons guilty of artillery bombardment of the settlements with civilian population, of the roads, where the columns of refugees moved is not even discussed. Unidentified are the criminals, who killed tens of persons, whose bodies were found in the immediate proximity of the Russian military base in Khankala and on the territory of the base itself in 2001. Unpunished are the persons responsible for committing numerous crimes during mop ups of towns and villages.

It should be admitted that prosecution agencies open criminal cases for crimes committed by the federal forces against civilians. More than thousand of criminal cases have been opened on the facts of kidnapping persons committed by the representatives of the federal forces only. However, the investigation of three quarters of those cases has already been suspended due to 'impossibility to detect persons who should be summoned as accused.'

The Procurator General of the Russian Federation, the General Military Procurator, the Procurator of the Chechen Republic regularly provided the world with statistics: the numbers of military servicemen and militiamen punished in courts for crimes against civilians , the number of criminal cases processed by the military prosecution on the crimes of this type, the numbers of crimes committed etc. This is deceiving statistics.

For example, reportedly, after 3,5 years of military action 47 military servicemen have been punished in courts. However, serious questions arise as to how they have been punished. Firstly, a full register of sentences with the description of crimes has never been published. At the same time we know that the majority of the persons found guilty get away with symbolic sentences or minimal punishments with possible deferral in their service.

Secondly, 47 sentences, is that a small or a big figure? Any unbiased person informed of the situation in Chechnya would agree that the number of punished is ridiculously small compared to the number of crimes committed. Reportedly, the military prosecution has investigated 162 criminal cases on the facts of crimes committed against civilians. This is however, only the "top of the iceberg". The overwhelming majority of such cases is piled in the offices of civic prosecution of the Chechen Republic and the district prosecution offices of the Chechen Republic.

In the majority of cases, when the soldier perpetrators are not seized at the place of the crime or when there is no other indisputable evidence that the crimes were committed by the soldiers of a certain military unit, a criminal case is opened and investigated by the territorial civilian prosecutor's office. Mostly the representatives of federal forces act without identification marks, not infrequently use military vehicles with registration numbers smeared over with paint or dirt. The logic of the military prosecution in such cases is simple: "May be the crime has been committed by fighters dressed in the military uniform or may be by the inhabitants of Mars? Prove that it has been done by the military, then we will start investigating the crime". However, how can the officials of civilian prosecution of the Chechen Republic do that if they have no access to the military bases and the military servicemen refuse to answer their questions etc? As a result, the investigation of thousands of cases is suspended a few months after they are being opened " due to 'impossibility to detect persons who should be summoned as accused.' "

The prosecuting institutions of the Chechen Republic frequently demonstrate complete reluctance to investigate cases of gross crimes against civilians committed by the federal forces. Human Rights Center 'Memorial' which maintains correspondence with prosecuting offices on the several hundreds criminal cases committed has many examples of this.

Civilians in the Chechen Republic also suffer from the actions of the Chechen fighters. They often die from acts of sabotage aimed at Russian federal troops.

Below are just two examples:

On September 16, 2002 in Grozny on a lively crossroad near the central market and bus station a land-mine went off. The blast primarily harmed a passenger bus and the people standing at the bus stop. The explosive was planted in a kiosk located in the close proximity of the bus stop. As a result eight persons died (two small children included), 24 persons were injured. The blast was probably intended for a car with soldiers which appeared at the place of tragedy a few minutes later. But the land-mine went off automatically when the passenger bus arrived. Those who had prepared this blast could not have been unaware of the fact that civilians will inevitably suffer in this assault. However, they were reluctant to take this into consideration.

At night on March 3, 2003 the fighters made an attempt at blasting a car with the officials of the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, a car with civilians exploded. A few persons received injuries of different nature.

Some of the armed formations that oppose federal forces have used in combat the tactic of terror against anyone who speaks out for cooperating with Russian government agencies.

For example, at night of November 20, 2002 in the village Starye Atagi the fighters killed Salihovs, father and son, respected persons in the village, who promoted cooperation with the federal forces.

Fighters blow up the buildings of district administrations, they stage assaults on chiefs of administration of districts, cities, and villages. Today, the chiefs of the rural administrations in Chechnya are sometimes the only government agencies somehow defending the interests of the villagers.

According to the information we have, the terror against civilians is carried out mostly by the members of the Chechen combatant groups of the so-called 'fundamentalist wing'. One of the gravest examples of such terror was the Theatre Terror in Moscow in October 2002. The immediate leader of the terrorist act was the fundamentalist field commander Movsar Baraev. However, the responsibility for organization of this terrorist act was taken by Shamil Basaev. He is likewise responsible for the blast of the House of Government in Grozny on December 27, 2002 which caused death and injuries of many civilians.

In the conditions of continuous terror against the population of Chechnya in the conditions of de facto state of emergency the authorities launched the campaign for Constitutional Referendum in Chechnya. Insecurity, lack of freedom of political debate, limitations on the freedom of mobility in Chechnya make this referendum a parody of free will expression of the people.

We appeal to the Commission for Human Rights with the request to take the following measures:

* To adopt a resolution expressing serious concern with the continuing grave and mass violations of human rights in the Chechen Republic;

* To ensure unconditional compliance with the Resolution №2001/24 of April 20 2001, particularly with the part referring to visits to Chechnya by special reporters or experts on torture, extra judicial executions, executions without due trial or arbitrary executions and experts on the issues of internally displaced persons;

* To support the proposal of the PACE Committee for Legal Issues and human rights on setting up an International Tribunal for Investigating military crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the course of the armed conflict in Chechnya.