April 4, 2007
Mr. President!
On March 26, 2007, at the White House, you had a meeting with Vladimir Shamanov, retired Lieutenant-General, advisor to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, and Chair of the Inter-departmental Commission on POW/MIA.
In the course of the second Chechnya war, from fall 1999 to the present, the name of General Shamanov, commander of the Western Group of Russian Federal Troops, became symbolic of grave and massive human rights violations. In the beginning of the armed conflict, he attempted to prevent the civilian population of Chechnya from leaving the zone of fighting. Particularly infamous are the following crimes perpetrated in the territory, which Shamanov was in charge of: aerial attack on the column of refugees near the village of Shaami-Yurt on October 29, 1999; killings of civilians in the village of Alkhan-Yurt in December 1999; and shelling and bombing of peaceful residents in the officially proclaimed "safety zone" of the Katyr-Yurt village on February 4, 2000. In connection with two of those cases, the European Court on Human Rights delivered judgments, which inter alia stipulated for the invalidation of the decision of the Russian prosecutor's office to close the investigation into the said actions.
Though the White House acknowledged later on that the meeting had been organized without relevant consultations with the State Department, in the contemporary political context it is still appears to have a single meaning. Whether you wanted it or not, the international community received a signal that the leader of a world power wielding the "war on terror" welcomes a general, who is allegedly responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mr. President!
The rather vague apologies of the White House don't seem to be sufficient in such a grave situation. We hope to hear your own explanation. Was that meeting with Shamanov a misunderstanding and a very unfortunate mistake? Or do you believe that international humanitarian law and human rights norms are not applicable in the situation of "counter-terrorist operations"; that war crimes and crimes against humanity may remain uninvestigated, and the perpetrators may go unpunished?
We are respectfully looking forward to your response.
Oleg Orlov, Human Rights Center "Memorial"
Svetlana Gannushkina, Civic Assistance Committee
Ludmilla Alexeeva, Moscow Helsinki Group
Tanya Lokshina, Center "Demos"
Yuri Dzhibladze, Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights
Natalia Taubina, Public Verdict Foundation
Alexander Verkhovsky, Center SOVA
Igor Kalyapin, Nizhny Novgorod Committee against Torture
Lev Ponomarev, Russian Movement for Human Rights
Gleb Yakunin, Committee for the Protection of Freedom of Conscience
Oksana Chelysheva, Nizhny Novgorod Foundation to Support Tolerance
Madina Magomadova, "Mothers of Chechnya"
Ruslan Badalov, "Chechen Committee for National Salvation"