On 25 June the International Human Rights Organization Human Rights Watch presented a report on the fight against terrorism and infringements of human rights in Ingushetia. The report’s author is the well-known human rights defender Tatyana Lokshina. (29-JUN-08)
Written by Maria Paramonova/HRH Moscow
Link: http://www.hro1.org/node/2641
Source: text of the report in English: http://hrw.org/reports/2008/russia0608/
Photo: www.hro.org; Center “Demos”
A “Chechen” model
The heritage of the Chechen conflict in the form of arbitrariness and instability overflowed throughout the entire Northern Caucasus and was especially apparent in Ingushetia, according to the Human Rights Watch report. The International Human Rights Organization called on the Russian authorities to correct their methods in the fight against illegal armed formations and to put an end to the impunity granted to the Russian army and law enforcement bodies. It is absolutely necessary that the republic does not get engulfed in a human rights crisis based on a “Chechen” model.
The report “‘As If They Fell From The Sky’ Counterinsurgency, Rights Violations and Impunity in Ingushetia” documents cruel infringements of human rights by members of power structures during operations against gunmen/insurgents, including arbitrary detention, acts of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, violent disappearances and extrajudicial executions. The report covers the period 2007 – to the beginning of 2008, and includes the legal and political context of the described infringements of human rights and freedom.
Measures against insurgent attacks on civil servants
For the past several years, insurgent activity, aimed at the destabilization of the situation, has been growing in Ingushetia. Since summer 2007 the number of insurgent attacks on civil servants, employees of power structures and peaceful inhabitants has grown considerably despite the efforts of law enforcement bodies to liquidate the armed underground. The power structures answer the actions of the insurgents by detaining persons suspected of participation in illegal armed formations. These detentions, by their form, resemble abductions; the detained people are exposed to torture, and sometimes completely disappear.
The Human Rights Center “Memorial”
According to the Human Rights Center “Memorial”, in 2007, in Ingushetia, 29 people were arbitrary detained during special operations of the power structures, from them three subsequently went missing, and it has been confirmed that one was killed (http://www.memo.ru/2008/04/18/1804082.html). The frequency of extrajudicial executions causes special apprehension. Eight cases like this were documented in the Human Rights Watch report. The youngest victim was six-year old Rakhim Amriev, who was killed during a special operation in the house of his parents where members of the power structures mistakenly assumed an insurgent was hidden.
Meetings of protest
Members of the power structures are not held accountable for human rights violations in Ingushetia. Inhabitants of the republic, driven to despair because of the impunity of the power structure members and constant assurances from the authorities that the situation in the region was normal and stable, went out on meetings of protest in 2007 and the beginning of 2008. However, the Ingush authorities labeled these meetings “provocations” playing to the hand of the insurgents. They did everything they could to thwart public protests: meetings were not sanctioned, demonstrators were dispersed with excessive application of force, and the work of regional mass-media was disrupted.
Journalists and human rights defenders became victims of kidnapping
An unprecedented step in the intimidation of independent monitors became the measures applied to 16 human rights defenders and journalists from Ingushetia and other regions who tried to highlight meetings in November 2007 and January 2008. From the side of the power structures they were exposed to threats, kidnappings, beatings, detention and expulsion from the Republic. So, on 24 November in Nazran, the head of the Human Rights Center “Memorial” Oleg Orlov (photo) and journalists from REN-TV Karen Sakhinov, Artem Vysotsky and Stanislav Goryachikh became victims of kidnapping, cruel treatment and threats of execution (http://hrw.org/russian/docs/2007/11/24/russia17408.htm; http://hrw.org/russian/docs/2008/01/27/russia17902.htm).
the Russian Federation should put an end to arbitrariness
“If the Russian Federation wants to stop Ingushetia from slipping into a full-scale human rights crisis based on the Chechen model it should put an end to arbitrariness, says Mrs. Lokshina. Federal and republican authorities should investigate these crimes and make those guilty responsible regardless of their position. Human rights violations against the peaceful inhabitants will not help the fight against terrorism. Actually, they will only aggravate the conflict”.
Human Rights Watch’s call to the Russian authorities
Human Rights Watch called on the Russian authorities to stop immediately the practice of extrajudicial executions, violent disappearances, arbitrary detentions, “abductions” and other violations in Ingushetia. The government of the Russian Federation should also provide real mechanisms of making accountable those guilty of gross violations and not permit unjustified restrictions on freedom of assembly and freedom of expression of opinions in the Republic.
Text of the report in English: http://hrw.org/reports/2008/russia0608/
