On the Situation of Residents of Chechnya

On the Situation of Residents of Chechnya
in the Russian Federation July 2005 – July 2006

Based on the materials gathered by the Migration Rights Network, Memorial Human Rights Center,
Civic Assistance Committee, Internet Publication Caucasian Knot, SOVA Information and Analysis Center, and others
13.09.2006

Автор(ы): Gannushkina Svetlana (Head of the “Migration and Law” Network, Chairperson of Civic Assistance Committee, Member of the board of the “Memorial” Human Rights Center)

Text in Russian
Download Print version (Zipped DOC, 480Kb)

MEMORIAL Human Rights Center Migration Rights Network

Edited
by Svetlana A. Gannushkina

On the Situation of Residents of Chechnya
in the Russian Federation
July 2005 – July 2006

Moscow 2006

The project is funded by the European Commission
Based on the materials gathered by the Migration Rights Network,
Memorial Human Rights Center, Civic Assistance Committee,
Internet Publication Caucasian Knot, SOVA Information and Analysis Center, and others

S.A. Gannushkina,

Head of the Migration Rights Network

Chairwoman of the Civic Assistance Committee

L.Sh. Simakova,

compiler of the Report

Other contributors to the Report included: A. Barakhoyev, Ye. Burtina, S. Magomedov, Ye. Ryabinina, and Sh. Tangiyev

The Migration Rights Network of Memorial Human Rights Center has 56 offices providing free legal assistance to forced migrants, including five offices located in Chechnya and Ingushetia (http://www.refugee.memo.ru)
In Moscow lawyers from the Migration Rights Network use the charitable Civic Assistance Committee for Refugee Aid as their base (www.refugee.ru).

ISBN 5-93439-206-9

Circulated free of charge

CONTENTS

List of Abbreviations

I. Introduction

“For instance, a police officer was killed yesterday. Not ours – Chechen officer …”
V.V. Putin during a meeting with human rights activists held on July 20, 2005

This report is the fifth in a series of reports produced by us annually on the situation of residents of the Chechen Republic in Russia.

The four previous reports in Russian, English, and German could be found on the Web site of the Migration Rights Network of Memorial Human Rights Center at

refugee.memo.ru

. All the four reports were published in Moscow in the Russian and English languages by R.Valent Publishers in 2002-2005.

How many more years will we have to produce such reports?

We hear from Russian officials that the situation in Chechnya has stabilized and that the Republic has firmly embarked on the way of revival. This is true. Housing is now being more actively constructed in the city of Grozny, the Republic’s capital: buildings are gradually growing, rather than just their facades renovated, as was the case not so long ago. Every family tries to the best of their ability to put their home and property into a habitable state. People are launching their small businesses: cafes, kiosks and shops are being opened. Library holdings are being added again; the university and other educational institutions are operating.

However, one can talk of stabilization of the situation only as far as one single aspect is concerned: “stabilization” of lawlessness that has set in the Chechen Republic, along with a permanent fear that lives in people’s souls and the vow of silence, in which people have to bury their grief and suffering.

The period from July 2005 to July 2006, described in this report, has not brought any encouraging changes.

The federal authorities have succeeded in what is usually referred to as “Chechenization of the conflict.” Battalions

Vostok

[East] (led by Yamadayev),

Zapad

[West] (led by Kakiyev), and units under the command of Ramzan Kadyrov (transformed into Battalions

Yug

[South] and

Sever

[North]), formally belong to the federal security agencies and terrorize the population in no less degree.

Abductions of people continue and at the best, they are ransomed by relatives, dead or alive. At the worst, they disappear without a trace.

Crimes are not investigated even in those plain cases, when abductors are known, as was the case with eleven abductees in Borozdinovskaya, with Murad Muradov in the city of Grozny, and with Bulat Chilayev in Sernovodsk. Abductors do not only avoid punishment, they are not even interrogated.

For sure, some abductions are to be blamed on illegal armed groups. However, the official government cannot disclaim responsibility for everything that is happening in Chechnya, where, according to its own words, peace and order have set in.

Corruption has become an unwritten law, by which everyone lives now, and perhaps only human rights organizations have not put up with it. Its scale is enormous.

There are closures of temporary accommodation points in Chechnya, compact accommodation settlements in Ingushetia and temporary accommodation centers in other regions of Russia. Residents of Chechnya are driven from everywhere, they are not provided with permanent housing or compensations for losses inflicted by the state during carpet bombings.

Outside the Chechen Republic, Chechens, whom the President of Russia has more than once called “full citizens,” are in fact sacked from their jobs and live in constant danger of falling under suspicion for alleged crimes or simply falling victims in cases trumped-up under someone’s orders. They are still denied residence registration in the rooms they rent. The phrase by police officers: “I do need any Chechens in my precinct!” is echoed constantly in different versions in various regions.

Payments of compensations for lost housing and property are virtually suspended everywhere. The country which spent 10 billion rubles on a few days of G-8 Summit, has allocated about 20 billion rubles to date to compensate for housing of its citizens that it had ruined itself.

Harassment against applicants to the European Court of Justice continues, along with pressuring of witnesses, tortures of prisoners, coerced confessions, self-incriminations and incrimination of other people and huge sentences for crimes not committed.

Humiliation and abasement of human dignity have long ago become part of every-day life of Chechens.

“Are there human right abuses in Chechnya?” an elderly Chechen was asked. “No, there are no abuses,” he said. “It’s simply because there are no human rights there.”

We decided against including a section on the rise of xenophobia and fascist groups in the Russian society into this report. This theme is too well-known. Several organizations conduct daily monitoring on these issues. Those willing to learn about the trends in this area can be referred, for instance, to the Web site of SOVA Information and Analysis Center (

http://www.sova-center.ru/

What can be achieved in this context by human rights organizations? Since the start of military operations in the Chechen Republic and to the present day, Memorial Human Rights Center, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Chechnya Justice Initiative, Civic Assistance Committee, and other non-governmental organizations have been providing assistance to residents in Chechnya and outside its territory. This modest help may prove effective in some concrete cases, but it obviously does not have a decisive influence on the overall situation of lawlessness and impunity in Chechnya itself and as regards its residents in other subjects (entities) of the Russian Federation. A few non-governmental organizations which, like Memorial Human Rights Center, are doing their best to stop arbitrariness, are succeed in fact only in one thing: anyone who takes the labor of familiarizing themselves with our regular monitoring reports, information reports, press releases, reports and papers can learn the truth about Chechnya.

It can’t be said that the work of human rights organizations is a safe job. We all have been more than once visited by officers from the Federal Security Service (or FSB), UBOP (Directorate for Combating Organized Crime), prosecutor’s offices and other law-enforcement agencies. We are all living under constant scrutiny from tax authorities, who are permitted under the law to stop operations of any organization before it even exercises its right to appeal against such claims. In the city of Nizhny Novgorod, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, head of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, was put on trial and given a two-year suspended sentence. The new NCO Law puts us in a particularly difficult situation. The Ingushetia-based non-governmental organization Chechen Committee for National Salvation, which also deals with monitoring of human rights violations in Chechnya, is under a constant threat of being banned.

We do not know what awaits us tomorrow, but today, while our voice is still heard we have to once again make the following permanent conclusions.

There is not even a minimum safety level provided for residents in the Chechen Republic.

As of today there is no alternative way for residents of Chechnya to be resettled in the territory of Russia.

***

Right before this report was due to go to print, we got a proof that, in view of the authorities, the counter-terrorist operation still goes on in the Chechen Republic. Colonel-General Yedelev, Deputy Minister of the Interior of the RF and Head of the Regional Operational Headquarters for Counter-Terrorist Operations on the Territory of the Northern Caucasus Region, issued Directive No.DR-2-dsp. “On Ensuring the Legal Regime for the Stay of Foreign Nationals in the CTO Zone” of June 2, 2006. The Directive has an appended Regulation “On Procedure Regulating the Stay of Foreign Nationals, Members of Foreign Non-Commercial Non-Governmental Organizations (FNNOs) and Members of Foreign Media on the Territory of the Chechen Republic.” The Regulation defines the procedure regulating the stay, movements and registration of foreign nationals, missions, and members of FNNOs and foreign media who temporarily stay in the CR. In addition, this Regulation provides for punishment for all the above mentioned categories, as well as for heads of host organizations and citizens in case of their failure to comply with it.

The complexity of registration rules that are proposed, the requirement for every foreigner to have a route plan, “examination and registration” measures, and the recommendation to agree with the Federal Security Service Directorate (UFSB) for the CR candidacies of local residents who are recruited, coupled with the monstrous language in which the Directive and the Regulation are written, can lead to the situation when stay of foreign nationals on the territory of the Chechen Republic can become impossible.

If one is to believe that Chechnya has ceased to be a problem region and started to actively rebuild itself, how could the fact that these documents appear precisely today be explained?

II. Living Conditions and the Security Situation of Internally Displaced Persons and Residents of the Chechen Republic

III. The Situation of People from Chechnya in the Republic of Ingushetia

IV. The Situation of People from Chechnya in Russia’s Regions

V. Abductions of Civilians in the Military Conflict Zone in the North Caucasus

VI. Conclusion

APPENDICES