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THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION JUSTICE FOR EVERYBODY ‘DISAPPEARANCES’ IN CHECHNYA JUSTICE FOR EVERYBODY AIIndex: EUR 46/026/2002Write to: President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, Kremlin, Moscow, Russian Federation Urge him to: Ensure that all allegations of human rights abuses are investigated thoroughly and impartially and that the perpetrators are brought to justice. Ensure that impartial investigations are conducted into all reports of "disappearances" and that the names and whereabouts of all those detained in Chechnya are made public. Amnesty International is a worldwide voluntary human rights movement that campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience, fair trials for political prisoners, and an end to torture and the death penalty, disappearances and political killings all over the world. Amnesty International works impartially to promote all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. amnesty international WHAT YOU CAN DO For more information about Amnesty International and our campaign to counter human rights violations in the Russian Federation, contact Amnesty International in your country or write to: Amnesty International, International Secretariat, Peter Benenson House,1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW, United Kingdom http://www.amnesty.org The Russian Federation is in transition. Dramatic political and economic changes have profoundly affected the country's 144 million people. The human rights landscape has been transformed since the 1970s. Nevertheless, serious human rights violations remain widespread. Throughout the Russian Federation, the torture or ill- treatment of women, men and children in custody is virtually routine. Conditions in the country's pre-trial detention centres are generally so extreme that they amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The conflict in Chechnya has been characterized by widespread and credible reports of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by Russian forces, including arbitrary arrests, torture, "disappearances" and extrajudicial executions. Chechen forces have also reportedly committed breaches of international humanitarian law, including the targeting of civilians and the execution of captured soldiers. Those responsible for human rights abuses are rarely held to account for their crimes, and the victims are frequently denied redress. Amnesty International is launching a major worldwide campaign to highlight the reality of widespread human rights abuses committed in a climate of impunity. It aims to put pressure on the Russian government to live up to its international obligations to protect and promote human rights so that there is justice for everybody. bodies of some of the ''disappeared'' have subsequently been found in unmarked dumping sites. Many appear to have suffered torture, including rape, or violent death. Most people who are detained by Russian forces are picked up during identity checks on civilian convoys travelling from Chechnya to neighbouring Ingushetia or during military raids (so-called zachistki or "clean-up" raids) on populated areas. These raids are accompanied by widespread human rights abuses against the civilian population. There have been numerous, compelling and credible reports that men, women and children have been abducted, subjected to rape and other forms of torture, and shot. Detainees have been denied access to relatives, lawyers or the outside world. Survivors have said that torture is routine and systematic. They have reported the rape of male and female detainees, beatings with hammers and clubs, electro-shock torture and exposure to tear gas. Some detainees have said they were held in facilities that were little more than pits in the ground. Investigations into allegations of extrajudicial executions, "disappearances", torture and ill-treatment by Russian forces are inadequate and hardly ever result in those responsible being prosecuted. Amnesty International is calling on the Russian authorities to fulfil their obligations to provide the victims with an effective remedy and reparation and to bring those responsible for human rights abuses to justice . that an officer entered the room and ordered the soldiers not to touch them. After the soldiers left, the girls went to the room where Aset Yakhiaeva and Milana Betirgirieva had been sleeping. It was empty. The girls found some of the women's clothes, including a skirt and blouse, outside the house on the street. There has been no news of either woman since then. They have "disappeared". THE CURRENT conflict in Chechnya, which began in September 1999, has been characterized by widespread and credible reports of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Russian forces. Hundreds of Chechen civilians are believed to have ''disappeared'' after being detained by Russian forces. The victims include women and girls suspected of being related to fighters or of assisting them. The ‘Disappearances’ in Chechnya On 9 November 2001 Russian soldiers entered a house in the village of Serzhen-Yurt in Chechnya in which five girls and two women were sleeping. The two women Aset Yakhiaeva (also known as "Zargan"), aged 45, and Milana Betirgirieva (also known as "Ainat"), aged 21 were staying in the village to help with preparations for the wedding of a neighbour's daughter. The soldiers were taking part in a raid on the village. According to witnesses, the soldiers cut the electricity to the house. When the terrified girls cried out the soldiers threatened to shoot them and then shone torches in their faces while discussing which of them they were going to rape. One of the girls told Amnesty International ‘Still not found your husband? Then look for him in a pit!’ Advice given by Russian soldiers to Zura Mandykhadzhieva, whose husband Shamil “disappeared” in November 2001 Cover: A woman waits at the gate of an official Russian office in Znamenskoe, Chechnya, where families of the “disappeared” seek assistance in locating their loved ones, July 2000. © Leo Erken/Panos Pictures Right: Astemir Murdalov, father of Zelimkhan Murdalov, with dozens of letters and other documents relating to his son's “disappearance” after he was detained by Russian forces in Grozny in January 2001. Astemir Murdalov still does not know what happened to his son and continues to search for any clues to his fate and whereabouts. © Paula Allen
