Barbarity

From Tallinn, Estonia:

Demonstration at noon today, March 9,
in front of the Russian Embassy in Tallinn, Pikk street!

NB: Mostly the media fails to report that MASKHADOV WAS THE ELECTED PRESIDENT OF CHECHNYA - IN ELECTIONS MONITORED BY THE OSCE. This is a major part of the Chechen tragedy - most of the media do not bother to get the story right, they just pick up and repeat Russian allegations and accusations. PLEASE see the two articles at the end of the News, also. The report from the DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO RUSSIA and Mr. Zakayev's article from the IHT. (I wonder if the EU members even read what their own offices/delegations produce.) It is really tragic, that the cease-fire Maskhadov called for (see IHT article below) was in effect when he was killed - maybe that was why Russia rushed to eliminate him. To understand the reality AND horrific potential of Putin's Russia, just look at the barbarity being carried out for years behind closed doors in Chechnya. MAK

EUROPEAN UNION
Moscow, 25 February 2005
DELEGATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO RUSSIA


Democracy & Human Rights in Russia
Newsletter No. 56: 18 - 25 February 2005

European Court of Human Rights finds Russia responsible for killings in Chechnya

The European Court of Human Rights delivered yesterday three judgments in the first cases brought against Russia arising out of the situation in Chechnya. In each case, the Court has found Russia responsible for killing the applicants' relatives, in violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the authorities failed to carry out an adequate investigation into the deaths. The Court found that Article 13 had been violated because of the failure to provide any effective remedy before the Russian courts. The cases of Khashiyev and Akayeva concern the deaths of five of the applicants' relatives in Grozny at the end of January 2000. The mutilated bodies of the applicants' relatives were found with numerous stab and gunshot wounds in the Staropromyslovskii district of Grozny. The European Court found that their relatives were killed by Russian soldiers. The cases of Isayeva, Yusupova and Bazayeva arose from the Russian military's aerial bombing of a convoy of civilian cars. As a result of the bombing, the first of the applicant was wounded and her two children and daughter-in-law were killed. The panel of judges, among them one Russian, were unanimous in condemning Russia for breaching the European Convention of Human Rights article on the right to life. The Court awarded financial compensation to the applicants in all six cases. The applicants are represented by lawyers from the London-based European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC), together with the Russian human rights organisation, Memorial. The EHRAC has been established at London Metropolitan University to assist individuals, lawyers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) within the Russian Federation to take human rights cases to the European Court of Human Rights. The centre is core-funded by the European Commission, with a grant under the EIDHR programme. For details on the judgments see the Court's website. For further information please contact the EHRAC (CoE, Reuters, EHRAC).

Reactions to European Court of Human Rights ruling

Russia's special envoy to the European Human Rights Court Pavel Laptev said Russia does not exclude the possibility of an appeal. Russia can request the case be referred to the court's grand chamber for a final judgement within the next three months. Philip Leach, Director of EHRAC and one of the applicants' legal representatives, said that "these landmark judgments highlight the use of grossly disproportionate force by the Russian military in Chechnya, with utter disregard for the risk to civilian life. In view of the lack of international oversight in the region, it is extremely important that the European Court has called Russia to account, and that it will continue to do so". On a press release following the Court's announcement, Amnesty International said that the ruling "shows Russia's consistent failure not only to protect human rights in the course of the armed conflict, but also to ensure justice for victims of human rights through effective investigations and prosecutions of those responsible". According to AI, many people who have submitted cases to the European Court of Human Rights have been subjected to reprisals, and some have been even killed or "disappeared". Among other things, Amnesty International calls on the government of the Russian Federation to implement the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights without delay; to investigate all allegations of human rights violations and bring those responsible to justice in a court of law; to take effective measures to prevent any further reprisals against
any person who seeks a remedy before the European Court of Human Rights; and to ensure that all allegations of such reprisals are investigated promptly.

(AI, EHRAC, Mosnews).

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Feb 16, 2005 International Herald Tribune
Stop APPEASING Putin in Chechnya
Akhmed Zakayev

When George W. Bush sits down with Vladimir Putin this month in Bratislava, the
war in Chechnya will be one of the issues to discuss. As they prepare to meet, time is running out in the Caucasus.

Three years ago, the U.S. president gave Putin the green light for his plan of Chechen pacification, which consisted of draconian measures against the civilian population, the installation of a puppet government and a propaganda campaign in the West that portrayed the Chechen independence movement as Islamic terrorists. It is clear now that the strategy did not work: The armed resistance was not subdued, the population did not embrace the Quisling government and courts in Britain and the United States cleared Chechen political figures, such as myself, of Russian accusations of terrorism. The only outcome of "pacification" was the emboldening of radicals at the expense of the moderate Chechen leadership, leading to the outrage of Beslan and the spread of militant ideology throughout the Caucasus. Meanwhile, opposition to the war has been growing in Russian society. Last November, the Union of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, the largest and most respected Russian NGO, called for peace talks in defiance of Putin's rejectionist stand. The appeal won the support of a majority of Russians and caught the Kremlin by surprise. But Russia managed to block a meeting between Soldiers' Mothers and representatives of the Chechen resistance at the European Parliament. That the Belgian government chose to side with the Kremlin and deny entry visas to the Russian peace activists was widely reported in the region and contributed to the sense among Chechens that they have been abandoned to Putin's troops.

Militant radicals appeared to be their only defenders.

Terrorist groups that no one is able to control are springing up in Dagestan, ngushetia, Karachaevo-Cherkesia and in Russia proper. The notoriously corrupt
Russian security services, as well as puppet-government officials, are eager to sell them arms and free passage. The stockpiles of Russian weapons of mass destruction are not properly guarded. It is only a matter of time before the situation explodes in the faces of the architects of the policy of appeasing Putin.

The only way to prevent catastrophic deterioration in the Caucasus is to press Russia for a political settlement with the responsible and moderate leadership of the Chechen Republic. In a last ditch effort to persuade the world of that, Aslan Maskhadov, Chechnya's ousted elected president, recently issued a unilateral cease-fire, which will last for one month. This gesture is a response to the call of the Soldiers' Mothers, who we know are speaking for the Russian people: Yes we heard you, we are ready for peace, we want to stop fighting and talk, with all options open. It is significant that the radical wing of the fighters, which is controlled by Shamil Basayev, accepted the cease-fire. Basayev had taken responsibility for many terrorist attacks, including the horrific raids on the school in Beslan and the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow. We do not control Basayev; we condemned his methods,
but we were powerlesss to stop him. Yet we know why he decided to silence his guns and hold his suicide squads - because he knows that the Chechen people want to give peace a chance. This may be the last chance. But as long as the cease-fire holds,
it demonstrates that Maskhadov can deliver peace, even though he does not control the militants in war.

This is a unique opportunity, perhaps the last, to break the vicious circle of hatred, death and destruction. If it is lost, the responsibility for the escalation of the conflict, further radicalization of the Caucasus and the inevitable increase of terrorism will go to those who persist in the failed policy of appeasing Putin. Bush should realize that his hands-off policy on Chechnya does not increase security but only breeds terror.

(Akhmed Zakayev is special envoy to Aslan Maskhadov, the separatist leader and former [sic] president of Chechnya.)
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