|
Putin Says Rights Abuses in Chechnya "Inevitable"
ROME, July 16 (News Agencies) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has described human rights abuses by the Russian army in Chechnya as "inevitable," the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Monday.
"I don't deny that in the course of our activities these irregularities and abuses can happen and naturally I condemn them. But they are, perhaps, an inevitable consequence of the battle against terrorism," Putin said in an interview.
"If the law has been voluntarily violated, we are ready to bring those involved to justice and we are not afraid to speak about it to our national media," said the president, talking to the international press for the first time since Russian troops stepped up operations in Chechnya in July.
Putin's comments follow a call from the Council of Europe for Moscow to condemn human rights violations in Chechnya.
Speaking last week, Lord Russell-Johnston, the head of the parliamentary assembly, said there had been mounting evidence of a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Chechnya.
He said recent 'mop-up' operations in Assinovskaya and Sernovodsk were examples of such violations and condemned the Kremlin for failing to investigate alleged rights breaches.
"There has been mounting evidence of a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Chechnya. There is little doubt that the conduct of the Russian forces ... is largely to be blamed for this," he added.
"The failure to bring to justice those responsible for crimes constitutes a blatant violation of Russia's obligations as a member of the Council of Europe and as a party to its most important conventions," Russell-Johnston warned.
But in Moscow, Chechnya's pro-Russian prosecutor, Viktor Dakhnov, said that "limited" violations of the rules had been committed by Russian forces during the recent operations.
"These violations were not massive. It is not an orgy as described by some media....Ten civilians were hurt," he said, saying there had been several cases of material damage.
Dakhnov said last week that his investigators found that 10 civilians were beaten and a number of homes ransacked by Russian troops during the raids.
The Council of Europe, which acts as the continent's human rights watchdog, has confirmed that a delegation from the 43-member pan-European body will go on a four-day visit to Chechnya in September.
This is due to be followed by a meeting of a joint working group with the Russian lower house, the Duma, and a debate on the situation in Chechnya in the assembly.
During the upcoming G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, Russia is expected to have an easy ride - despite international outcries regarding human rights violations.
A favorable economic climate and European reservations about Washington's controversial missile defense plan will likely shift focus away from the shadier side of Putin's government, analyst Alexander Pikayev of the Carnegie Moscow Center told the French news agency AFP.
Russia's human rights record in Chechnya will be politely glossed over as Putin rubs shoulders with world leaders at his second G8 summit since becoming Russian president last year.
After a successful introduction to world leaders at Okinawa, Japan, in July of last year, Putin can expect to be made "more comfortable than ever" at Genoa, Pikayev said.
The Russian leader is unlikely to be seriously admonished about the situation in Chechnya or about issues of press freedom, "and for the first time Russia is not making any particular demands" for western aid because of an overall favorable climate thanks to high oil prices, he added.
Andrei Piontkovsky, of the Center for Strategic Studies, noted that French President Jacques Chirac's visit to Moscow earlier this month "demonstrated yet again" how far these issues have been relegated to the background by western leaders.
Despite Russia's near-denial of human rights violations, new reports and evidence continue to throw light on the grim truth in Chechnya.
Last Wednesday, Russia's military commander in Chechnya, General Vladimir Moltensky, admitted that his troops had committed "crimes on a large scale" during mopping-up operations in the separatist republic.
|
