|
Russian General Admits to Large Scale Crimes in Chechnya
MOSCOW, July 11 (News Agencies) - Russia's top military commander in Chechnya admitted Wednesday that his troops had committed "crimes on a large scale" during "cleansing" operations in the separatist republic last week.
ITAR-TASS quoted General Vladimir Moltensky as telling Russian commanders (at their Khankala military base) that the crimes had been committed during round-ups of civilians in Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya.
"Those who conducted the cleansing operations in Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya did so in a clumsy, lawless fashion, destroying everything and then pretending they knew nothing about it," the general said in an unprecedented public censure of his own troops.
He added that crimes had also been committed in similar operations in other regions of Chechnya.
"Zachistka", or "cleansing", operations usually involve a large-scale round-up of civilians, some of whom may be released or "bought back" by their relatives, but in many cases the "cleansings" result in numerous disappearances.
Human rights campaigners and a Russian parliament deputy say that at least five people have been found murdered and more than 20 are still missing following last week's sweep by federal troops.
Two federal soldiers have already been relieved of their duties for their role in the operations and Russian prosecutors are investigating the matter.
On Tuesday, Aslambek Aslakhanov, who serves as Russia's sole parliament deputy from Chechnya, told reporters that five people were found murdered after federal troops entered the village of Kurchaloi. He said eight others remain missing and added that most people were only able to return to their homes after paying heavy bribes to the troops.
The Russian human rights group, Memorial, said that seven people were still missing at Sernovodsk and 12 others at Assinovskaya. It is not known if any of the villagers there were killed.
Russian troops began the sweeps shortly after discovering, at the very start of the 21-month war, that separatists tended to return to villages that had first been conquered by federal soldiers and then left behind to be guarded by lighter police forces.
Heavily armed soldiers then began to launch "cleansing" operations in these settlements - blocking off all roads, and with machine guns in hand, trying to flush out fighters from among the civilian population.
Many Chechens would then be sent to the notorious "filtration" camps, at which witnesses and human rights observers have collected accounts of torture, rape and even murder committed by Russian troops.
After initial human rights abuse charges surfaced, federal command would either publicly defend its soldiers, or reprimand them in private.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin issued its first hint that international pressure to end such activity was bearing fruit.
"Perhaps, we should slowly leave this practice behind," said the Kremlin's top spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, in reference to the armed sweeps. However, he went on to say that pinpoint operations should be run under the command of the Federal Security Service (e.g.- KGB, FSB). He also added that more responsibility for policing Chechnya should be handed over to the republic's pro-Russian administration, which is led by Akhmad Kadyrov.
Kadyrov was one of the first people to express outrage at last week's sweeps, and vowed to conclude an investigation into the incident by Saturday.
Some 3,000 soldiers and an undisclosed number of separatists and civilians have been killed since Russian troops stormed into Chechnya, in a self-declared anti-separatist operation, on October 1, 1999.
|
