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Human Rights Groups Accuse Moscow of Increased Chechen Abuse
STRASBOURG, Nov 27 (News Agencies) - Russian human rights organizations accused Moscow before the Council of Europe Tuesday of using the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States to justify a vicious crackdown on the republic of Chechnya.
"An ethnic cleansing operation is being conducted and no one is taking notice," said Tatiana Kasatkina of the Russian human rights group Memorial, adding that since September 11, numerous people have disappeared in Chechnya.
She spoke during a two-day round-table discussion on Chechnya Monday and Tuesday at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Although Akhma Kadirov, the pro-Russian administrative chief of Chechnya, took part in the discussions, the elected, pro-separatist Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, and his representatives boycotted the meeting.
Russia launched a military campaign to crush Chechen separatists in October 1999, saying the war targeted Muslim "terrorists" bent on setting up a "radical Islamic state" in the Caucasus.
"The situation in Chechnya is horrifying," said Svetlana Ganuschkina of the Moscow Aid Committee for Refugees. According to her, some 500,000 Chechen refugees are being subjected to increased repression in Russia since the September 11 attacks.
However, the Russian representative for southern Chechnya, Nikolai Britvin, rejected these accusations. "Moscow has warned of the danger of Islamic terrorism for years but no one wanted to believe us," he said.
The human rights conference will be followed on Wednesday and Thursday by a meeting of a joint panel of council members and representatives of the Russian Duma, or lower house of parliament.
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