LONDON, October 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Torture, rapes and “disappearances” are common in Russia’s legal “climate of impunity,” international human rights group Amnesty International charged in a report published Tuesday, October 29.

Drafted last June, the report’s publication coincides with a major campaign by Amnesty to highlight the discrepancy between the human rights protection enshrined under international and Russian law and the reality of widespread abuse, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The 125-page report, entitled “Russian Federation: denial of justice,” focuses on “specific and serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Russian law enforcement and security forces.”

In Russia there is a “reality of widespread human rights abuses committed by agents of the state and private individuals or groups (non-state actors) in a climate of impunity,” the report said.

Ethnic minorities, particularly Chechens, “have been stereotyped by Russian law enforcement officials as terrorists, drug dealers or other types of criminal,” said the report, which contained a long section on human rights violations in Chechnya.

“Amnesty International has actively researched numerous, consistent and credible reports that Russian forces (in Chechnya) have been responsible for widespread human rights violations such as ‘disappearances’, extrajudicial executions and torture, including rape,” the report said.

The report cited three examples of Russian human rights violations in Chechnya.

Eighteen-year-old Kheda (Elza) Kungaeva was abducted from her home in the village of Tangi-Chu on the night of 26 March 2000 by Russian soldiers under the command of Colonel Yury Budanov.

Colonel Budanov confessed to killing Kheda Kungaeva, but alleged that he did so in a “state of temporary insanity.” The prosecution has ignored evidence that Kheda Kungaeva was raped before her death.

Colonel Budanov was charged with homicide, kidnapping and abuse of power and was the first Russian officer to be tried for crimes against civilians in Chechnya since the renewed conflict began in 1999.

His trial, which started in February 2001, was still continuing at the time of writing.

Hundreds of people, including a 90-year-old man and several children, were detained by Russian soldiers during a raid on the town of Sernovodsk near the border with Ingushetia on 2 July 2001.

Many of those detained said that they were tortured or ill-treated; some said that the soldiers subjected them to electric shocks and set attack dogs on them.

Most were released later that night, but about a hundred people were taken to a temporary detention facility. The fate and whereabouts of at least six people remain unknown.

On August 1, 2000, Russian soldiers came to Rebaat Vakhaeva’s home in Urus-Martan. They took her 25-year-old son, Kazbek Vakhaev, to the “Internat” detention facility.

Rebaat Vakhaeva visited the facility every day to bring food and clothes for her son. Other prisoners told her that her son had been tortured during interrogation. On August 13, she was told that her son was no longer there.

On August 21, Kazbek Vakhaev’s decapitated body was found in the village of Goiskoe. Officials from the local procurator’s office said that Kazbek Vakhaev had been kidnapped after his release on August 14.

The investigation into his death was reportedly closed because investigators could not establish who had detained or kidnapped him. Rebaat Vakhaeva is still waiting for justice; those responsible for her son’s death have yet to be held to account.

“Throughout the Russian Federation, the torture or ill-treatment of women, men and children in custody is virtually routine,” said Amnesty’s report.

Amnesty made an appeal to the international community to condemn the human rights abuses committed by Russian forces in Chechnya.

Some 300,000 people, the majority of them women and children, have fled their homes in Chechnya to escape the fighting.

As at mid-2002, approximately 160,000 remained in temporary accommodation and in camps for internally displaced people, the majority in neighboring Ingushetia, where they faced severe overcrowding and harsh conditions.

They have also come under pressure from the Russian authorities to return home whether or not it is safe for them to do so.

Most people who are detained by Russian forces are picked up during identity checks on civilian convoys traveling from Chechnya to Ingushetia or during military raids on populated areas.

Some military units reportedly black out the number plates or other identifying information on their vehicles during raids.

Detainees have been held in facilities that sometimes amount to little more than pits in the ground.

They are denied access to relatives, lawyers and 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.

The Russian authorities have proved very reluctant to provide information on the number of investigations and prosecutions.

However, investigations into allegations of extrajudicial execution, “disappearances”, torture and ill-treatment are rare.

Those investigations that do take place are usually inadequate and hardly ever result in those responsible being prosecuted.

Far from holding the perpetrators to account, the Russian authorities are reportedly redeploying units widely believed to have been involved in human rights violations back to Chechnya for further tours of service.

Many Chechens remain deeply suspicious of the Russian authorities and have little faith that any complaint they bring will result in a prosecution. Many fear that making a complaint could expose them to further human rights violations, Amnesty said.

The Russian authorities have failed to take appropriate steps to counter this climate of fear and to encourage the victims of human rights violations to come forward and register complaints.
International criticism of human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law in Chechnya has often been muted, especially following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the U.S. and the subsequent U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan, which was supported by the Russian government.

The Russian authorities have ignored their obligation to bring those responsible for human rights abuses to justice and to provide the victims with an effective remedy, the report said.

It is time that the Russian Federation took steps to turn its paper commitments to human rights and justice into a reality.

Nearly one million men, women and children are imprisoned in Russia, according to the Amnesty report.

Among them, nearly 200,000 are still waiting to be judged.

“Conditions in the country’s disease-ridden and overcrowded pre-trial detention centers are generally so appalling that they amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the report said.

Women and children do not escape the mistreatment, according to Amnesty.

Women arrested by police are often tortured and sometimes raped, the report said, adding that children are often deprived of the most basic necessities.