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Rape By Russian Forces In Chechnya Continues
Russian Forces Clash With Chechens Near Scene Of Deadly Ambush
WASHINGTON (Islam Online) – There is a pattern of sexual assault by Russian forces in Chechnya, according to a U.S.-based human rights group.
Human Rights Watch said it has documented and reported evidence of rape in Chechnya by Russian forces. “The arrest of a colonel who may have committed rape in Chechnya does not address a pattern of sexual assault by Russian forces in the Chechen conflict,” the organization said.
The chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, Col. Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, announced that a Russian tank commander had been arrested for killing a woman who had evidently been raped before she died. The Geneva Convention defines rape as a war crime.
“It would certainly be a step in the right direction if the Russian government actually prosecuted a serviceman for rape. But a single prosecution wouldn’t begin to address the problem. There have been hundreds of war crimes, including summary executions and rapes, committed by Russian soldiers in Chechnya,” said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch.
Two eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that Heda Kungayeva, 18, was raped and murdered by Russian forces sometime between midnight on March 26-27 and the evening of March 28 in the village of Tangi Chu south of Grozny.
Villagers followed an armored personnel carrier (APC) to the edge of Tangi Chu, and watched it return to the Russian military positions in the mountains surrounding the village. On March 27, according to the report, a group of villagers obtained permission from local Russian forces to travel to Urus-Martan, seven kilometers from Tangi Chu, to search for Kungayeva.
Human Rights Watch has collected evidence of another rape, earlier this year, at the Kavkaz military checkpoint near the border with Ingushetia. Alisa (not her real name) reported to Human Rights Watch that in the last week of January, while traveling by bus with Maya (not her real name) from Chechnya to Ingushetia, the bus was stopped at the Kavkaz Russian military checkpoint, which is manned by Russian contract soldiers.
And because the photograph of Alisa in her passport no longer resembled her current appearance, the soldiers detained her together with Maya. The bus driver pleaded with the soldiers not to detain the women, but the soldiers convinced him to leave because the women would be sent back to their point of origin.
Alisa and Maya were taken to separate underground shelters near the checkpoint. In Alisa’s shelter were four Russian soldiers who accused her of being a sniper. They gave her a gun and told her to dismantle it, pull it back together, and then shoot.
Alisa told Human Rights Watch that she had never held a gun and did not know how to handle one. She was hit by one of the soldiers, and she fell to the floor. And two of the remaining soldiers began kicking her, and told her, “You will never have children again.” Then the soldiers raped her.
Maya was brought into the underground shelter where Alisa was being held. According to Alisa, Maya was covered in blood and her mouth was cut. Alisa told Human Rights Watch that Maya was also raped.
Rape is considered a war crime under Protocol 11 additional to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits it in its Article Four (Fundamental Guarantees), “at any time, and in any place whatsoever… outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, rape, enforced prostitution, and any form of indecent assault.”
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