STRASBOURG, France (AP) – Russia’s war-scarred republic of Chechnya continues to be plagued by torture and unlawful detentions, with human rights violations rarely investigated, a European anti-torture committee said Tuesday.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which visited detention facilities in Chechnya twice in 2006, said in a report it was “deeply concerned” by the extent of torture and other forms of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials and security forces.
“It is clear that investigations into cases involving allegations of ill-treatment or unlawful detention are still rarely carried out. … This can only contribute to a climate of impunity,” the report said.
The committee said the Russian government has refused to respond to its findings and failed to cooperate with the committee, which has unlimited access to all detention facilities in the Council of Europe’s 46 member states, including Russia.
“The Russian authorities consistently refuse to engage in a meaningful manner with the (committee) on core issues. Detailed recommendations have been made by the committee. … To date, they have received at most a token response and in many respects have quite simply been ignored,” the report said.
The committee said it had spoken to a number of people in Chechnya who described how they had been unlawfully detained. It also cited medical evidence gathered during the visits last April and November, which revealed inmates were beaten, burned, and in some cases given electric shocks.
People are ill-treated by federal forces and their local allies in detention centers both in Grozny, the province’s capital, and in rural areas, the committee said, in what was its third public rebuke to Russia over human rights violations in Chechnya in six years.
The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights last year twice ruled against Russia in cases concerning the Chechen war. It ordered Moscow to pay $300,000 in damages to the relatives of five Chechens executed during a sweep by Russian military forces in Grozny. It also held Russia responsible for the disappearance and presumed death of a young man in the region in 2000.
Chechnya has been torn by two wars pitting Russian forces and local allies against separatist rebels in the past 12 years. A Kremlin-backed government is in power and large-scale battles are now rare, but fighting persists.
An estimated 100,000 civilians, soldiers and insurgents have died in Chechnya in the two conflicts since 1994. Human rights groups have also reported mass disappearances, blaming them on pro-Moscow Chechen security forces and Russian troops.
