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Assembly rapporteurs on Chechnya: Victims´ fates must be cleared up and the guilty punished

Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC)	Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC)

This year over 100 people have already been killed in Chechnya, and over 170 have disappeared or been kidnapped. The Parliamentary Assembly’s rapporteurs on Chechnya, Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC) and Andreas Gross (Switzerland, SOC) point to those figures as justifying their criticisms of human-rights violations in the Caucasus. Summing up their fact-finding visit to Chechnya and Moscow, the two rapporteurs say that Russian politicians’ endeavours to bring about a fresh start in the conflict zone are doomed to failure until victims’ fates have been cleared up and the guilty have been punished.

Interview, Moscow 05.06.2004

Question: Has the assassination of the Chechen President, Akhmad Kadyrov, made the situation in Chechnya even more acute?

Bindig/Gross: It may have caused widespread uncertainty but any power vacuum lasted only a matter of hours. Kadyrov wanted a clear degree of autonomy for the Chechen people, and that policy is shared by the new leadership. The danger of human-rights violations persists but is no worse.

Question: Concretely, how does the human-rights situation look? What is the position as regards killings and kidnappings, destruction of homes, and the education system?

Bindig/Gross: In the first five months of this year over 110 people were killed, and over 170 disappeared or were kidnapped. Tens of thousands are desperately waiting for the compensation they are due for destroyed homes, menfolk killed in action, parents’ deaths and war injuries. There is a split in Chechen society. On the one hand are those who can go back to school and resume their education. But equally, large numbers of people still lack the basic necessities - they are starving, afraid and without news of relatives who have vanished.

Question: Is Moscow’s action in Chechnya compatible with Russia’s undertakings on the European Convention on Human Rights?

Bindig/Gross: Moscow waged war on Chechnya, a reaction totally disproportionate to the problem and one that broke rules at home in a manner that even an external threat of war would not have justified. For that reason Russia could not have been admitted to the Council of Europe during the first Chechen war, and during the second Chechnya campaign the Russian delegation’s voting rights in the Parliamentary Assembly were suspended. Today, though, the politicians in charge in Moscow include men and women anxious for bold moves towards a fresh start in Chechnya and keen to see democracy and the rule of law upheld. However they are not going to get anywhere unless they are prepared to investigate the thousands of killings and kidnappings, punish the guilty and thereby heal the social alienation of tens of thousands of bereaved people.

Question: Do censorship and obstacles to press reporting make it impossible to inform the public about the real situation in Chechnya?

Bindig/Gross: Information about the real situation in the Caucasus is certainly obtainable, but often only with great difficulty and in the face of huge resistance. In Russia generally, however, there is really no question of any democratic public arena, given the extent of direct and indirect censorship and the influence wielded by central government and powerful economic interests. That makes it all the more important for the Council of Europe to keep sending envoys to the Russian regions so as to gather information at first hand.