The civilian population is still the main victim of the war in Chechnya, with the systematic sweep operations, accompanied by acts of racketing, arbitrary detention, torture, rape, forced disappearances, summary executions, etc. As the Secretary General of the Council of Europe recalled on 5 November last, "the anti-terrorist measures must be proportionate and fully in accord with the principles of the Rule of Law. One of the main tasks of the forces of the State is to protect innocent civilians". On no account should the fight against terrorism serve as a pretext for the ongoing massive violations in Chechnya.

The 23 October 2002 hostage-taking in Moscow, which the FIDH immediately condemned, was a brutal reminder that reports that the situation in Chechnya was back to normal were nothing but a delusion designed solely to assuage the international community.

Furthermore, the conditions under which the final assault took place were contrary to Russia's international obligations and to the provisions of the international instruments, especially as the security forces involved claimed publicly that they had executed most of the hostage-takers. These were summarily put to death when they were unconscious, and no longer presented a danger for the life of the hostages. The use of a toxic gas, without assessing its impact beforehand, killed nearly 120 hostages. In addition, the medical services arrived 40 minutes after the operation, and the doctors were unable to obtain the information they required on the nature of the gas in order to treat the victims adequately.

Since three years, Moscow has been promising a political solution, but has not withdrawn any significant number of troops. Moreover, by virtue of a decree that was adopted on 8 October, civil authorities in Chechnya now are under the orders of the military and special services. The present attitude of Russia, refusing to open political negotiations with the Chechnya authorities, who have been calling for them for three years, without any prior conditions, confirms that the Russian authorities have never really sought for a peaceful outcome of the conflict, despite the demands the international community has been expressing for the last three years.

The war in Chechnya has been going on with total impunity, without Russia being subjected to any sanctions on the part of the regional or international institutions it belongs to, and whose mandate includes the defence of Human Rights. At the same time the regime is taking a harder line, with marked restrictions of fundamental freedoms in Russia.

On 1 August the immigration department of the Russian Ministry of the Interior gave orders to stop supplying food to the Chechen refugees in the Serebrianiki centre (175 km north of Moscow). This is but an example of the daily discriminatory measures persons of Caucasian origin are subjected to all over Russia (unwarranted questioning, pogroms, discrimination in the field of employment, health, education…).

Furthermore increasing pressure is exerted on displaced persons in Ingushetia, in order to force them to return to Chechnya. The haven that Ingushetia has represented so far is under threat. The military deployment close to the camps for displaced persons at Sleptovskaya was accompanied by a large increase in the number of arrests and disappearances among the Chechen population. On 11 July the head of the pro-Russian Chechen government announced that by order of V. Poutine the tent camps for refugees in Ingushetia were to be "liquidated". This is over and above the forced displacement of persons this summer in the north of Chechnya, due to the closure of the Znamenskoye camps for displaced persons.

On 1 November the Douma adopted new legislation - yet to be confirmed by the second chamber - that strengthens the authorities' control of the media in the case of anti-terrorist operations. The press will not be allowed to publish information on technology, arms, ammunition and explosives, which could interfere with anti-terrorist operations. Publication of remarks pertaining to "propaganda for or justification of extremist activities, including statements designed to prevent an anti-terrorist operations or which constitute propaganda for the opposition to such an operation, or a justification of such opposition" is also prohibited. New directives adopted on 4 November further strengthen such measures. They in fact establish censorship of the press during hostage-takings, as journalists will have to consult the authorities before publication. These reforms cancel the right to criticise the war in Chechnya, because officially it is an anti-terrorist operation. They are contrary to Article 29.5 of the Constitution, which specifies that "The freedom of mass information is guaranteed. Censorship is forbidden".

The law on political extremism, which was adopted in only a few days in June 2001, provides no clear definition of "political extremism", leaving the door open to numerous arbitrary interpretations. The Prosecutor can nevertheless sentence someone to up to 5 years' imprisonment on those grounds alone, or even for a mere "call for political extremism". In addition the Prosecutor, or any other part of the judiciary, can close down an organisation, a trade union or a religious group suspected of "extremism". This law constitutes a real threat for the whole of the Russian civil society.

In addition, grants by foreign foundations or organisations to Human Rights and educational programmes have recently been subjected to a rate of taxation in excess of 30%, which obviously jeopardises the associations' projects. Furthermore, whereas NGOs have limited access to the territory of the Republic of Chechnya, those that manage to operate there are now subjected to acts of intimidation. A group of armed men attacked the Memorial premises at Grozny on 18 July last, a few days after the organisation had announced that it was putting an end to all forms of co-operation with the Federal forces. Humanitarian organisations are also subjected to permanent harassment, threats, physical attacks targeting equipments and persons by the Russian armed forces, at the risk of being taken hostage, as occurred to a collaborator of Médecins Sans Frontières in August 2002.

The law adopted in the summer by the Douma and the Council of the Federation on alternative civilian service makes it possible, through a partial procedure and on the basis of particularly vague criteria, to transfer conscientious objectors from the social or medical institutions to which they had been drafted, to military units. This exposes the objectors to all kinds of financial blackmail, in view of the risk of ill-treatment that such a transfer would entail. Furthermore the duration of the alternative service is three and a half years, against the two years of the traditional service. Objectors also have to prove their peaceful convictions to a military committee, whose neutrality can be open to doubt.

Lastly, degrading and inhuman treatment is still recurrent in Russian prisons, as was found by the European Court of Human Rights, when on 15 July 2002 it condemned Russia for that reason. In its conclusions in May 2002, the United Nations Committee against Torture also condemned the generalised perpetration of acts of torture against detainees and, in the army, against conscripts; such acts very largely go unpunished. Furthermore, in Russian law there is no definition of torture, nor of the acts assimilated to it.

And yet, in the face of such a situation, the attitude of the European Union is mainly one of indifference. At the last EU - Russia Summit, in May 2002, no reference was made to the Human Rights situation, nor to the conflict in Chechnya.

The 11 November 2002 Summit must break away from such a dangerous and short-term EU policy. It should publicly and clearly condemn Human Rights violations committed in Russia. The EU position has shown its limits and the EU, if it continues this way, would obviously be showing its complicity with the criminal policy implemented by the Russian regime. The Summit will be a decisive test in that respect.

The European Union must demand that the Russian authorities initiate genuine negotiations with the Chechen authorities, in order that a political and peaceful solution - the only one possible - be at last found. To that end, the European Union should assume the attitude of a privileged mediator.