The civilian population of Chechnya is still the main victim of the war. Despite the referendum in March and the presidential election in October 2003 which were meant to give a misleading image of normalization, in actual fact, the situation has constantly deteriorated.
The number of crimes committed against the civilian population has increased this past year, particularly abductions and forced disappearances. Targeted operations are more systematic and more obviously punitive. More and more often, they affect women, who are tortured, raped and murdered. The Russian military and the collaborators of the secret services no longer only aim at people who are suspected of sympathy for the Chechnyan armed groups or who are active in civilian life, but all the members of their families as well.
Human Rights defenders, who were already faced with great difficulty in carrying out their work and ran serious risks, are also now the chosen target of these operations. For instance, the armed forces (20 to 25 individuals in camouflage uniform) broke down the door of Mrs. Libkan Basaeva’s house in October 2003. She is one of the members of the bureau of the Memorial at Nazran. They closed the street where her house is situated and beat the residents of her house who were present and asked them where Mrs. Basaeva and her son were. In January 2004, in answer to a complaint lodged by the Memorial, the Minister for the Interior of the Republic of Chechnya denied these violations and explained that Mrs. Basaeva "actively supported Doudaev’s and Mashkhadov’s regime". These false accusations had already been used against Mrs. Zoura Biteva, an active militant for human rights in Chechnya. She was later killed as well as her family in her own home in May 2003. Thus faced with this dangerous situation, Mrs. Basaeva had to leave Russia.
Since the beginning of 2003, the new president of the republic of Chechnya, supported by Moscow, has been surrounded by armed Chechnyan militias, that are part of his "personal guard". They now belong to different security services and spread terror in the civilian population by kidnappings, torture, rape and murder.
The war continues in secret. International NGOs and independent media still do not have free access to Chechnyan territory. They must receive authorization from the Chechnyan administration, appointed by the Russian authorities, and dependant on the will of the military.
Furthermore, the refugees are made to leave the camps in Ingushetia and to come back to Chechnya, though the conditions for their safety are lacking as well as any form of infrastructure able to receive them.
All these crimes are committed with total impunity. FIDH and LDH consider that the political will to launch a process that could lead to the end of the war is lacking at the highest level of the Russian state. The highest political authorities, the president foremost among them as "guardian of the freedom and liberty of man and citizen" are therefore fully responsible for the human rights violations committed in Chechnya, which FIDH consider as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Over and above this tragic situation in Chechnya, there are a number of violations of civil, political, economic and social rights throughout the Russian territory. There were obvious irregularities during the elections in 2003 and 2004. The conditions of detention in police stations and jails are extremely questionable and can be termed ill treatment. Torture of young drafted soldiers and the increase of ethnic discrimination also obtain.
While the situation in Chechnya becomes more serious day by day, some recent gestures of France may have been interpreted as an encouragement of Mr. Putin’s policy.
More particularly, FIDH and LDH were shocked to learn on January 27th 2004, that the chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, Anatoli Kvachnin who has been waging war in Chechnya for the past four years had received the rank of officer of the Legion of Honor. General Henri Bentegeat, chief of staff of the French army presented the decoration himself at the French embassy in Moscow, thanking general Kvachnin for his "important contribution to Franco Russian military cooperation". And yet, four days before, Dominique de Villepin had expressed regret as to "the open war which has obtained for too many years" in Chechnya "with all the tragedies which that entails".
While in October 2003, a real "electoral travesty" brought to power in Chechnya the head of the pro-Russian administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, Mr. Raffarin went to Moscow. His only reference to the conflict that was killing thousands of civilians was to say that the return to a situation of peace in Chechnya required "a political process"; and he added that Russia had "a high priority as a partner of France".
A strengthening of the partnership between France and Russia which was made clear another time at the third session of the Franco-Russian cooperation council for security matters, held in Paris at the beginning of March 2004, cannot be based at the expense of human rights.
Human Rights are universal and indivisible. France must demand that Russia, despite its political power, should respect fundamental freedoms, as well as the safety and physical and psychological integrity of her citizens. Russia is not "a great democracy", as some western states have mistakenly said for they wish above all to form an alliance with Russia. Today, nothing could justify a weakening of France’s position vis-à-vis that country. Mr. President, you have yourself assured FIDH that France would be "continuously vigilant on the painful topic" of Chechnya for she is "fully aware of the trying conditions that obtain in the North Caucasus".
That is why we ask you, at your meeting with Mr. Putin, to bring up the situation of human rights in Chechnya with great determination, to express clearly the concerns of France to the Russian authorities and to request them to put an immediate end to all forms of violence, including attacks, ill treatment, forced disappearances and the execution of civilians without due process. We also ask that the NGOs and the media be given free access to the territory of Chechnya and that the authors of serious human rights violations committed in that republic be brought to justice.
Finally, FIDH and LDH ask you to make sure that the Russian authorities accept the visit of an International Fact-finding Commission, with all the machinery and experts of the UN Human Rights Commission as soon as possible.
Sidiki Kaba President of the FIDH
Michel Tubiana President of the LDH