MOSCOU (AP) -- La dernière fois que Khadisht Vitaeva dit avoir vu son mari vivant, il gisait face contre terre après avoir été traîné hors de leur maison par des soldats russes, d'après un rapport publié jeudi par l'organisation humanitaire Human Rights Watch.

La mort de Daud Vitaev, dont le corps a été retrouvé plus tard dans une fosse commune, fait partie des six assassinats commis par les troupes russes dans la ville de Alkhan-Kala qui ont été relevés par l'organisation humanitaire basée à New York Human Rights Watch.

Dans un rapport de 72 pages, le groupe accuse les troupes russes de s'être livré à des mises en détention arbitraires, à la torture et à des exécutions sommaires pendant les rafles sécuritaires menées dans la région entre la fin juin et début juillet.

Pendant ces raids, les soldats russes encerclent des villes et villages entiers afin de prendre au piège les rebelles qui se cachent parmi les civils.

Ce n'est pas la première fois que les ONG et mouvements de défense des droits de l'homme critiquent ces pratiques.

Mercredi, le Premier ministre tchétchène pro-russe, Stanislav Ilyasov, les a également condamnées, estimant que ''la population civile souffre'' pendant ces rafles, selon l'agence Interfax.

Pendant la semaine qu'ils ont passée à Alkhan-Kala, un village situé à l'ouest de la capitale, Grozny, les soldats russes ont brûlé des maisons, pillé des propriétés et tué du bétail, affirme Human Rights Watch, qui cite des témoins de ces exactions. Les hommes arrêtés étaient forcés à avancer la chemise relevée par dessus la tête puis couchés de force à terre. Au moins six hommes ont été exécutés et trois autres torturés par les soldats, selon l'organisation.

Source : http://fr.fc.yahoo.com/t/tchetchenie.html

Feb. 27
by Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Shortly after the U.S. war against terrorism began, Russia intensified its abuses against Chechen civilians with torture, arrests and looting, a major human rights group has charged.

"There has been a real spike in the kinds of sweep operations in the autumn and winter months," said Rachel Denber, the deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, introducing a report to be released on Thursday.

In a typical sweep, Russian troops, after provocations or intelligence data, block off entire villages in an effort to capture rebels who often take shelter among civilians.

Even before the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Russia vowed to wipe out separatist Chechen rebels it said were responsible for terrorist bombings in Russian cities that claimed some 300 lives in 1999.

But apparently emboldened by the battle against terrorism, Denber said the sweep operations have grown in their ferocity in response to real or perceived rebel activity.

"They go in, arbitrarily detain people, beat them, take them off for torture and loot," she said. "Looting doesn't mean taking a piece of jewelry but backing a truck up into a house and taking everything that is valuable."

Despite frequent criticism of Russian actions in Chechnya, human rights observers say the outcry has taken a back seat since September. Russian officials contend the attacks on the United States underline the need for them to continue the Chechen campaign.

Denber, in an interview, updated Thursday's 72-page report on sweeps between June 15 and July 4 in at least six Chechen villages. Chechens interviewed accuse Russian troops of arbitrary detentions, killings and torture.

In Sernovosk, a village in Western Chechnya near the border with Ingushetia, a remote-controlled mine exploded outside the town, killing five Russian soldiers on July 1. Eyewitnesses said the sweep resulted in houses torched but only after trucks pulled up to clear out any valuables.

Two brothers, Bisultan and Muslim Barkaev, said in interviews they were beaten and tortured with electric shock treatments on numerous occasions during six days of their detention.

A Human Rights Watch researcher observed that Bisultan had severe bruising on his back and bruises under both eyes.

They were eventually released after refusing to confess they had planted the mine. Others arrested were not so lucky, with relatives reporting their disappearance but unable to obtain a credible explanation as to their fate.

(New York, February 28, 2002)-Russian forces in Chechnya arbitrarily detain, torture, and kill civilians in a climate of lawlessness, Human Rights Watch said today. In a 51-page report, Human Rights Watch details a series of military sweep operations during which it found hundreds of men were arbitrarily detained, dozens tortured, and at least six extrajudicially executed.

"For a year now Russian authorities have been claiming that the situation in Chechnya is returning to normal," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "But in fact civilians face a daily threat of being arbitrarily detained, tortured, or just 'disappearing' in custody. That's a far cry from 'normal.'"

The report, titled Swept Under: Torture, Forced Disappearances, and Extrajudicial Killings During Sweep Operations in Chechnya, documents abuses during sweep operations that took place in June and July 2001 in the villages Alkhan-Kala, Sernovodsk, and Assinovskaia.

In a sweep operation, Russian forces, responding to Chechen rebel hostilities, typically seal off a village and run identity checks and searches of residents. The operations in mid-2001 took place against a backdrop of Russian government pledges to withdraw troops and return internally displaced persons safely to their homes, even as clashes continued between Russian forces and Chechen rebels. Since July 2001, Russian forces have conducted dozens more sweep operations throughout Chechnya, committing many of the same abuses described in the report.

Among the cases detailed is that of "Magomed Asanukaev,"(not the man's true name) whom Russian forces detained in the Sernovodsk sweep on July 2. They threw him in a truck with no explanation, held him in a concrete pit, and tortured him with electric shocks, attempting to coerce information about rebel fighters. He was later released, but others were not. Zelimkhan Umkhanov and Apti Isigov "disappeared" after Russian forces took them into custody; relatives to this day have been unable to get information from Russian forces about their whereabouts. On June 21 Russian forces apprehended Rustam Razhepov, 35, and Daud Vitaev, 27, during the Alkhan-Kala operation; their corpses were found in an unmarked grave on June 22.

Andersen noted that a Human Rights Watch follow-up mission to the region in December discovered that the human rights situation had further deteriorated. "Over the last six months, civilians in Chechnya have 'disappeared' at a rate of more than one every week," she said. The Russian human rights group Memorial documented more than twenty "disappearances" in December 2001 alone.

Meanwhile, Andersen said, Chechnya has fallen off the map in the post-September 11 foreign policy climate. "Governments don't have the political will to make genuine accountability for crimes against civilians a benchmark for their Russia policy," said Andersen. "And this message hasn't been lost on the Kremlin. The carte blanche for violence against civilians is shattering whatever trust Chechens have had in Moscow, torpedoing peace efforts, and ultimately undermining Russia as a credible partner in the international war against terrorism."

The current climate of lawlessness in Chechnya, Andersen said, follows from a long-standing failure by Russian authorities to bring abusive forces to justice. Many Chechen civil servants who cooperate with Moscow threatened to quit after the summer sweep operations, prompting Moscow to acknowledge abuses and promise an investigation. The Human Rights Watch report says investigations, principally into property damage, in the Sernovodsk operation are ongoing. To date, no comprehensive investigation is under way with regard to the Alkhan-Kala sweep.

Responding to criticism about the winter sweep operations, Vladimir Kalamanov, President Putin's special representative on human rights in Chechnya said on January 31 that he was "pleased by the pace of investigations" into crimes by servicemen against civilians," and vowed that "no crime would be left unpunished."

"Without ongoing engagement by the international community, Russia will be able to continue issuing empty promises of justice," said Andersen.

Human Rights Watch urged the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which will convene in March, to adopt a resolution condemning ongoing violations in Chechnya and called on Russia to allow U.N. special rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial executions to conduct investigations in Chechnya. Human Rights Watch also called on the Bush administration to raise the matter with the Russian government. President Bush is expected to visit Moscow in May.

The report is available at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/russchech/.