Independent Russian probe on Chechnya alleges widespread abuseMOSCOW, Sept 13 (AFP) - An independent Russian commission Wednesday called for an end to human rights violations by federal troops in Chechnya, alleging widespread abuses in the breakaway republic.
"Violence continues in Chechnya despite the end of large-scale military operations," Pavel Krasheninnikov, the commission's head, told reporters here.
"We have been notified of several cases of illegal arrests and pillage," he said, adding that 90 out of every 100 people detained were innocent of any wrongdoing.
"People are disappearing. Several detainees do not appear either on lists compiled by the defence ministry, the interior ministry or the prosecutor's office," added commission member Ella Pamfilova.
Few of those detained were Chechen fighters at the time of their arrest, she added, "but when they come out of prison with broken ribs, they have become potential fighters.
"We are losing loyal Chechens. The health and education systems don't work but every Chechen knows how much it costs to get through Russian checkpoints," she said.
"And Khattab's people manage to get through without any difficulty," she added, a reference to the Jordanian-born warlord fighting with Chechen forces in the republic.
Krasheninnikov, a former justice minister, also condemned conditions in refugee camps in Ingushetia, an impoverished Russian republic which houses the bulk of refugees who have fled neighbouring Chechnya.
"The food, medical and education situation there is deplorable," he said.
Pamfilova said refugees in the Nadterechny district of northern Chechnya had been waiting for bread deliveries for three weeks.
Krasheninnikov said some 160,000 refugees are currently officially registered in Ingushetia, but the real number was closer to 200,000, as many refused to register fearing harassment from the Russian authorities.
To date Russian prosecutors have opened 300 cases into alleged human rights violations in Chechnya involving Russian servicemen.
So-called "kontraktniki," volunteers hired by the army for service in Chechnya, are the main target of complaints, said Pamfilova, alleging that alcoholics and drug addicts were among those hired.
Meanwhile, a senior official from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visited a number of Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia on Wednesday.
"I have come to help you," Erika Feller, who heads the UNHCR's Europe office, told refugees concerned about the onset of winter and its likely effect on conditions on the Karabulak and Sleptsovsk camps, near the Chechen border.
Copyright (c) 2000 Agence France-Presse
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