Russia's Mass Grave Investigation "A Charade"
Russia's Mass Grave Investigation "A Charade"
Human Rights Commission Urged to Back International Investigation
(Geneva, April 2, 2001) Human Rights Watch today charged that the
Russian response to the discovery of more than fifty bodies in a village
close to the main Russian military base in Chechnya has been absolutely
inadequate. Evidence gathered from the mass grave confirms that
detainees were summarily executed and often tortured.
As the international community gathers this week in Geneva for the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch urged the adoption of a
resolution to establish an international commission of inquiry to
investigate this mass grave, as well as other human rights crimes
committed by Russian troops and Chechen rebel forces.
"The discovery of over fifty bodies right outside a Russian military
base should have prompted an immediate and exhaustive investigation by
the Russian prosecutor's office," said Holly Cartner, executive director
of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "To date,
that investigation has been a charade. The Russian government has
focused its energy on denying any responsibility for the deaths, rather
than on ensuring a meaningful investigation. As a result, a lot of
important evidence has now been lost."
On February 21, 2001, relatives of three Chechen men who had
"disappeared" in the custody of Russian soldiers in December 2000
discovered a large number of bodies, including those of their loved
ones, in a cottage village in the immediate vicinity of the main Russian
military base at Khankala. After reporting this discovery to the
authorities, procuracy investigators closed off the area for civilians
and started to recover the≈reportedly often mined≈bodies. In subsequent
weeks, Russian law enforcement officials said they found another
forty-eight bodies from the village.
The bodies were taken to a Ministry of Emergency Situations base and the
October district police precinct in Grozny, where relatives of missing
people had an opportunity to search for their loved ones. By March 13,
2001, fourteen of the forty-eight bodies had been identified and were
taken away by relatives for burial. The remaining thirty-four bodies
were buried in a village outside Grozny on March 10, 2001.
Immediately after news of the grave was first reported, Russian
government officials denied responsibility for the bodies. They claimed
the bodies were either those of Chechen rebel fighters who had been
killed in battle or belonged to civilians who had been killed by Chechen
rebel fighters and dumped in the village. On March 2, the Russian
prosecutor overseeing the investigations in Chechnya went so far as to
make the absurd suggestion that the fact that many of the dead people
had worn Turkish underwear≈worn by millions of people around Russia≈was
evidence that the dead had been rebel fighters. He also said that most
of the dead men were wearing camouflage uniforms, which is not confirmed
by photo and video footage of the bodies. The government failed to
mention that the area in which the grave was found had been under
Russian control since December 1999, long before the vast majority of
the bodies were deposited there.
The government has failed utterly to conduct a credible investigation.
No comprehensive forensic examinations were conducted before the bodies
were reburied. As a result, important evidence has been lost. Human
Rights Watch has obtained undisputable evidence that in many cases even
a full description of the condition of the bodies was not made. Human
Rights Watch reviewed photographs of bodies taken from the grave site
that reveal that, at the time of their burial on March 10, 2001, the
corpses had not been undressed nor had their arms been untied from
behind their backs. Thus it is highly unlikely that forensic examiners
and investigators could have examined the bodies thoroughly. During
visits to the Ministry of Emergency Situations base in Grozny,
researchers for Memorial Human Rights Center also learned that only a
single forensic expert≈who had no other equipment than rubber gloves and
a scalpel≈was conducting these examinations and that there was no
equipment to cool the bodies for a longer period of time at the base.
Human Rights Watch also criticized the international community for
failing to react appropriately to the discovery of the grave. "Instead
of forcefully demanding a full investigation of the mass grave and
offering to provide technical and expert assistance in doing so, the
international community silently stood by while the Russian government
botched the investigation," Cartner said. "This negligence is yet
another example of the international community's utter failure to hold
Russia to its international obligations during this conflict."
European governments and the U.S., along with most international
organizations, failed even to respond publicly to the news of the grave,
thus signaling to Russian officials that there would be no consequences
for failing to conduct a proper investigation. The Council of Europe
human rights commissioner did raise the need for a full investigation
with the Russian authorities during a February 2001 trip to Russia and
Chechnya, but inexplicably failed to visit the mass grave or view the
sixteen bodies that had been recovered at the time. As far as Human
Rights Watch is aware, no international organization or individual
government offered the Russian government technical assistance or expert
staff to investigate the grave.
Meanwhile, human rights organizations have been able to establish that
almost all of the bodies identified were of people who had previously
"disappeared" in the custody of Russian troops. On March 13, 2001,
Chechen procurator V. Chernov stated that a total of seventeen bodies
(including those of the first three who were recovered before the
procuracy stepped in) had been identified.
As of this writing, Human Rights Watch has confirmed that twelve of the
seventeen identified victims had previously "disappeared" in the custody
of Russian troops. Memorial has received information identifying
another four victims. All of the victims apparently had execution-style
bullet wounds and at least some of the bodies bore clear signs of
torture, including stab wounds, broken bones, scalped body parts, and
cut off ears. These human rights organizations have also collected photo
and video materials that leave no doubt that the majority of the
remaining thirty-four people whose bodies were found at the Dachny
village had been summarily executed, and that many had been tortured.
Many had had their hands tied behind their backs and had been
blindfolded, and also showed signs of multiple bullet and stab wounds.
Source: Human Rights Watch
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