Survey of Human Rights Materials - May 2001One of our major focus areas is monitoring of violations of human rights. This page contains a list of major documents and reports published in the month of May describing the human rights violations and suffering of people in the war-torn republic.
May 4-29, Society of the Chechen – Russian Friendship
PRESS RELEASES 72-79
The press releases of the Society of the Russian-Chechen Friendship provide running reports by the local correspondents of the Society summarizing major incidents in the month of April and May, providing lists of the people detained in Chechnya, and describing infamous “mopping-up operations” at various places around the country. Although the site is often difficult to access and the unique information is mostly in Russian, the information provided is the only continuous series of first-hand reports written by the local Chechen residents.
ALL PRESS RELEASE IN RUSSIAN ARE AVAILABLE HERE
PRESS RELEASE NO. 79 IN ENGLISH IS AVAILABLE HERE
May 14, Memorial
GROZNY, “MOPPING UP” OPERATION ON THE CENTRAL MARKET, APRIL 29 – MAY 2, 2001: POGROMS, LOOTING, MURDERS
Russian soldiers carried out a “mopping up” operation on Grozny central market officially labeled as “operation in control of the passport regime.” The market was searched and looted, people working in the market were assaulted and beaten, several were murdered. The report gives details of the operation, including testimonies of its direct witnesses.
THE WHOLE REPORT IN RUSSIAN IS AVAILABLE HERE
May 15, Human Rights Watch
BURYING THE EVIDENCE: THE BOTCHED INVESTIGATION INTO A MASS GRAVE IN CHECHNYA
In late February, fifty-one bodies were found in Dachny, an abandoned village less than one kilometer from the main Russian military base in Chechnya. According to the 24-page report released by the Human Rights Watch, of the nineteen victims whose corpses were identified by relatives, sixteen were last seen as Russian federal forces took them into custody. Two weeks later, the authorities buried the rest of the bodies without prior notice and without performing adequate autopsies or collecting crucial evidence that would have helped to identify the perpetrators. The Russian government failed to provide help or resources for the only forensic examiner for Chechnya, whose only tools were a scalpel and a pair of rubber gloves.
THE WHOLE REPORT IS AVAILABLE HERE
May 29, Ichkeria.org
LETTER TO THE EDITOR – TESTIMONY OF A CHECHEN REFUGEE IN AZERBAIJAN
Issa Magomadov, a Chechen refugee living in Azerbaijan, gives details of a “mopping up” operation carried out by the Russian forces in the village of Makhety on May 12, 2001. “Information agencies have already confirmed most of what he's relating, but since their reports are usually concise, some details, which could help reconstitute the picture of what had happened in the village of Makhkety, were lost. Now we [ichkeria.org] are bridging this gap and publishing an abstracted version of the letter received.“
THE WHOLE REPORT IS AVAILABLE HERE
May 30, Amnesty International
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 2001 REPORT – RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Serious and widespread human rights violations took place in 2000, including grave crimes against civilians on a massive scale during the renewed armed conflict in Chechnya. Russian federal forces were responsible for gross human rights violations against the civilian population of Chechnya, states the Amnesty International Annual Report covering events from January – December 2000.
CHECHNYA RELATED SECTION OF THE REPORT IS AVAILABLE HERE
THE FULL REPORT CONCERNING THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION IS AVAILABLE HERE
Compiled by Prague Watchdog |
