Human rights activists comment the incident in Tsentoroj settlement (Chechnya)

As the "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier, on May 1, 2006, a serious international incident happened in Chechnya. A delegation of the European Committee Against Tortures (ECAT) that was visiting the region was not let into the settlement of Tsentoroj.

The HRC "Memorial" and the Committee "Civil Assistance" have commented the incident as follows.

"The delegation of the Committee, accompanied by Russian authorities, made its way to Tsentoroj settlement, however, at the entrance into the village we were stopped by security forces and had to turn back," Mauro Palma, head of the delegation and deputy chairman of the ECAT stated. He treated the incident as "unacceptable."

On the following day, on May 2, the Chechen authorities gave their explanations to what had happened.

Ruslan Alkhanov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, stated that "the delegation had not informed the MIA of Chechnya and other law enforcement agencies about its arrival," and the militiamen on the post "had a direct order not to let any armed or unknown person to Tsentoroj whatever documents he or she presents" because of a terror act threat on one year anniversary of the murder of Akhmad Kadyrov, former president of Chechnya. Every Minister's word is arousing surprise. At Ruslan Alkhanov's ministry, they could not be ignorant of the visit of inspectors who are authorized to visit pre-trial temporary custody facilities governed by the MIA. It is pretty difficult to mix up a European delegation with militants, even if the latter would be redressed. Finally, if terrorist acts are expected right on May 9, what has it to do with the incident on May 1?

On the following day, on May 2, Alu Alkhanov, brother of the Interior Minister and president of the Chechen Republic assured the delegation that they could inspect any facility and visit any settlement, and that "the Chechen Republic has no places closed for a European commission."

Valery Kuznetsov, Prosecutor of Chechnya, also informed that he had ordered to run a respective check and bring to disciplinary responsibility of those in law enforcement bodies who are guilty of what had happened.

In his turn, Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the government of Chechnya, expressed his apologies to Mauro Palma and ordered "to hold a thorough investigation and, if necessary, to bring to disciplinary responsibility the employees of law enforcement bodies who were on duty at the entrance block post to Tsentoroj village." Mr. Palma expressed his concern to Mr. Kadyrov on the information application of illegal methods to the persons detained by law enforcement bodies. Kadyrov answered that the information is not reliable but promised to ask the prosecutor's office "to hold a most careful investigation and take the measures stipulated by the law should any violations of detainees' rights be detected."

Finally, the ECAT representatives visited Tsentoroj but on May 2. Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman of the Republic who accompanied the delegation, reported: "The members of the European Commission visited in the village the base, where the ninth company of the MIA of the Chechen Republic is deployed, local ambulance station and the school to get an impression of the social living standards of local citizens. The Commission members were free to choose the object for visiting, and met no obstacles in moving or visiting this or that object."

Naturally, the delegation of the Committee was interested in Tsentoroj not with the "living standards": they are competent to run investigations of illegal prisons information.

Any hampers to inspections held by the Committee at the places of deprivation of freedom is a very serious incident, since during 24 hours it is quite possible to relocate people, hide custody traces, etc.

The European Committee Against Tortures is the only international organization having the right to hold urgent inspections of this sort.

The international system of human rights defence has other special mechanisms based on the idea to prevent the practice of tortures. There is the respective Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. There are UN structures, where the states should present their regular reports on following the Convention. There are special UN rapporteurs who may be sent to this or that country. However, a country may not let such rapporteurs in, and Russia has repeatedly done this in recent years.

However, the liabilities within European structures are essentially tougher. And non-admission of ECAT inspectors to an object is a serious incident.

Generally, the Russian Federation is willingly reporting on its cooperation with human rights activists. Paragraph 45 of the latest governmental report to the UN on fulfilment of the latest governmental report to the UN on fulfilment of the "Convention Against Torture..." states that intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations had free access to the region, including the places of deprivation of freedom.

The same report of the Russian Federation (paragraph 105) has a reference to Mr. Fridinskiy, Deputy General Prosecutor for the South Federal District, who had offered in his commission dated November 6, 2003, No. 46/2-10627-03, the Acting Prosecutor of the ChR and the Military Prosecutor of the United Troops Grouping (UTG) (с) to hold monthly working meetings with the representative of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" in the Chechen Republic, having ensured information exchange and verification. Unfortunately, in reality, these meetings have never become a system, moreover, were never held in this format. "Memorial" is still maintaining contacts with the prosecutor's office on particular cases and systematically directs requests there. The prosecutor's office is not always responding, and if does, mostly with formal run-arounds.

Delegations of international humanitarian organizations, including the International Red Cross Committee (IRCC) continue to be present in the RF, in particular, in the North Caucasus. However, as the "Memorial" workers were told at the IRCC representative office in Nazran, "In 2004, the IRCC faced the problems hampering to execute this type of activities [visits to pre-trial facilities and other custodies and prisons] under standard criteria adopted in the organization, as a result of which the IRCC had to suspend its visits to detainees."

The RF Report also mentions the ECAT operation in the North Caucasus. Indeed, starting from the inception of the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic, there were six visits of the ECAT delegations to Russia, including those to the North Caucasus.

The reports prepared in the course of these visits contained information on serious violations by the Russian party of undertaken liabilities to prevent tortures. However, these reports could have been published only with the permit of the party under inspection - the Russian Federation, who refuses to make them public. During the second Chechen war, the ECAT was such strongly dissatisfied with the situation in the ChR and absence of cooperation from the RF, that had a double recourse to its extreme and exclusive measure - public declarations "in relation to the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation" (the first one in June 2001 and the second one - in July 2003). Note that on the part of the ECAT it is more than a tough signal, - within the latest 15 years, the ECAT has made four public declarations altogether, and the fact that two of them are on Russia indicates the depth of the crisis. The ECAT reports remain unpublished till today, which makes the work of the ECAT essentially senseless. Not only the Committee itself, but also other structures of the Council of Europe, including the PACE, repeatedly addressed the RF with requests to make the ECAT reports public.

Therefore, the incident with a non-admittance of the ECAT delegation to Tsentoroj on May 1, 2006, is far from being an unfortunate accident, it quite well matches the "cooperation" system of the Russian Federation with the bodies of international protection of human rights, runs the message of the HRC "Memorial" and the Committee "Civil Assistance," received by the editorial board of the "Caucasian Knot."