Amnesty International 2003 report: Russia:
Russian security forces committed serious human rights violations and breached international humanitarian law in the continuing conflict in the Chechen Republic (Chechnya), with almost total impunity.
The situation in Chechnya was characterized by the absence of the rule of law. Few of the thousands of crimes against civilians committed by federal forces were investigated, and even fewer were ever taken to court.
Examples:
Five men, including Said-Magomed Imakaev and Ruslan Utsaev, were taken from their homes in the Chechen village of Novye Atagi by Russian security forces on 2 June, and subsequently "disappeared". Said-Magomed Imakaev's son, Said-Khusein Imakaev, had been detained by Russian federal troops in December 2000 and then "disappeared".
On 14 February Russian forces reportedly abducted Naip Idigov, a Chechen living in Karabulak in Ingushetia, from his home. In October the body of Naip Idigov was found on a dumping site in Grozny.
In January the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern that the government had not taken sufficiently urgent measures to combat the high level of domestic violence against women. It expressed concern at reports of ill-treatment of women in prisons and the failure of the government, as a rule, to investigate, discipline and prosecute offenders. It stated that, despite strong evidence that Russian forces had committed rape and other sexual violence against women in Chechnya, the government had failed in the vast majority of cases to conduct the necessary investigations or hold anyone accountable.
Elsewhere in the Russian Federation there were continuing reports of torture and ill-treatment. Prison conditions were often cruel, inhuman and degrading. Members of ethnic minorities faced widespread discrimination and racist attacks were often carried out with impunity. |
