From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 1/27/2007 4:03 PM

Fri. Jan. 26, 2007

Russia Stifling Chechen Torture Cases

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"Chechnya is not a popular subject in Russia, I think that is a special reason to be a little bit harsh on us," said Jan ter Laak.
MOCOW — Russian authorities have been cracking down hard on rights groups helping Chechens bring cases of abuse before the European Court of Human Rights, which has so far received up to 200 torture cases of Chechen prisoners, lawyers and activists said Friday, January 26.

"Chechnya is not a popular subject in Russia, I think that is a special reason to be a little bit harsh on us," Jan ter Laak, head of the Russian Justice Initiative (RJI), a non-governmental group based in the Netherlands, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The treatment of the Russian Justice Initiative, which was refused registration in Russia for a second time this week, has fed concern that Russian authorities are pressuring organizations that aid a growing number of appeals to the European rights court from Russia.

"The last year for us has been tragic" because of increased checks by the authorities, said Karinna Moskalenko, head of the Centre of Assistance to International Protection in Moscow.

The centre handles around 60 cases brought to the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights every year, mainly involving prison conditions in Russia. RJI has brought a total of more than 100 cases on Chechnya to the court.

The rights court has come under an avalanche of appeals from Russian citizens, including many from Chechnya who say that Russian courts are ignoring allegations of torture, murder and other war crimes.

More than 9,000 cases from Russia are pending at the court, far more than any other country.

In a case brought by the Russian Justice Initiative, the rights court last week ruled against Russia in the first torture case from Chechnya, involving the treatment of Adam and Arbi Chitayev, who were detained without charge for six months in 2000.

In one of the first rulings by the court involving the Chechen conflict, also brought by the Russian Justice Initiative, Fatima Bazorkina in July 2006 won damages from the Russian government over the disappearance and presumed death of her son Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev.

The cases are among more than 200 that have been brought before the court involving forced disappearances, torture and extra-judicial executions in Chechnya.

An ongoing armed struggle in Chechnya and the North Caucasus between Russian forces on one side and separatist fighters on the other has killed tens of thousands since hostilities began in 1994.

Blocking Reform

Russian official circles see the European court with deep suspicion.

In December last year, Russian lawmakers voted against ratification of a key reform document, protocol number 14, aimed at speeding up procedures at the court, making Russia the only country not to have done so.

"The reason for the de facto block on the 14th protocol appears to be the Chechen cases," Moskalenko said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month condemned "the politicisation of court decisions" and Russian deputies have said the body is working against Russian interests.

"It's not acceptable that this organisation is used for attacks against the Russian Federation," Sergei Baburin, head of the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) party and a deputy speaker of the parliament, said in December.

Earlier this month, the head of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, Rene van der Linden, travelled to Moscow to lobby Russian authorities for approval of the reform.

"I have the feeling that some people in your country think the court only deals with Russian cases," van der Linden told reporters, explaining that the high number of cases from Russia was due to the country's large population.

Moskalenko said her centre has seen a sharp rise in the number of appeals in recent years, from dozens in the 1990s, to hundreds in the early years of this decade to around a thousand a month now.

"It will be used more and more," said Moskalenko, who attributed the rise to greater knowledge about the European court among Russian citizens and continuing failures of the Russian justice system.

Applicants must first exhaust all forms of legal recourse in their own countries before they are allowed to appeal to the European court, which is part of the 46-member Council of Europe.
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