From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 3/2/2007 4:11 AM Posted on Fri, Mar. 02, 2007 Top official: Chechen abuse wide
By Musa Sadulayev Associated Press
GROZNY, Russia - Europe's human-rights chief said yesterday that he had found evidence of widespread torture and other abuses against detainees in Chechnya, and he accused the Russian government of keeping quiet about people who had been abducted.
The allegations came as President Vladimir V. Putin nominated a widely feared strongman, Ramzan Kadyrov, to be the new president of the war-battered Russian region. Kadyrov's paramilitary security forces are accused of abducting and abusing suspected rebels and civilians believed to be connected to them.
Thomas Hammarberg of Sweden, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, said he had spoken with many inmates during a visit to Chechnya this week. He said they told him they had been mistreated and tortured during interrogations.
Hammarberg, who also attended a human-rights conference yesterday in the Chechen capital, Grozny, told the Associated Press that several detainees at the pretrial detention center he visited had referred specifically to Russian police in the region.
"I'm convinced that torture is practiced by law-enforcement personnel during interrogations," he said. "I got the impression it is widespread."
"Measures must be taken to stop" torture in Chechnya, he said, and although abductions by security forces appear to have declined dramatically, "there has been far too little progress" in clarifying the fate of people who have disappeared.
"Wherever I went, I encountered people with photographs of missing relatives," Hammarberg said. "It's obviously a huge problem that's unresolved."
Russian and international rights groups have accused Kadyrov's security force of numerous abuses against civilians, including abductions, torture and killings.
Kadyrov did not attend the human-rights conference, instead traveling to Moscow to meet with Putin at a suburban presidential residence. During the meeting, Putin hailed reconstruction efforts in Chechnya, saying the region had seen "significant positive developments," according to televised remarks.
Kadyrov's nomination had been widely expected after last week's dismissal of Alu Alkhanov. Chechnya's legislature was expected to approve the nomination today.
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