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MosNews.com, April 26, 2004

Russia's New Ombudsman Reports More Abuses in Chechnya

Vladimir Lukin
Russian human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin / Photo: Kirill Kallinikov, Moscow News Picture Agency
Forces answerable to Chechnya's pro-Moscow president are committing new types of human rights abuses in the troubled region, Russia's newly-elected rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said on Thursday, the Reuters news agency reported.

Lukin also said he was powerless to intervene in what will be the country's most high-profile trial, the case of Russia's richest man, oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Lukin, a prominent liberal appointed in February, said he wanted a deputy to ensure systematic monitoring of Chechnya, where separatists have fought Russian rule for a decade.

He said he believed information from Chechnya was highly politicised. But his understanding of events, based on observations by rights activists and others, was that intrusive security sweeps by Russian forces were becoming less frequent.

"But there is a worry that there are new types of rights abuses on both sides, and on a third side, by which I mean units under Chechen President (Akhmad) Kadyrov," Lukin said. "These abuses are more specific in nature and difficult to verify from Moscow."


Activists say excesses are committed by Russian forces, rebels and by forces loyal to Kadyrov, who has at his disposal a force several thousand strong, mostly former rebels, under the command of his son Ramzan. The force, accused by rights groups of mass kidnappings, operates largely outside Moscow's control.


Moscow says the region is returning to normal under Kadyrov, elected in October under Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's plan to end the conflict.


Lukin, Russia's first post-Soviet ambassador to Washington, called for more action to safeguard Chechen rights, including the creation of a parliament to be elected this year in the regional capital Grozny.


Moscow had a human rights representative in Chechnya until January, when Putin removed him and handed his duties to Kadyrov. It was not immediately clear how Lukin and Kadyrov would work together.

Lukin's nomination was seen as a Kremlin concession to Russia's liberals after they were routed in last December's parliamentary election won by Putin's allies. His Yabloko party, one of two liberal groups, was all but shut out of parliament.


Many analysts believe Putin used a crackdown on corruption to clip the wings of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the politically ambitious head of oil giant YUKOS who is now awaiting trial for tax evasion and fraud.

Lukin said he was powerless to interven, pending the trial. But he had received no complaints from the legal defence team.

"The human rights commissioner has no right to influence or interfere in such cases while they are under the court's jurisdiction," he said.

 

See also:

Human Rights

War in Chechnya

MosNews.com, April 26, 2004

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