Orlov: stability in Northern Caucasus is impossible without observance of human rights

Respect for human rights and the rule of law in Northern Caucasus are prerequisites for ensuring peace and stability in the region, said Oleg Orlov, head of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial", at a press conference on human rights in Chechnya.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the press conference was held at the press centre of the "Interfax" on April 20. Human rights organizations sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev asking to address the arbitrariness of law enforcers.

At the same time, he reminded that abductions occur not only in Chechnya, but already in Moscow.

The head of the "Memorial" also commented on the situation with the investigation of the murder of Natalia Estemirova. According to his story, there is no progress.

"The version, which at some point was presented by inspectors as the main one, has failed. It was a version of direct involvement of militants in Natasha's murder. However, the versions about the links between her murder and the cases that she had investigated - the crimes of law enforcement bodies of the Chechen Republic, were not examined. There's no investigation," said Orlov.

In order to have precise information about these versions, the advocate, who presents the interests of Natalia's family, turned with a request to investigators asking them to acquaint him with at least part of investigation materials. "After several trials, they refused. We sent a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights," the head of the "Memorial" has added.

Igor Kalyapin, Chairman of the Inter-Regional Committee Against Torture, told that a group of lawyers from various human rights organizations was gathered for defence of human rights in the Russian Federation of a group of lawyers - the United Mobile Group.

"They are entitled by themselves, acting instead of the bodies of the prosecutor's and the Investigatory Committee, to collect evidences, and enforce, by using legal mechanisms and, first of all, the laws of the Russian Federation, the bodies of the Investigatory Committee to implement these evidence into the materials of the official criminal investigation," said Kalyapin.

"As a rule, the Investigatory Committee is not very anxious to investigate the complaints about violations of human rights by law enforcers. We had every reason to believe that this methodology will work in the Chechen Republic; the work of our lawyers resulted in the fact that to date more than 70 former militiamen have been convicted from using torture," said Kalyapin.

"All the cases dealt with by the United Mobile Group in the Chechen Republic are the cases on kidnappings committed by policemen. All the plots that we study look about the same. Policemen arrive; take a person away from his home; or just catch a person in broad daylight on a busy street of Grozny; and then people just disappear. A month or two, a year or two then elapses - there is no person. Out of seven our cases, only in one case the man came back. As it turned out, he had spent four months, like a dog of a bad owner, in the basement of the Chechen OMON (special militia), chained to a heating radiator," said Igor Kalyapin.

"When we first started working in the Chechen Republic, it was all OK. When investigators refused to carry out some investigatory actions or to follow our petitions, we turned to the courts; we filed over 30 complaints at of the start of this year and won 21 of them," said Kalyapin.

Later, as he explained, quite an incredible situation happened.

"I was shocked when an investigator for especially important cases of the Chechen Investigatory Committee told me, almost in tears in trembling voice, that if he sent a summon to a policeman from the patrol-post service, the latter would never appear for questioning, while the investigators would be beaten," said Kalyapin.

"There are quite plenty of facts of policemen's disregard for the requirements of investigators, ignoring and frank intimidation of them, including the high-ranking ones. We have summed up such cases; and in February 2011 we sent a document to various bodies of power of the Russian Federation, first of all, to the Public Prosecutor of the Chechen Republic, where all this practice that we find abhorrent is described," said Kalyapin.

"The Prosecutor's Office of Chechnya is really warning the Investigatory Committee; however, the Office should supervise not only the Committee, but also the MIA, which is executing all this, making the proper investigation impossible. Here, prosecutors exhibit inexplicable timidity," said Kalyapin.

Tatiana Lokshina, deputy director of the Moscow office of the Human Rights Watch, suggested that very top-ranking Chechen officials have to do with kidnappings in Chechnya.

In her opinion, for local human rights defenders, dealing with these issues is not safe; in fact, it is a suicide; however the lawyers of the United Mobile Group try to launch the local legal system in operation.

"Unfortunately, in spite of our meeting with the President, the situation in the republic does not change. We are again appealing on human rights violations in Chechnya to the supreme leadership of the Russian Federation; and we decided to make a special appeal to the President about the situation," said Lokshina.

As noted by Tatiana Lokshina, after the meeting with rights defenders held on May 19, 2010, in the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev promised to issue orders, but nothing happens.

"11 months have elapsed, but there are no results. The only thing that was done was set up of a council under Khloponin. We welcomed the establishment of this separate District (NCFD) and set up of this council. However, it doesn't address these issues; it is obvious and most likely the council was created just for reporting," said Lokshina.

Liudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, has noted that human rights defenders in Chechnya are primarily interested in disappearance and extrajudicial executions, for which the authorities should be blamed; however, despite the fact that the problem was highlighted in the course of the meeting with the President, nothing was done in this area.

According to the rights defender, the President listened to everyone and offered his Plenipotentiary for the NCFD Alexander Khloponin to hold a conference with the heads of his republics on this topic.

"The conference never took place. Later they told us that Khloponin decided to set up a council under him. They included only me and Gannushkina into it. At some point we were urgently informed that the sitting of this council in Pyatigorsk. The very appearance of this council disappointed me. There was not a single public figure from the North-Caucasian republics, whom I know. Most of them made flowery speeches, more like toasts in honour of Khloponin. The words 'kidnapping' and 'extrajudicial killing' were not even uttered. I decided not to go to the second sitting; I didn't want to listen how they all were just grateful to Khloponin for what he had brought them together," added Alekseeva.