Human rights activists state violations of Chechnya residents' rights by GIBDD employees

Members of Chechen NGOs report violations of citizens' rights and facts of extortion by employees of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (known in Russia as "GIBDD"). They note that the problem is especially topical at the road police posts located in the administrative borders with Ossetia and Dagestan.

"The situation at the posts located in the administrative borders with Ossetia and Dagestan is really stressful," an employee of local human rights NGO, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "It's same complicated as in the republic as a whole."

"Extortions by GIBDD inspectors in highways, unauthorized detentions of citizens and other facts of arbitrariness and violence applied by power agents to civilians are common phenomena. My friends and fellow villagers often come to me with their complaints that inspectors extort money from them allegedly as fines for various violations," the source said.

His colleague Ruslan by name believes that the present situation with law enforcement bodies in Russia cannot but cause concern in sane citizens. "For a long time already the population perceives militia as a source of threat, not as the body called to protect them," the human rights activist has added.

According to his story, another attempt to draw attention to this problem was the appeal of Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman in the Chechen Republic, to the Russia's State Office of Public Prosecutor and Ministry of Internal Affairs urging to stop illegal actions of law enforcers of North Ossetia and Dagestan against residents of Chechnya.