PACE commission dissatisfied with human rights situation in Northern Caucasus

The commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has scarified the situation with human rights in Northern Caucasus. A draft resolution on Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan will be brought to the June PACE session.

The draft compiled on the basis of Dick Marti's report says that in Chechnya the authorities continue to maintain "the atmosphere of fear," and oppositionists and human rights activists continue disappearing. All this, the document runs, occurs in the spirit of personification of power, which "is shocking for democracy." In Ingushetia, the authors were concerned of "growth of violence since 2009," and in Dagestan - more frequent terror acts, resulting in tough actions of law enforcement bodies.

While preparing his report, in the end of March Dick Marti visited Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, and had meetings at the Federal Assembly and law enforcement bodies of the Russian Federation. Several years ago Mr Marti was appointed to be the rapporteur on human rights in Northern Caucasus, but he visited the region for the first time for drawing up his report.

The draft resolution on Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan was unanimously passed by the Commission on Human Rights of the PACE, the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports.

Meanwhile, the members of the Russian delegation to the PACE assert that they have managed to achieve compromise on the draft resolution on observance of human rights in Northern Caucasus.

In particular, its initial version told about personality cult of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and a heavy crisis in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.

The fact that tough formulations were excluded from the report and "we managed to achieve compromise formulations on all key issues of these report and draft resolution," is regarded as their merit by the members of the Russian delegation, the BBC reports.

"The report is balanced, and in such form it will be presented at the June session in Strasbourg," the "Northern Caucasus" Agency quotes Mr Slutskiy as saying. "Our cooperation with the PACE yields fruits. This time the report differs by its objective viewpoint and absence of black-and-white cliches and stereotypes."