Society of Dagestan is on the brink of civil war: over 2000 disappearances remain unsolved

A human life in Dagestan is cheaper than in the rest of Russia; and the Dagestani society is on the brink of civil war - these are the conclusions reached at the travelling session of the Presidential Council on Civil Society Development and Human Rights, held on June 2. It was announced at the session that in general for the NCFD (North-Caucasian Federal District) over 2000 human disappearances remain unsolved.

The yesterday's session on the topic "Respect for human rights as precondition for ensuring public safety" listened to a number of law enforcers, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders.

"The price of a human life in Dagestan is incomparably lower than in the rest of Russia. We feel easy to kill each other, thinking that it can solve all our problems," said Zaur Gaziev, editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Respublika".

According to his story, Dagestani society is on the brink of civil war, which may be triggered, in his words, by flagrant facts of violence committed by law enforcers.

The moderator of the session Mikhail Fedotov noted that public councils work at all the law enforcement bodies; however, they fail to cope with their functions.

ICRF is ready to sack power agents who break laws

Alexander Gluschenko, Deputy Head of the Investigatory Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) for Dagestan, said that a series of measures had been developed; special investigatory unit had been set up for dealing with corruption crimes and actions of organized criminal groupings, etc. He added that a programme had been elaborated aimed to combat kidnappings and urged the participants to address on specific criminal facts.

"I dealt with five thousand complaints, and only in rare cases particular persons were indicated. We took appeals of human rights defenders and NGOs. There were only two names of employees; and we quite easily dismissed them," said Gluschenko.

Olga Menshikova: more than two thousand disappearances remain unsolved

Olga Menshikova, head of the division of the Department of the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of the NCFD, said that in 2010 the District saw 75,000 committed crimes. One third of them were grave and especially grave crimes. "This is a tremendous amount of work," she admitted. "The number of murders has increased dramatically," said Menshikova.

According to her story, last year six thousand hidden crimes were revealed and put on the queue in the NCFD. She recalled that a programme on combating kidnappings was also developed in 2007. "As a result, the number of missing persons dropped by half; however, more than two thousand crimes in this area remain unsolved," said Menshikova.

Another problem raised by the GPO official was the fight against corruption. "Out of those brought to criminal liability for embezzling millions of budget roubles from various programmes, their annual number reaches 300 persons, none was convicted to a real term," said Olga Menshikova.

Valigasanov: in Dagestan, we saw a chain reaction against lawyers

Abdul-Gadji Valigasanov, a member of the Qualification Collegium of Advocates and Chairman of the Commission to Defend Advocates' Professional Rights, noted that last year saw atypical cases of applying violence against lawyers. After using violence against the lawyer Sapiyat Magomedova and charges presented to her of beating OMON (riot police) agents, a chain reaction of violence against lawyers was launched.

"This year this lawlessness has stopped, because criminal cases had been initiated against the agents. However, this is not enough; they should be punished according to the law," said one of the leaders of the legal community.

Suleiman Azuev, Vice-President of the Bar Association, said that the Bar includes 900 lawyers. Addressing heads of law enforcement bodies, he said: "Please explain your on duty officers that a lawyer has the right to meet his or her client; but they are not admitted; this is the same as not to admit a doctor to the patient."

Another problem raised by him was racist; he asserted that the number of victims of racism outside Dagestan is on the rise. "All the Dagestanis are viewed as potential criminals," said Azuev and noted that "such attitude to Dagestanis is the result of actions of the authorities."

Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman in Russia, concluded that Dagestan has very low quality of life. He also stressed that "kidnappings on the slightest suspicions and without investigation is a grave crime."

"For the second day in a row we hear about terrible crimes committed by the police, allegedly, with the aim to fight crime. Methods to combat crime are more terrible than the crimes as such," said, in her turn, Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the "Civil Assistance" Committee.

Liudmila Alekseeva, Chair of the Moscow Helsinki Group, reproached the officials that they operate more with numbers, than facts. "Journalists and lawyers say clearly and provide concrete facts. However, when the authorities speak, they are just chanting numbers. They're also citizens, but some different citizens. The problem is not in numbers. The main thing is to talk and offer some particular measures," she concluded.

The views of the debaters at the session diverged. Thus, Garun Kurbanov, head of the information policy and press service of President of Dagestan, assured that all the views expressed by the participants of the travelling session of the Council will be taken into account by the authorities. On the contrary, Ruslan Mirzaev, Chairman of the Supreme Court of Dagestan, believes that the differences of the speakers will not bring the desired results.