13:07, 20 July 2007

Statement of the HRC "Memorial" on tragic events in Ingushetia

On July 19, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" made a statement on tragic events in Ingushetia, in particular, running as follows:

"...There are no doubts that these crimes have been committed by participants of the terrorist underground, the same bandits who made early last year a series of attacks on the Russian population of Ingushetia. They are trying to destabilize the situation and disrupt the program of Russians' return to this Republic.

...Unfortunately, the recent data collected by us gives the grounds to assert that 'power agents,' law-enforcement and investigatory bodies are violently encroaching on the right of detainees and arrested persons to defence and apply illegal and disproportionate violence and tortures. Most often, this was of running inquiry and investigation results not in revealing true criminals, but in charging the people who have nothing to do with the crimes. Finally, true criminals remain at large."

In March 2006, the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" in its open letter to M. M. Zyazikov, President of the Republic of Ingushetia, warned against all this.