"Memorial": Chechnya needs better observance of human rights

Despite improvements in the sphere of human rights, Chechnya still faces the problem of missing people and impunity for crimes against peaceful citizens. This was stated by representatives of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" on February 22 during their meeting in the House of the Government with Chechnya's President Ramzan Kadyrov and other leaders of the country.

At a meeting on February 22, the human rights activists reiterated their support to the initiative of N. Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman in the Chechen Republic, to set up an interdepartmental commission to search the citizens, kidnapped and missing in the Republic, with inclusion of representatives of human rights NGOs into this commission.

The human rights activists have also suggested setting up a commission for supervising the course of investigation of the grave crimes accomplished in Chechnya by employees of power agencies.

In the course of discussing the problem of tortures and falsification of criminal cases, the representatives of the HRC "Memorial" drew attention to the fact that many audits undertaken by public prosecutors under complaints on torture usage, despite obvious facts, have ended in nothing.

Besides, immediately after the meeting on February 22, the employees of the HRC "Memorial" have agreed with R. Alkhanov, Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, about a separate special meeting on the issues of identification of unknown bodies.

While summing up the meeting, Ramzan Kadyrov suggested that its participants meet again in a month to analyze the results of the scheduled actions.