Human Rights Watch anxious with human rights violations in Ingushetia

The international organization Human Rights Watch has expressed its concern with violations of human rights committed by federal power agencies present in Ingushetia.

The report entitled "As though they fell from the sky: counterterrorism, human rights violations and impunity in Ingushetia", presented by human rights activists today in Moscow, runs that dozens of residents of Ingushetia became victims of kidnappings, murders and tortures.

We remind you that in the end of May representatives of the Human Rights Watch visited Ingushetia with the aim to study the observance of human rights by this republic. Alexander Petrov, adviser of the Human Rights Watch for Russia, has noted that during their stay in the republic they met understanding and support from all power bodies.

The report states that in the recent year the situation in Ingushetia, with its population of about 300,000, has radically worsened. Special concern of human rights activists is caused by murders of Russian-language citizens of Ingushetia, which look like pre-planned and targeted actions.

The Human Rights Watch insists that Russia should admit international observers to Ingushetia and guarantee a representative of the UN Special Committee against Tortures freedom of action according to the mandate.

The Human Rights Watch is also calling to put an end to restrictions on protest actions and free travel of journalists across Ingushetia, which had been introduced as a result of inflow of refugees and militants into Ingushetia during combat operations in the adjacent Chechnya.

The European Union should use the EU-Russia summit to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk on June 26-27 (the first summit with participation of new Russian president Dmitri Medvedev) as an opportunity to exert pressure on Moscow on respect of human rights, experts of the Human Rights Watch assert.