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Security Council UN Rights Chief Worried
by Chechnya AllegationsBy Michael Steen
Reuters
April 3, 2000
Moscow - UN human rights chief Mary Robinson arrived in Moscow on Monday to discuss what she called serious allegations of human rights breaches in Chechnya after a two-day trip to the region marked by delays and frustration.
Robinson was denied access to villages and a detention center she had deemed vital to her investigation. But she told reporters on arrival in Moscow she had heard enough first-hand accounts of abuses to warrant a serious response from Russia. Russian forces were fighting to root out rebel resistance in the separatist region after dozens of paramilitary OMON police and troops were killed in an ambush last week, a sharp reminder that Moscow was still far from winning the war.
Robinson told reporters at Moscow's Vnukovo airport: "I'm concerned about the extent of first-hand accounts of serious allegations of violations of human rights.'' "I was also very devastated by the situation in (Chechen capital) Grozny itself and the very poor circumstances of those whom I met living in Grozny,'' said Robinson, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Robinson was to meet top officials in Moscow and said she hoped to talk to President-elect Vladimir Putin, although the Kremlin was tight-lipped on whether this would take place. Putin oversaw the start of the military campaign six months ago after Chechen rebels invaded villages in neighboring Dagestan - acts which Robinson also condemned for involving rights abuses.
Refused Access To Some Areas
Russia's human rights envoy to Chechnya, Vladimir Kalamanov, told reporters at Vnukovo that everything had been done to give Robinson access to people, but that bad weather and security concerns had prevented them going to some places.
Robinson's spokesman, Jose Diaz, said their tour of Grozny, bombed into rubble, had been frustrating. "The High Commissioner had asked to visit a number of locations, none of which were satisfied. So there was some disappointment and frustration,'' he said on Sunday. Diaz said Russia refused to allow Robinson access to three villages west of Grozny: Alkhan-Yurt, Alkhan-Kala and Katyr-Yurt -- and to Aldi on the edge of the capital. Human rights groups allege that Russian troops killed civilians in these areas.
She was also unable to visit a detention center in the village of Urus-Martan. ``For some places, like the villages, they said they were too far away, for Aldi they said military operations were taking place,'' Diaz said.
On Sunday Robinson was quoted as saying it was important for her to be balanced in assessing violations. "I feel sorry for the dead OMON troops and army soldiers, I feel very sorry for those people who were kidnapped by bandits, however, the whole civilian population should not answer for the acts of various terrorists and groups,'' Interfax news agency quoted her as saying in Dagestan.
Meanwhile, fighting continued to rage in the village of Komsomolskoye at the foot of the mountains, with Russians using artillery and warplanes to strike rebel positions, Interfax said. Russia smashed the village to pieces in earlier fighting. The agency also said the corpses of eight Russian soldiers had been found there as well as 43 dead rebels.
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