Amnesty: accountability for human rights violations key to normalization in North Caucasus

Normalization in the North Caucasus is impossible without a complete end to human rights violations and full accountability for the grievous human rights violations carried out over the past decade, according to new reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Published by Amnesty on Wednesday, Rule without law: Human rights violations in the North Caucasus, highlights the continuing human rights violations in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria in a climate of impunity. The report is based on testimonies that tell of indiscriminate killings, excessive use of force, death and torture in custody, arbitrary and secret detention, abductions, threats to human rights activists and independent journalists, the targeting of relatives of suspected fighters and the forced evictions of internally displaced people.

The counter-terrorism operation that the Russian authorities declared in Chechnya, gave a green light to these abuses. On 16 April 2009, the authorities announced its end only to reintroduce it in several districts shortly afterwards. The civilian population continues to live in an atmosphere of lawlessness that engenders fear and insecurity.

Human Rights Watch said on the other hand that Russian federal and Chechen authorities should immediately put a stop to home burnings and other collective punishment practices against families of alleged insurgents in Chechnya, and ensure meaningful accountability for perpetrators of human rights violations in the region. The 54-page report, “‘What Your Children Do Will Touch Upon You’: Punitive House-Burning in Chechnya,” documents a distinct pattern of house burnings by security forces to punish families for the alleged actions of their relatives.

Tanya Lokshina has a new article on the HRW site explaining the current situation in Ingushetia.