Amnesty International Report 1996 - Russia

At least two conscientious objectors may have been imprisoned. There were numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment in detention. Prisoners awaiting trial were held in conditions which amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, resulting in one instance in the death of 11 prisoners. Human rights violations by government forces in the context of the conflict in the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic-Ichkeryia continued to be reported, including detention without trial, torture and ill-treatment, and extrajudicial executions. At least 28 people were reported to have been judicially executed and a further 34 who had their petitions for clemency turned down faced imminent execution. An estimated 500 to 600 prisoners were believed to be held on death row. There were reports of inadequate legal protection for refugees and asylum-seekers. Forces loyal to Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev were reported to have killed at least 40 civilians and taken hundreds hostage. In March the State Duma voted to remove Sergey Kovalyov as Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation (see Amnesty International Report 1995), reportedly because of his criticism of the Russian Government's military activity in the Chechen Republic. A peace agreement signed by Russian and Chechen negotiators in July included provisions for an immediate cessation of hostilities. However, peace had not been restored to the region by the end of the year. On 17 December there was a general election to the State Duma. Of 43 competing parties and blocs, four – the Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party, "Our Home is Russia" and "Yabloko" – received the five per cent vote share necessary to qualify for seats in the Duma. A new Russian Criminal Code had not been adopted by the end of the year. Although drafts of the new Code had proposed limiting the scope of the death penalty, in April and May two articles were added to the existing Criminal Code which extended the scope of the death penalty. In July the UN Human Rights Committee examined the fourth periodic report of the Russian Federation on implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee made recommendations on the treatment of minorities, legal reform, the death penalty and treatment of women, and expressed concern about human rights violations in the context of the conflict in Chechnya. Parliament again failed to introduce the necessary enabling legislation or to amend the Criminal Code to reflect the constitutional right of conscientious objectors to a civilian alternative to compulsory military service. Young men continued to risk imprisonment for refusing their call-up papers on grounds of conscience. A number of serving conscripts deserted to avoid involvement or further participation in military operations in the Chechen Republic. In May two conscripts, Aleksandr Vasilkov and Ruslan Kurdyukov, were returned to Russian jurisdiction from Lithuania, where they had sought asylum because they did not wish to take part in military operations "against the Chechen people". It was feared that on their return to Russia they may have been detained on account of their conscientiously held beliefs. There were numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment in detention, both in criminal cases and in the context of the conflict in Chechnya. The presidential Human Rights Commission stated in its second report on human rights practices in Russia, covering 1994 and 1995, that, "in 1994, more than 20,000 Interior Ministry employees were disciplined for breaking the law when conducting investigations and interrogations, and there is reason to believe that this figure seriously underestimates the real scale of violations". Reports from the autonomous Republic of Mordovia indicated that torture and ill-treatment of criminal suspects under investigation were routine. At least 20 cases came to light during the year. Members of the Criminal Investigation Department (cid) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were reported to have beaten Nikolay Andreyevich Abramov following his arrest in April 1994 on suspicion of theft. He was reportedly subjected to torture methods called the "envelope" (in which the victim's legs are pulled up to the head), and the "swallow" (in which the victim's back is arched painfully). There were numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment in the so-called "filtration points" used to hold people detained in connection with the Chechen conflict. According to reports, Magomed Maksharipovich Meyriyev, an ethnic Ingush, was punched, kicked and beaten with rifle butts and truncheons by Russian soldiers at various locations while detained from 3 January to 15 February. Magomed Meyriyev was eventually released with 14 other people who had also reportedly been beaten. Several allegations of rape were made against Russian forces in the Chechen Republic. It was reported that in January four masked Russian soldiers entered the house of Olga Sokulova in the village of Assinovskaya, ransacked it and raped her. No investigation was known to have taken place into these allegations. A preliminary investigation by the Main Military Procuracy into the deaths of four naval cadets in January 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994), concluded that the deaths were a result of negligence and abuse of power by officials. By May 1995, 11 naval personnel and a civilian had been tried and convicted in connection with the deaths, although their sentences were not known. One criminal case against a senior officer was closed as a result of an amnesty. The conditions in some pre-trial prisons amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In July, 11 prisoners reportedly died of heat stroke in an overcrowded prison in Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo region, where up to 25 people were being held in cells meant for 10, and the air temperature in the facilities was as high as 48 to 51°C. In October the Chairman of the State Duma Security Committee stated that as many as 274,700 people were held in prisons and remand centres throughout Russia, although these institutions were designed to hold only 173,800. Human rights violations carried out by government forces in the context of the conflict in the Chechen Republic included detention without trial, torture and ill-treatment (see above) and extrajudicial executions. During the Budennovsk hostage crisis in June (see below), two ethnic Chechens – Khamad Kurbanov, President Dudayev's representative in Moscow, and Ramzan Muzayev, secretary of the Chechen-Press information agency – were detained in Moscow. They were held for a month without charge, under a 1994 presidential decree which contravenes the Russian Constitution. In April about 250 civilians, including women and children, were reportedly killed by Russian forces who were attempting to capture the town of Samashki, near the Chechen capital of Grozny. Russian troops allegedly burned down houses and threw grenades into basements where residents had taken cover, in an operation described by the International Committee of the Red Cross as "an indiscriminate attack against civilians and a flagrant violation of humanitarian law". The three daughters of Bekist Abdullayeva were reportedly among those killed when Russian soldiers threw a grenade into the basement where the family was sheltering from a bombardment. Soldiers in tanks and armoured vehicles had closed off the street and advanced, destroying and burning each house as they went. Those hiding in her house screamed out that there were no men in the basement, but soldiers threw in grenades without checking who was inside. Throughout the year hundreds of death sentences were passed, and at least 28 executions were carried out. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 16 executions were carried out in 1995. However, according to unofficial sources in the Presidential Clemency Commission, the number of executions in 1995 was 90. It was also reported that every year the Russian courts pass more than 200 death sentences. Amnesty International learned that since March 1992, when the Clemency Commission was first established, 338 petitions for clemency had been upheld. However in 1995 there was a decline in the number of successful petitions for clemency. In November, 34 prisoners reportedly had their petitions – the last resort against execution – turned down by President Boris Yeltsin, and faced imminent execution. The President reportedly granted clemency to only five prisoners during 1995. Amnesty International estimated that between 500 and 600 prisoners were held on death row at the end of the year. Reports indicated that legal provisions for refugees and asylum-seekers were inadequate. In September Lee Sen Yen, a citizen of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) serving a prison term in Russia, was returned to the DPRK by the Russian authorities, reportedly under an agreement allowing prisoners to be sent to serve their sentences in their home country. He had requested asylum in the former Soviet Union on at least two occasions, and a decision on his most recent request, made in 1993, was never taken. It was feared that Lee Yen Sen, who alleged that he was subjected to torture in police detention in his home country in the 1970s, could face further human rights violations. Forces loyal to Chechen President Dudayev were reported to have killed at least 40 civilians. On 14 June a group of armed Chechens under field commander Shamil Basayev, who stated that he was acting independently and without the knowledge or permission of President Dudayev, were reported to have killed at least 40 civilians in the town of Budennovsk and taken hostage some 1,000 civilians at the local hospital. Some hostages were reportedly forced to act as human shields for Chechen fighters during a subsequent assault on the hospital by Russian government forces. The head of the Information Service of the Chechen Republic announced that in March a captured Russian serviceman had been killed by Chechen forces. Nikolay Bairov, a pilot, was said to have been sentenced to death by a Chechen court-martial for staging an air raid on the town of Shali. Amnesty International urged the government to release any conscientious objectors held as prisoners of conscience, and to introduce a civilian alternative to military service for conscientious objectors. The organization urged the authorities to initiate thorough and impartial investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment in detention, including the 11 deaths in custody in Novokuznetsk, to make the results public, and to bring to justice those responsible. In a report, Armed conflict in the Chechen Republic: Seeds of human rights violations sown in peacetime, the organization urged the Russian authorities to hold a comprehensive and impartial investigation into the deliberate killings of civilians during the conflict in the Chechen Republic; to make public the results of that investigation; to bring those responsible to justice; and to take steps to protect non-combatants in accordance with international law. The organization asked the authorities for information concerning the deten-tion of Khamad Kurbanov and Ramzan Muzayev and urged that the men be released if they were not to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence. Amnesty International continued to urge the Russian President to commute all death sentences. The organization urged the Government of Russia to introduce an immediate moratorium on all executions and to abolish the death penalty. Amnesty International called on the authorities to ensure that no asylum-seekers were returned to countries where they could face human rights violations, and to ensure the effective protection of asylum-seekers by adhering to fair and satisfactory asylum procedures which meet international standards. Amnesty International urged General Dzhokhar Dudayev to condemn publicly human rights abuses by Chechen forces and to take steps to ensure that no forces under his command committed such acts in future. The organization also called on the Chechen authorities to ensure that all detainees were treated humanely.