[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 19 (Thursday, February 28, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1366-S1369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
______
SENATE RESOLUTION 213--CONDEMNING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CHECHNYA
AND URGING A POLITICAL SOLUTION TO THE CONFLICT
Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself and Mr. Brownback) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:
S. Res. 213
Whereas the United States Department of State Country
Reports on Human Rights for 2000 reports that the
``indiscriminate use of force by Russian government troops in
Chechnya has resulted in widespread civilian casualties and
the displacement of hundreds of thousands of persons'';
Whereas the United States Department of State Country
Reports on Human Rights for 2000 reports that Russian forces
continue to arbitrarily detain, torture, extrajudicially
execute, extort, rape, and forcibly disappear people in
Chechnya;
Whereas credible human rights groups within the Russian
Federation and abroad report that Russian authorities have
failed to launch thorough investigations into these abuses
and have taken no significant steps toward ensuring that its
high command has taken all necessary measures to prevent
abuse;
Whereas there are credible reports of specific abuses by
Russian soldiers in Chechnya, including in Alkhan-Yurt in
1999; Staropromysloviski and Aldi in 2000; Alkhan-Kala,
Assinovskaia, and Sernovodsk in 2001; and Tsotsin-Yurt and
Argun in 2002;
Whereas the Government of the Russian Federation has
cracked down on independent media and threatened to revoke
the license of RFE/RL, Incorporated, further limiting the
ability to ascertain the extent of the crisis in Chechnya;
Whereas Chechen rebel forces are believed responsible for
the assassinations of Chechen civil servants who cooperate
with the Government of the Russian Federation, and the
Chechen government of Aslan Maskhadov has failed
unequivocally to condemn these and other human rights abuses
or to distance itself from persons in Chechnya allegedly
associated with such forces; and
Whereas the Department of State officially recognizes the
grievous human rights abuses in Chechnya and the need to
develop and implement a durable political solution: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
(1) the war on terrorism does not excuse, and is ultimately
undermined by, abuses by Russian security forces against the
civilian population in Chechnya;
(2) the Government of the Russian Federation and the
elected leadership of the Chechen government, including
President Aslan Maskhadov, should immediately seek a
negotiated settlement to the conflict there;
(3) the President of the Russian Federation should--
(A) act immediately to end and to investigate human rights
violations by Russian soldiers in Chechnya, and to initiate,
where appropriate, prosecutions against those accused;
(B) provide secure and unimpeded access into and around
Chechnya by international monitors and humanitarian
organizations to report on the situation, investigate alleged
atrocities, and distribute assistance; and
(C) ensure that refugees and displaced persons in the North
Caucasus are registered in accordance with Russian and
international law, receive adequate assistance, and are not
forced against their will to return to Chechnya; and
(4) the President of the United States should--
(A) ensure that no security forces or intelligence units
that are the recipients of United States assistance or
participants in joint operations, exchanges, or training with
United States or NATO forces, are implicated in abuses;
(B) seek specific information from the Government of the
Russian Federation on investigations of reported human rights
abuses in Chechnya and prosecutions against those individuals
accused of those abuses;
(C) promote peace negotiations between the Government of
the Russian Federation and the elected leadership of the
Chechen government, including Aslan Maskhadov; and
(D) re-examine the status of Chechen refugees, especially
widows and orphans, including consideration of the possible
resettlement of such refugees in the United States.
Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, I rise today once again to draw
attention to the suffering of people in
[[Page S1367]]
Chechnya. On behalf of myself and Senator Brownback, I am submitting a
resolution urging the Russian government to seek a negotiated
settlement to the conflict there, to end human rights violations by
Russian soldiers there, to investigate and initiate prosecutions
against those accused, and to ensure that refugees receive the
assistance they need. The resolution also urges President Bush to
promote peace negotiations between the parties, to obtain assurances
from the Russian government that no security forces who are recipients
of U.S. assistance are implicated in human rights abuses and to seek
specific information on the status of investigations into reported
abuses.
The war in Chechnya has raged too long, and reports of egregious
human rights violations by Russian soldiers continue to increase.
Today, Human Rights Watch is releasing yet another report of such
abuses, Swept Under: Torture, Forced Disappearances, and Extrajudicial
Killings During Sweep Operations in Chechnya. Year after year we
receive reports telling the same stories, yet nothing seems to change.
Since September 11, Russian officials have argued more vigorously that
they are fighting terrorism in Chechnya. Whether the Russian government
believes this to be true or not is not the issue. What is clear is that
Russia is acting illegally and immorally in Chechnya, and it must stop.
I want to talk briefly about the United States and our relationship
to this war. As we increase our cooperation with various governments in
the war on terrorism, we cannot condone some of the actions these
friends are taking in the name of fighting terrorism.
Russia has been a key member of the anti-terrorist coalition since
September 11. It has played a crucial role in our success in
Afghanistan. I applaud and support this U.S.-Russian cooperation. But
what is happening in Chechnya cannot be justified by the war on
terrorism. Russian forces in Chechnya have acted illegally and with
unspeakable brutality against the civilian population there. There
continue to be credible reports of summary execution, mass detention,
rape, torture, forced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and looting. The
Russian government has so far refused to investigate such reports.
The Russian government believes it is fighting terrorism in Chechnya.
In fact, it frequently compares the U.S. war on terrorism to its own
efforts in Chechnya. But the world community must remind Russia's
leaders that even in a war on terrorism, ends do not necessarily
justify any means. A war against terrorism does not permit abuses
against civilians. We must remind Russia that the war against terrorism
is a struggle for freedom and democracy. Free and democratic nations do
not round up boys and beat them so badly that they have to be carried
home when the are finally released. They do not torture and rape women.
Today as I read the reports of intensified human rights violations on a
massive scale in Chechnya, as well as of Russia's refusal to
investigate such reports and hold responsible individuals accountable,
I have to question Russia's commitment to democratic norms and to
internationally recognized human rights standards.
We have a moral duty not only to speak out against Russian atrocities
in Chechnya, but also to ensure that we aren't unintentionally allowing
them to continue. We must ensure that no security forces that are the
recipients of U.S. assistance or participants in joint operations with
the U.S. are implicated in human rights abuses in Chechnya. This
resolution urges the President to provide that assurance.
It saddens me to speak once again about a war that has now entered
its third year. It is a war that has been conducted with such brutality
that it has been hard at times to imagine the situation getting worse.
Unfortunately, it has gotten worse. The Russian government apparently
has intensified its campaign against civilians in the name of fighting
terrorism. When I met recently with the Chechen Foreign Minister, he
made it clear to me that he believes the post-September 11 period will
be remembered as one of the most savage times in Chechen history.
The New York Times reported recently that, according to Chechen
police officials, Russian troops are killing civilians in a campaign of
executions and looting that takes place alongside military operations
aimed at destroying rebel forces. According to the article, Russian
units roll into a town during the day to scout neighborhoods for
residents who appear to have money or property worth stealing. Then, at
night, the soldiers return in their tanks and burst into houses,
stealing goods and killing witnesses. In one of the largest of Grozny's
four districts, Chechen investigators have documented 17 cases in the
last 12 months implicating Russian Interior Ministry troops in killing
civilians during such looting.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both documented
accounts of terrible human rights violations in Chechnya. Our own State
Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices reports the
execution of at least 60 civilians last February in the suburbs of
Grozny. It reports torture by police officers using electric shocks. It
reports the rape of Chechen women by Russian soldiers. These are
reports from 2000. The new report for 2001 will be released soon, and,
sadly, no one expects it to be better.
There have been credible reports of human rights violations on both
sides of the conflict in Chechnya. I condemn human rights violations by
all parties, as does the resolution we offer today. Chechen rebel
fighters have increasingly targeted for murder Chechen civilians they
believe are cooperating with the Russian government. Human Rights Watch
World Report for 2002 reports that Chechen fighters murdered at least
18 leaders of district and town administrations and at least five
religious leaders, as well as numerous Chechen police officers,
teachers and low ranking officials. There are extremist groups in
Chechnya--some with ties to Arab extremist groups and possibly to al-
Qaeda. I condemn all acts of terrorism, but what is happening in
Chechnya is a human tragedy, and nothing justifies the often brutal use
of violence by Russian soldiers there.
Credible reports estimate that the war in Chechnya from 1994-1996
left over 80,000 civilians dead. The State Department cities evidence
that the current war has resulted in the deaths of thousands of
innocent civilians. There is credible evidence of the displacement of
nearly 40 percent of the civilian population, or close to 400,000
people. According to the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, a
group committed to finding a political solution to this conflict, a
significant portion of the male population between the ages of 16-55 is
simply gone.
Doctors without Borders reports that the humanitarian situation for
an estimated 180,000 refugees in camps in the neighboring Republic of
Ingushetia is deteriorating. The majority of the refugees are living
with families, but over 60,000 people remain in tents, empty schools,
and factory buildings. Shelter and sanitation facilities are poor, worn
out and far below acceptable standards. Sometimes one latrine serves
100 people or more. The government of Russia also refuses to register
the refugees, arguing they are economic migrants. Since these refugees
are being accorded no legitimate status, they are often unable to get
the humanitarian assistance they need. The resolution we offer today
urges the Russian government to secure the distribution of humanitarian
assistance and to register refugees as required by both Russian and
international law.
The government of Russia must work to find a political solution to
end the war in Chechnya. In must put a stop to human rights violations
by its soldiers, hold those who are responsible accountable for their
actions and ensure that refugees get the assistance they need. I urge
my colleagues to support this resolution.
Again, this resolution, which Senator Brownback from Kansas and I
submit, urges the Russian Government to seek to negotiate a settlement
to the conflict there. This deals with the suffering of the people in
Chechnya, and it calls on the Russian Government to end human rights
violations by Russian soldiers there, to investigate and initiate
prosecution against those who are accused, and to ensure that refugees
receive the assistance they need.
[[Page S1368]]
The resolution also urges President Bush to promote peace
negotiations between the parties, to obtain assurances from the Russian
Government that no security forces that are recipients of United States
assistance are implicated in human rights abuses, and to seek specific
information on the status of investigations into reported abuses.
Senator Brownback and I submit this resolution timed with a report
that Human Rights Watch is releasing today, which deals with these
abuses. The title of the report is ``Swept Under: Torture, Forced
Disappearances, and Extrajudicial Killings During Sweep Operations in
Chechnya.''
I recommend that my colleagues and their staffs look at this report,
which is deeply troubling.
I ask unanimous consent that a piece in the New York Times, written
by Patrick Tyler, on January 25, 2002, be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the New York Times, Jan. 25, 2002]
Police in Chechnya Accuse Russia's Troops of Murder
(By Patrick E. Tyler)
Rozny, Russia, Jan. 22.--Nearly two years after major
hostilities ended here in Chechnya, the devastated republic
in the Caucasus, Russian troops are killing civilians in a
campaign of executions and looting that takes place alongside
military operations aimed at destroying rebel forces,
according to Chechen police officials.
Chechen police authorities working under the republic's
pro-Russian government said in interviews over the past week
that Russian Interior Ministry units, known by their acronym,
Obron, have been scouting neighborhoods during mine-sweeping
operations for residents who appear to have money or property
worth stealing.
At night, the soldiers return in armored personnel
carriers, some with identifying markings, and burst into the
houses, stealing household goods and killing witnesses.
Chechen police investigators say.
In the central Leninsky district of Grozny, skeletal shards
of buildings teeter above a landscape of debris that evokes
scenes from European cities destroyed in World War II. The
rubble now lies sealed under a winter blanket of snow as
thousands of Chechen families eke out an isolated existence
in bomb-damaged homes.
In Leninsky, the largest of Grozny's four districts,
Chechen investigators have documented 17 cases in the last 12
months implicating Interior Ministry troops in killing
civilians during looting. One of the most notorious of the
units is known as Obron-22, the Chechens say.
But in each case, military and civilian prosecutors have
refused to bring criminal cases, the police said. Instead,
the prosecutors set aside files as inactive or return them
with demands to provide the names of soldiers involved.
``These units burst into people's houses on the pretext of
`mopping up' operations and commit murders,'' said Alvi
Magomed-Mirzoyev, a police lieutenant colonel who returned to
Grozny from Moscow a year ago to lead a criminal
investigation department in Leninsky.
In Moscow, the Interior Ministry, the Defense Ministry and
prosecutors were asked to comment on these allegations, but
declined.
Chechen police authorities are drawing up a republic-wide
list of unsolved killings of civilians in which federal
forces have been implicated by witnesses, but which
prosecutors have refused to pursue. One senior member of the
Chechen administration in Grozny, taking a significant
risk, provided documents on 163 such cases compiled under
the heading, ``Some cases of detention by representatives
of the federal forces of civilians who subsequently
disappeared or were found dead.''
``These are the conditions we are living under,'' he said
he handed over the document and disappeared into a police
headquarters building where Chechen recruits are certified
and inducted into a new force.
A typical case in the file is that of Magomed H. Vakhidov,
57, once mayor of Urus-Martan, just south of Grozny. He fled
Chechnya when the second war with Russia broke out in
September 1999; a year later he sought and received an
amnesty to return home.
But at 3 a.m. on July 20, 2001, a squad of Russia soldiers
fired smoke grenades into his home and then burst in and
arrested him, according to the documents. Russian military
authorities denied taking him into custody. On July 31, his
body was found in the gardens of a state farm, badly
mutilated from torture, electric shock, knife wounds and
burns from a blow torch.
Russian officials routinely attribute such killings to
``rebels.'' But, as one Chechen police official noted, ``the
rebels do not travel in armored personnel carriers.''
A number of unsolved cases relate to Chechen rebels who
took advantage of amnesties issued by Moscow and by Russian
military commanders.
In March 2000, after Russian forces had driven rebel forces
from Grozny, Roman S. Bersanukayev, 19, turned himself in to
the commander of Russia's 245th Rifle Regiment near Martan-
Chu, near Urus-Martan.
When his relatives asked the local office of the Federal
Security Service about his status, they were given a document
showing that no criminal proceedings would be lodged against
him. They also received an amnesty certificate signed by the
Russian military commandant for the district, Y.A. Naumov.
But Mr. Bersanukayev then disappeared from federal custody
and is feared dead.
``I am an officer and I took an oath to Russia to uphold
the law,'' said Colonel Magomed-Mirzoyev, the policeman,
``but I am sick and tired of being afraid and I hate the
lawlessness that is going on here, and I want to do
everything I can to bring it to an end.''
On a visit to Paris this month, President Vladimir V. Putin
asserted that Russian troops committing acts of violence
against Chechen civilians were being held accountable and
that judicial and law enforcement organs were functioning
normally. ``About 20 servicemen have already been brought to
justice,'' he said.
By lending strong support to President Bush's war against
terrorism, Mr. Putin has successfully blunted Western
criticism of Russian conduct in Chechnya. Several governments
have suggested that Russia had more justification for its
actions than had been acknowledged.
But the situation on the ground has continued to fester.
Chechnya's top prosecutor, Vsevolod Chernov, said this week
that 212 criminal cases based on reports of missing people
had been opened in the last year. ``In some cases, the
disappearance of people can be connected to special
operations conducted by federal units,'' he said, but
``sufficient legally substantiated evidence'' was necessary
to bring the cases to court.
Local police officials tell a different story. They say
criminal cases sent to Mr. Chernov are technically open but
are frozen by the inability of criminal investigators to
interview Russian soldiers who may be witnesses or suspects
involved in crimes against civilians.
The police investigators say that they have tried to gain
access to Russian military units, but that they are afraid to
approach Russian military prosecutors, who must approve any
contact with federal soldiers.
The military prosecutors are housed at Russia's main
military base, at Khankala, on the southeast edge of Grozny.
The base is known to Chechens as a place where detainees are
taken and sometimes never return.
``If the shelling of a civilian neighborhood involved
federal servicemen, I wouldn't be able to send my
investigator because he might not come back,'' Colonel
Magomed-Mirzoyev said.
Earlier this month, a senior official of the new Chechen
administration, Ruslan Yunusov, deputy minister of the
Chechen Emergencies Ministry and a veteran of the Soviet
military campaign in Afghanistan, was shot dead by federal
troops in front of the Russian military police headquarters
here when he tried to arrest Russian soldiers in an armored
personnel carrier. The soldiers were suspected of wounding
one of Mr. Yunusov's officers on Dec. 29.
Several high-profile cases against federal troops have been
brought to court in the past year, like the murder trial of
Col. Yuri Budanov, accused of the rape and murder of an 18-
year-old Chechen woman in March 2000. The trial began nearly
a year ago and has suffered numerous delays over demands for
psychiatric evaluations by military officials to determine
whether Colonel Budanov was temporarily insane when he
strangled the woman in a fit of rage over the deaths of his
comrades at the hands of rebels.
Chechen officials also point out that there appear to be no
active investigations of reports of civilian massacres during
the intense Russian military campaign that was begun in
Chechnya by Mr. Putin after he became prime minister in 1999.
That campaign followed incursions by armed men--Russia called
them Islamic extremists--and terrorist attacks that left
more than 300 dead in Moscow and other Russian cities.
A martial-style curfew is enforced so strictly here that
ambulance service is halted at night, when lethal mayhem
takes over. Russian forces hide in their fortified
checkpoints as rebels creep into the city to shoot at them or
to lay mines to blow up military convoys the next day.
In addition to reported abuses by Interior Ministry forces,
regular Russian Army troops continue to inflict punitive
raids on Chechen towns and villages, as they did earlier this
month in Tsotsin-Yurt, just southeast of Grozny, after two
suspected rebels fleeing federal forces took refuge in a
house there on Dec. 30. The rebels were killed, and a large
column of Russian armored forces surrounded the town.
Town residents said that over the next several days,
soldiers seized young and middle-aged men from their homes
and looted a number of houses, all in violation of military
pledges made last year calling for Chechen authorities to be
present to observe such ``mopping up'' operations.
Seven civilians died during the initial gun battle, town
officials said, two of them after they were used as human
shields by soldiers attacking the house where the suspected
rebels holed up.
One of the men used as a shield was Idris Zakiyev, a 42-
year-old tractor driver with four daughters. The other was
Musa Ismailov, 43, an elder of the mosque who performed a
traditional dance at Chechen funerals; he had five children.
[[Page S1369]]
``They were shot at short distance and their bodies showed
signs of mutilation,'' said Ilyas Zakiyev, a brother of
Idris.
Even now, weeks later, Russian units have blocked all roads
into Tsotsin-Yurt and more than 15,000 residents are being
held virtually as prisoners, forced to pay a bribe--amounting
to a day's wages in many cases--to enter or leave. Entering
Tsotsin-Yurt on Monday, this reporter saw Russian soldiers
collecting these tolls from Chechen drivers passing the
checkpoints.
Turko Aliev, 51, the chairman of the town elders' council,
was among the first to meet with the Russian commander who
ordered the assault on the town. The commander threatened to
open an artillery attack in 30 minutes unless the elders sent
the mayor out to meet him and to identify the seven corpses
laid out before Russian news reporters as ``rebels.''
``I told him that was impossible because the mayor was in
Grozny, but he replied, `You now have 28 minutes,''' said
Ilyas Zakiyev, who accompanied the elders.
At that moment, Mr. Aliev stepped forward as chairman of
the council and identified the bodies of Idris Zakiyev and
Mr. Ismailov, the mosque elder.
The town officials were allowed to take the two bodies away
in a car, which Mr. Aliev said he drove through a gantlet of
checkpoints where one Russian soldier stopped him and
threatened to kill him.
``Where can we complain?'' asked Mr. Aliev, as he stood in
a makeshift morgue at the town mosque to make the final grim
accounting from the raid on the village: three bundles of
tattered clothing that belonged to unidentified men blown up
in a field on the edge of town.
Mr. WELLSTONE. Madam President, I will read 2 paragraphs:
In Leninsky, the largest of Grozny's four districts,
Chechen investigators have documented 17 cases in the last 12
months implicating Interior Ministry troops in killing
civilians during looting. One of the most notorious of the
units is known as Obron-22, the Chechens say.
In the central Leninsky district of Grozny, skeletal shards
of buildings teeter above the landscape of debris that evokes
scenes from European cities destroyed in World War II. The
rubble now lies sealed under a winter blanket of snow as
thousands of Chechen families eke out an isolated existence
in bomb-damaged homes.'
Let me summarize. The conclusions are as follows: It is the sense of
the Senate that the war on terrorism does not excuse and is ultimately
undermined by abuses by Russian security forces against civilians in
Chechnya. It also is the sense of the Senate that Russia and Chechen
leadership should seek a negotiated settlement. It is the sense of the
Senate that Russian President Putin should: 1, end human rights
violations, investigate them, and prosecute them; 2, provide secure
access to international monitors and humanitarian organizations; and 3,
ensure the registration of refugees and not force them to return
against their will.
Finally, the sense of the Senate says President Bush should: 1,
ensure no United States assistance goes to Russian units implicated in
these abuses; 2, seek specific information on the status of
investigations, or lack of investigations, of the human rights abuses;
3, promote peace negotiations; and 4, reexamine the status of Chechen
refugees in regard to possible resettlement in the United States.
The reason we introduce this resolution today is, again, this very
powerful report that came out by Human Rights Watch. I want the Russian
Government to know, and I want the people in Chechnya and in Russia to
know, that here on the floor of the Senate we are paying attention to
what is happening.
I will send this resolution to the desk, and we will take steps to
pass it, and I think there is strong support for this resolution in the
Foreign Relations Committee. Most important is the message. The message
is that we want to see an end to the terrorism, to the murder of
innocent civilians. But, quite frankly, much of what the Russian
Government is trying to excuse--all in the name of a war against
terrorism--is, unfortunately, rape, torture, and murder of innocent
people. That is not acceptable. That needs to be settled before the
Senate and we need to pass this resolution.
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