[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 79 (Friday, June 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1047-E1048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         U.S.-RUSSIA RELATIONS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 13, 2002

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, President Bush has returned 
from a successful summit in Moscow. As the Cold War recedes more and 
more into memory, our relations with Russia continue to improve, as 
they should. Russia has made a significant contribution to the struggle 
against terrorism since the attacks on the United States last 
September. While there remain serious differences in the area of human 
rights, foreign policy, and economics, we should welcome President 
Putin's ``turn to the West'' and encourage Russia to further integrate 
into an international community of mutual security, free trade, and 
democratic structures.
  Nevertheless, over this summit banquet of warm words about the ``new 
strategic relationship'' looms a ``Banquo's Ghost'' of tragic and 
monumental proportions.
  I refer to the war in Chechnya--the subject of a recent hearing of 
the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which I co-
chair--which continues to wreak havoc and death on combatants and non-
combatants alike. The brutality of the so-called ``anti-terrorist 
operation'' of the Russian military has been amply documented by 
reputable Russian and international organizations. Bloody military 
``sweeps'' of civilian areas, bestial ``filtration camps'' and 
``holding pits'' have become hallmarks of what passes for Moscow's 
military strategy.
  One month ago, the Helsinki Commission heard chilling testimony from 
Ms. Aset Chadaeva, a nurse from Chechnya who resided in a community 
near Grozny, Chechnya's capital. Ms. Chadaeva described an event in 
February 2000, when the Russian military carried out one of its most 
notorious ``anti-terrorists'' operations:

       Young Chechen men living in Chechnya today have two 
     choices: to wage war or to wait for Russian soldiers to 
     arrest or kill them. All three of my brothers were illegally 
     detained by Russian servicemen. One of my brothers--
     officially classified as disabled because of his poor 
     eyesight--was severely beaten by Russian soldiers in my 
     presence. When I asked the soldiers why they were arresting 
     him, they told me: ``He's a Chechen! That's reason enough!'' 
     I treated women who had been raped by Russian soldiers, and 
     I've also seen the bodies of women who had been killed after 
     being raped. During both wars, I buried many dead. Bodies 
     were left lying in the streets. I, my brothers, and my 
     neighbors collected them so they wouldn't be eaten by dogs.

  In February 2001, the remains of over fifty persons were found in a 
mass grave in a village located less than a mile from the Russian 
military headquarters in Chechnya. Russian authorities attribute their 
deaths to Chechen partisans.
  In 2000 and 2001, the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva 
condemned the widespread violence against civilians and alleged 
violations of human rights and humanitarian law'' by Russian forces. I 
would note that even Chechen officials who have sided with Moscow in 
the conflict with the secessionist movement have criticized the reign 
of terror created by the Russian military in Chechnya. Unfortunately, 
efforts to have a resolution passed this year at the Human

[[Page E1048]]

Rights Commission failed with allies and friends casting the swing 
votes either in opposition to the resolution offered by the European 
Union or abstaining. The United States does not currently have a seat 
on the Commission and thus was not voting.
  A Human Rights Watch report of February 2002 entitled ``Swept Under: 
Torture, Forced Disappearances, and Extrajudicial Killings During Sweep 
Operations in Chechnya'' describes the ``sweeps'' conducted by the 
Russian military in the summer of 2001:

       Troops rounded up several thousand Chechens, mostly without 
     any form of due process, and took them to temporary military 
     bases in or near the villages. According to eyewitnesses, 
     soldiers extrajudicially executed at least eleven detainees, 
     and at least two detainees ``disappeared'' in detention. . . 
     . Twelve former detainees [gave] detailed testimony of 
     torture and ill-treatment, including electric shocks, severe 
     beatings, and being forced to remain in ``stress position.'' 
     Eyewitnesses also gave testimony about widespread extortion, 
     looting, and destruction of civilian property.

  Eventually, Russia's top military officer admitted that the troops 
had committed ``widespread crimes.'' International revulsion against 
the conduct of these ``sweeps'' was so great that in March of this 
year, the Russian military introduced ``Order No. 80,'' according to 
which ``sweeps'' are to be conducted ``only in the presence of 
procurators but also of the local authorities and the organs of 
internal affairs,'' and local authorities are to be provided with a 
list of detainees. However, reports by human rights groups indicate 
that even these minimal requirements are not being observed on the 
ground. In a rare admission, the military commander in Chechnya has 
acknowledged that innocent people have disappeared during the 
``sweeps.''
  In October 2000, Human Rights Watch issued ``Welcome to Hell,'' a 
vivid and horrifying description of arbitrary detention, torture and 
extortion in Chechnya. As described in the report, groups of Chechen 
non-combatants, usually men of military age, are detained on suspicion 
of participation or collaboration with Chechen guerrillas, and 
subjected to brutal and humiliating interrogations. This is the 
description of the procedure followed at the infamous Chernokozovo 
prison:

       Detainees at Chernokozovo were beaten both during 
     interrogation and during nighttime sessions when guards 
     utterly ran amok. During interrogation, detainees were forced 
     to crawl on the ground and were beaten so severely that some 
     sustained broken ribs and injuries to their kidneys, liver, 
     testicles, and feet. Some were also tortured with electric 
     shocks.

  In many cases, a detainee was released only after relatives or a 
loved one paid a bribe to his captors. In other cases, the detainee 
simply disappeared. Chechnya is filled today with desperate souls 
seeking word of their missing loved ones who are presumed dead.
  Even if the Russian Government manages to create a graveyard in 
Chechnya and call it peace, it will be a Pyrrhic victory, sowing the 
seeds of social disintegration in Russia. The prominent Russian 
joumalist and military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer has written, ``The 
complete impunity of the military leaders is leading to the moral decay 
of their subordinates.'' He concludes that ``the war in Chechnya is 
serving to destroy both the armed forces and the [Russian] state.''
  Mr. Speaker, these comments should not be seen as an endorsement of 
Chechen separatism, and we must frankly admit that some Chechen 
partisans have been linked with international terrorist organizations 
who see Chechnya as a staging ground for ``jihad'' against Moscow. I am 
fully aware of the depredations visited upon the people of the North 
Caucasus by marauding kidnappers, highjackers and terrorists. According 
to press reports, some Chechen guerrillas have executed ``traitors'' 
who work for the pro-Moscow administration in Chechnya.
  But this does not absolve the Government of Russia from having to 
live up to basic standards of conduct such as the Geneva Conventions 
and the Code of Conduct of the Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe. ``Anti-terrorist operations'' and ``territorial 
integrity'' are not synonymous with waging total and barbaric war 
against one's own citizens.
  How many more bodies will show up in mass graves? How many young 
Russian soldiers' bodies will be sent homes to grieving parents in 
Russia? How many more displaced persons will spend another winter in 
tents?
  The Administration has called upon Chechnya's leadership to 
``immediately and unconditionally cut all contacts with international 
terrorist groups, while calling for ``accountability for [human rights] 
violations on all sides,'' and a political solution to the conflict. I 
urge the Administration to continue to use every appropriate 
opportunity to condemn human rights violations in Chechnya, and impress 
upon Moscow the need for a just political solution. I trust that the 
return of the United States to the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva 
will afford one more such opportunity.
  The last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, once called 
Afghanistan a ``bleeding wound.'' Chechnya is now the ``bleeding 
wound'' for the Russian Federation. I say this as someone who wishes 
Russia and the people of Russia to prosper. The time for a cease-fire 
and serious negoitiations is at hand.

                          ____________________