On the eve of a visit by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) organisation has accused Russian troops of large-scale rape of Chechen women.
A Russian tank commander with the rank of colonel has been arrested on charges of "humiliating" and then murdering a woman in Chechnya but HRW, in a statement issued yesterday, said that this did "not address a pattern of sexual assault by Russian forces in the Chechen conflict". HRW released details of two further alleged rapes that it has documented.
Russian authorities have repeatedly said that information from Chechen witnesses was unreliable but the arrest of the colonel marks a major change in direction. Previously all allegations were simply denied.
Mrs Robinson is due to arrive in Moscow today, where she will meet members of human rights groups and Russia's Human Rights Commissioner, Mr Oleg Mironov. Tomorrow she will fly to Nazran in Ingushetia and over the weekend will travel by military helicopter to a number of venues in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan before returning to Moscow on Sunday.
She is scheduled to visit a refugee camp at Sleptovskaya in Ingushetia, the "filtration camp" at Chernokozovo where there have been allegations of torture and ill treatment, the remains of the city of Grozny and the Dagestani district of Novolakskaya, where the inhabitants are virulently opposed to Chechen rebels.
Mrs Robinson has been the subject of fierce criticism from Russian officials for her outspoken comments on alleged human rights abuses. Earlier this month, Russia's permanent representative at the UN in Geneva, Mr Vasily Sidorov, accused Mrs Robinson of bias, saying: "Unfortunately, she has made a number of public statements which contained prejudiced reports with absolutely groundless accusations against the Russian authorities. She totally ignores reports stemming from official Russian sources."
Reuters adds:
Russia would resist any move to throw it out of the Council of Europe over Chechnya when the council meets next month to discuss its membership, Mr Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the State Duma's committee of foreign affairs, said yesterday. Meanwhile, four police commandos were killed, 18 injured and dozens were missing after a Russian convoy was ambushed by rebels in breakaway Chechnya, officials said yesterday, one day after the attack.
Col Gen Alexander Baranov, who is overseeing Moscow's military operation against separatists in the region, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that the convoy of crack OMON troops had not been properly authorised.
"The area will be fully blocked today in order to search out and destroy the bandits," he told state RTR television, adding that 30 rebels were killed by federal forces across the region. But the ORT channel, also government-controlled, later reported that the scene of the ambush near the town of Vedeno, some 40 km south-east of the Chechen capital Grozny, was still under the control of the guerrillas.
