Rights Group Asks U.N. for Chechnya Probe

Alarmed by its findings that civilians have been summarily executed by Russian forces in Chechnya, Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to begin an urgent investigation of human rights violations in the war zone.

Condemning what it called “atrocities” committed against civilians in the separatist republic, the New York-based rights group said an immediate U.N. inquiry could save the lives of innocent people and preserve evidence for use in possible war crimes trials of Russian soldiers.

“The United Nations has a duty at a minimum to send a clear message to the Russian government and armed forces that they are bound to comply with international humanitarian law and that the United Nations will respond with more than rhetorical condemnation of those who violate these obligations,” the group said in a letter to the United Nations.

The request for a U.N. investigation in Chechnya could easily be blocked by Russia with its Security Council veto, but Human Rights Watch urged Moscow to abstain so as not to undermine the U.N.’s ability to respond to serious human rights violations around the globe.

“Our findings confirm that the conduct of Russia’s military campaign in Chechnya continues to take a terrible toll on civilians,” the group said. “Russian forces have bombed and shelled dozens of towns and villages still inhabited by civilians, actions that have killed and maimed untold numbers of people and shown contempt for international humanitarian law.”

The appeal to the U.N. came as Russian troops were reportedly preparing an assault to capture Grozny, the devastated Chechen capital, where thousands of civilians are living in basements to avoid daily bombings by Russian forces.

Russia, which had warned civilians to leave Grozny by Dec. 11 or die as terrorists, has followed through on its threat by bombing and shelling the city repeatedly in apparent preparation for a special-forces operation to take the capital in the next few days.

Grozny Mayor Lecha Dudayev said Wednesday’s artillery attack on the city was the heaviest in the past 10 days and caused serious damage. “The city has been virtually ripped by bombs,” he told Russia’s Interfax news service. Fighting between rebels and Russian troops occurs daily in the city, he said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin told reporters in Moscow that the campaign to take control of Chechnya is nearing an end, but he declined to predict how soon Russian forces will be able to declare victory.

“We will set no deadlines, no time limits,” he said. “We will proceed from military and political expediency, thinking, in the first place, about preserving the lives of our soldiers and peaceful civilians.”

Human Rights Watch, which is closely monitoring the war in Chechnya, said it has gathered detailed information from refugees of an alleged massacre that occurred in early December after Russian troops seized the village of Alkhan-Yurt.

Based on reports from numerous refugees who have fled the area, the rights group said at least 17 civilians were killed in Alkhan-Yurt, some while trying to stop Russian soldiers from looting their homes.

The BBC reported earlier in the week that more than 40 civilians may have been killed in Alkhan-Yurt, a onetime rebel stronghold strategically located on a key road to Grozny. The BBC reported that the town had been reduced to rubble and that Russian troops could be seen hauling away looted goods in their military vehicles.

Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said the worst abuses were apparently committed by Russian mercenaries known as kontraktniki, who receive as much as $1,000 a month to fight in Chechnya--a large amount by Russian standards.

“We have gathered many more independent refugee accounts,” he said. “People give consistent testimonies about who was killed and how. The body of evidence is growing.”

Col. Gen. Leonid G. Ivashov, head of the Defense Ministry’s international cooperation department, said Russia has no confirmation of the alleged atrocities in Alkhan-Yurt but will conduct a “thorough check” beginning later this week.

In Washington, the rights group Amnesty International released a report charging that refugees fleeing Chechnya into the neighboring republic of Ingushetia are screened by Russian forces and that some are sent to a secret “filtration camp,” where some detainees are subject to beatings.

The report, which also is based on interviews with refugees, said the camp is located near the Russian military headquarters in Mozdok, just outside Chechnya.

“Eyewitnesses report that civilians have been detained because they share a family name with alleged Chechen fighters or because blisters on their hands were considered evidence that they had dug trenches as Chechen fighters,” the rights group said.

Russian military officials declined to discuss the report.