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Chechnya Country Report

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Chechnya Country Report The views and opinions stated in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizers of the workshop. This paper is not, and does not purport to be, fully exhaustive with regard to conditions in the country surveyed, or conclusive as to the merits of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Russian Federation - Chechnya Country Report Table of Contents 1. Historical and political background 2. Ethnicity and languages 3. Infrastructure 4. The military 5. The human rights situation Detentions and disappearances Kidnapping and trade of people Clear-up operations and torture Religious persecution Collaboration 6. The humanitarian situation 7. Chechens in Russia 8. Documents Passports The ‘propiska’ 9. Annex: Remarks on the UNHCR guidelines on asylum seekers from Chechnya 10. Bibliography of recent publications UNHCR/ACCORD: 6th European Country of Origin Information Seminar 21 Vienna 13 - 14 November 2000 - Final report Country Report - Russian Federation - Chechnya Presentation by Ms Elisa Mussayeva Facultative session - 12 November 2000 1. Historical and political background Russia has for a long time conducted a colonial policy towards the Caucasus region, engaging in a 20 years war in the 19th century. Unofficially the war lasted much longer than 25 years and resulted in high numbers of casualties among the Caucasians, with ordinary civilians suffering most. In 1944 Stalin drove away the entire population of Chechnya and Ingushetia to Kazakhstan. People had to leave within two hours and were transported on cattle trains. Those who could not be driven out were simply killed. Later on the Chechens could return to their country, yet they were rehabilitated but not forgiven. While the whole region can be compared to a sleeping volcano, Ingushetia remained one of the main trouble spots. After the events of August 1991, Boris Yeltsin promised the Chechen people as much sovereignty as they would like to have. As people exploited this opportunity, Chechnya became a rebel republic. During the first war between Russia and Chechnya there was no information blockade. The second Chechen war came very unexpected for the civilian population who were still very exhausted from the first armed conflict. Figures with regard to the Chechen population vary to a considerable degree. Official Russian statistics says that before the second war 570,000 persons lived in Chechnya. The Russian government claimed that after the second conflict the inhabitants of Chechnya numbered only 350,000 the majority of whom fled the country, so that from Russia’s point of view only the rebels were left in Chechnya. Prime Minister Putin asserted that about 455,000 Chechens were living in Russia. 55,000 people are said to have died during the first war, yet since there are no statistics about the victims of this war, this figure has to be treated with caution. The second war began in September 1999 when the official ‘anti-terror operation’ was launched. However, the strikes were not only aimed at terrorists; rather, the federal authorities were very unselective in their actions right from the beginning. This fact could primarily be seen in the very cynical bombings of the humanitarian corridors in October, resulting in the killing of women and children. These bombings reflected the very specific attitude of the army that there was no civilian population left in Chechnya and that – as has been argued by General Shamonov – the wife of a rebel must be a bandit, otherwise she would not have stayed in the country with him. Chechen women are therefore accused of not leaving their husbands. Shamanov has said: „If they do not understand our morals, they must be liquidated. If a patient has got a problem, he must be amputated.“ General Shamanov now is a candidate for the government elections in Ulyanovsk. In January 2000 General Victor Kazantsev, the commander of the federal troops, gave the order that men between 18 and 60 years of age may not leave Grozny anymore. Informally this order is still in force. In Komsomolsk the entire population was locked and held hostage between the fighting forces for four days in March 2000. Women and children had to sit on the barren earth day and night. One old man died and two pregnant women lost their children as they were not allowed to go to hospital. They were told: „This way you would give birth to a bandit.“ In this situation the women were given the opportunity to leave, if they had agreed to abandon the men aged 18–60. No differentiation was being made between UNHCR/ACCORD: 6th European Country of Origin Information Seminar 22 Vienna 13 - 14 November 2000 - Final report Country Report - Russian Federation - Chechnya bandits and refugees, otherwise the authorities would not have committed the mass killings in February 2000 when 40 people were killed in Noviye Aldi. In Grozny the military also turned on the civilian population without making any difference between Chechens, Ingushetians or Russians. On 6 October the family Tartajev got on their way from Ingushetia to Grozny to check their house. The family locked their house and got into their car. At the same time there was a very big military vehicle nearby which then hit the car of the family. The following people were in the car: the wife of Mr. Tartajev, the 29 year old pregnant daughter and the granddaughter who was only 2 years old. They all died under this military vehicle. The people who saw this incident blocked the vehicle and tried to call the commander. The commander gave some sort of information and took something out of the vehicle. At the same time the helicopters flying over the area opened fire on the people. Just before the curfew they removed the vehicle. On the next day they gave Mr. Tartajev the following things: some flour, sugar, a little meat and rice, representing in their eyes the worth of the victims in this case, which numbered four if one includes the unborn child. One very important fact should be considered: Chechnya is tired of the war, not having had the possibility to recover from the first war and the bandit acts between the wars. If the authorities after the wars had behaved correctly, maybe the population would have accepted them as the majority of the people want law and order. However, Russia does not give them any alternative. At the present moment the war in Chechnya is in the police stage as far as the federal authorities are concerned and in the partisan stage as far as the Chechens are concerned. There is a mine war. The Russian troops provoke the population and force them to become partisans. The young men do not have any other alternative than becoming partisans. The events in the filtration camps have become well-known now and in order not to end up there, they join the partisans. One mother of a rebel, who was illegally held, said the following: „If my son comes back unharmed, I will give him a machine gun and will send him off to fight. If my son does not come back, I will buy a machine gun for my two other sons and will send them off to fight.“ As regards the level of fighting in Chechnya, guerrilla war is waging throughout the country. The places with most intensive combat action are to be found in the mountainous areas, being hard to reach for the federal army. In this terrain the rebels can be more efficient as they feel more comfortable there. 2. Ethnicity and languages Discussing the question of Russian enclaves in Chechnya, it has to be said that the Russian language areas were originally those near Stavropol at the borders to Ingushetia. In these border areas a lot of Cossacks used to live who belonged to the Russian speaking population. Moreover, a lot of Russians lived in Grozny itself, a large part of whom, however, had to emigrate as a consequence of the conflict starting in 1991. When during the first war the Chechens left their villages, only the Russian speaking population was left, thus being exposed to the strikes. Also during the second war many Russians were still in Grozny. These people were helpless and vulnerable, being mainly elderly persons who did not want to move, but had decided to stay there for the rest of their days. They therefore came under fire and had to hold out in the basements. The number of Russian speaking people has consequently dropped, with emigration having increased in between the wars and in some areas reaching a mass scale. However, the area described above is still the one with the largest Russian speaking population in comparison with the rest of Chechnya. UNHCR/ACCORD: 6th European Country of Origin Information Seminar 23 Vienna 13 - 14 November 2000 - Final report Country Report - Russian Federation - Chechnya The Chechens at least enjoy more social protection than the Russians as they are more safeguarded by their relatives by kinship. The Russians in Grozny are mostly old, single persons who lack the support of a family. Both Chechens and non-Chechen national minorities receive humanitarian assistance without any discrimination, if such aid is available. As I have already mentioned, non- Chechens were less protected in between the wars when banditry was wide spread in Chechnya, with people disappearing or being kidnapped by the bandits since the Chechens felt the support of people of their kinship. At present Chechens and national minorities living in Chechnya enjoy equal treatment. As for the question of how to determine the Chechen origin of a person, I would like to point out that a number of assimilated Chechens live on the territory of Russia.
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