From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 7/27/2006 2:02 PM
Russia condemned in Chechen case
 
From correspondents in Strasbourg

28-07-2006

IN a landmark ruling today, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia guilty of violating the "right to life" of a young Chechen who disappeared after a Russian general ordered him shot.
Khadzimurat Yandiyev was last seen in the hands of Russian troops in February 2000. Television footage showed a general ordering the 25-year-old to be taken away and "rubbed out".

His body has never been found but lawyers for his mother Fatima Bazorkina said the general's words made his fate clear.

The court ruled Russia had violated a ban on arbitrary detention and failed to properly investigate his disappearance.

"This is a landmark judgment with major importance for the hundreds of other Chechen disappearance cases still pending before the Court," said Ole Solvang, executive director of Russian Justice Initiative, in a statement released in Moscow.

The independent rights group, which gives legal advice to Chechens and others, initiated the case in Strasbourg.

It quoted Mrs Bazorkina as saying: "I now hope that the Russian authorities will make a serious effort to establish the truth about my son's fate and bring to justice those responsible."

The court ruled she had suffered inhumane treatment because of the uncertainty surrounding her son's fate and ordered Moscow to pay her $58,000 in compensation.

Mrs Bazorkina said she last saw her son on television in footage broadcast on CNN. Bearded and injured, the young man was arguing with a Russian general after soldiers demanded his documents.

"Get him the heck out of here," CNN had the general shouting, though the Russian words audible behind the English translation showed he used far cruder language.

"Rub him out, kill him, damn it. That's your entire order. Get him over there. Rub him out. Shoot him," he said in Russian.

Lawyers for Russia said the comments did not constitute a real order and reflected "an emotional reaction by an officer".

Mrs Bazorkina searched in vain for her son in the detention centres where Russian troops kept suspected fighters. After seeing the video of her son she appealed to prosecutors, who opened a criminal case only to close it citing lack of evidence.

Russian rights groups estimate there have been 3000-5000 disappearances in Chechnya since Russian troops moved to crush the breakaway region's self-declared independence in 1999.

They say Russian troops have used abduction, rape and torture as weapons and the government has done too little to punish those responsible.

Halya Gowan, deputy director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Program, called on Russia to address the wider problem raised by the court's findings.

"Today's decision shows that there can be no impunity. It is up to the Russian authorities now to fulfil their international obligations, to identify and bring the perpetrators to justice and to take concrete steps to ensure such violations cannot happen again," she said in a statement.

Russian officials said they take the problem seriously but General Alexander Baranov, the man who appeared to be ordering Yandiyev's execution, has not been prosecuted and now commands all troops in southern Russia.

The judgment becomes final after three months, or earlier if the parties say they have no intention of asking for the case to be referred to the superior Grand Chamber.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19938722-23109,00.html