From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 6/8/2005 4:24 AM

Secret Police Directive Assailed

Wednesday, June 8, 2005
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer

An independent investigation into a police crackdown in Blagoveshchensk late last year has brought to light a secret Interior Ministry document that allows police to place suspects in "filtration stations" and expands their authority to use firearms in violation of the law, human rights activists said.

More worryingly, the document appears to represent the tip of an iceberg of illegal regulations and instructions that law enforcement agencies have drawn up to prevent street protests, the activists said.

"This is a part of meticulous planning to squash any public protest, and the degree of brutality against citizens is left up to the discretion of police officers themselves," said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group.

"Under this instruction, a pensioners' protest would free the police's hands to act in the same way as they would in a hostage-freeing operation," Alexeyeva said. "I'm not sure that this instruction prevents a policeman from shooting a pensioner if he or she lifts a hand against the police."

The document -- titled "Instructions for the Planning and Preparation of Actions for Law Enforcement Agencies and Interior Troops in Emergency Situations" -- surfaced during the investigation into the actions of Blagoveshchensk police in December, when hundreds of people were detained at random on streets, in cafes and in their homes. More than 100 said they had been beaten and abused by police officers during the four-day raid, which local authorities have defended as an urgent measure to restore order.

The 36-page document is a part of a secret September 2002 Interior Ministry directive, No. 870, and a copy of it was included in the file of a criminal case opened into the actions of the Bashkortostan police after lobbying by human rights organizations. The directive was issued when State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov was the interior minister.

A copy of the document from the criminal case file was obtained by The Moscow Times from Duma legal adviser and human rights activist Lev Levinson, who refused to say how he obtained it. The pages have official stamps, but it was impossible to discern from the copy which agency had made them.

The Interior Ministry asked that questions about the document be faxed to its press service late last week. No reply was made by Tuesday.

The document describes procedures and actions to be taken by Interior Ministry officials during "emergency situations," "states of emergency" and "emergency circumstances." The term "emergency circumstances" -- which has never been used in any law or other legal document on public record -- is vaguely described as any event "substantially affecting the activities of citizens, society and the state and demanding special measures" to protect citizens' lives and rights, property and "the normal functioning of different life-supporting facilities."

Levinson said he was particularly worried about the interpretation of the phrase "special measures."

"Nowhere in Russian law can one find the meaning of 'special measures.' Anything could be hidden behind these words," he said. "Usually, it is a bureaucratic term for the officials' actions in a legal twilight zone."

The document allows police to "liquidate bandits at the place where they gather" but does say how police should determine who are "bandits." Also, the document appears to contradict the law on police, which describes in detail the circumstances under which police officers are allowed to use firearms. "Liquidating bandits at the place where they gather" is not listed them.

The document could be used to justify the mobilization of police against the public during street protests, catastrophes and natural cataclysms, said Alexeyeva, noting that it leaves unclear what the prerequisites are for an "emergency circumstance" and who has the right to declare that one is taking place.

"This is the most dangerous thing," she said. "For example, can police declare an emergency circumstance if they face an angry crowd that shouts at officers without touching them?"

The document details procedures for police during hostage-takings, the hijackings of ships and trains, and operations to break up gangs and illegal armed formations. In all those situations, it instructs police to create "filtration stations" for the temporary detention of citizens.

"For several years, authorities have told us that no filtration points exist, and now we have caught them by the tail," Alexeyeva said.

Existing laws that regulate the detention of people make no mention of filtration stations, meaning that the document allows police to create their own detention system outside the limits of the law and without oversight by prosecutors and the public, Levinson said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Valery Gribakin sidestepped a question about the definition of "special circumstances" at a news conference on May 27 and said the document did not mention filtration stations. When confronted with a copy of the document, he said he had read it "badly," Gazeta.ru reported.

The document orders police to regularly conduct exercises that should be "maximally approximated to real-life situations," and both Alexeyeva and Levinson said the police raid in Blagoveshchensk appeared to be such an exercise.

"Otherwise, it is impossible to understand what pushed police to detain and abuse over 1,000 people, especially given the ridiculous explanations offered by the Bashkortostan police," Levinson said.

Officials say the Dec. 10-14 raid started two days after about 50 residents attacked three police officers who were trying to detain several people on minor offenses.

Officials resisted investigating the raid for months, and only relented in the face of a swelling outcry from human rights groups and Blagoveshchensk residents.

Alexeyeva and Levinson said the Interior Ministry document appeared to be just one of many secretive ministry edicts that trample citizens' rights.

"There should be more. For example, there must be a document detailing procedures for filtration stations and the exercises," Alexeyeva said.

Several human rights organizations sent a letter to the Prosecutor General's Office late last month demanding an investigation into the document and other secret internal ministry documents that may be illegal. "And we are demanding that all secret instructions be revoked. They deal with us, not only with policemen," Alexeyeva said.

She said that if the Prosecutor General's Office did not reply within the 30 days allotted by law, then she in her role as a member of the presidential Council for Civil Society would bring the issue before President Vladimir Putin.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/06/08/001.html