MAY 2005

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 5/24/2005 10:04 AM

20/5/2005
Impunity in Chechnya

Below is a 19 May 2005 release of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights.

Impunity in Chechnya IHF Report Documents Almost Total Lack of Accountability

Vienna, 19 May 2005. Despite claims by Chechen and Russian Federation officials including President Vladimir Putin, virtually no one has been brought to justice for thousands of severe human rights violations in Chechnya, a situation that perpetuates the violent conflict there, according to the report titled Impunity: A Leading Force behind Continued Massive Violations in Chechnya published today by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF).

Information from officials has been rare, devoid of salient details, and ridden with contradictions that suggest a pattern of deliberate obfuscation.

For example, an August 2004 account indicated that 84 servicemen had been convicted in military court hearings. But of these, only twenty two were sentenced to a deprivation of liberty. ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 5/24/2005 10:43 AM
Polish Humanitarian Organisation Mission in Chechnya
23 May 2005 07:23:00 GMT
Source: NGO latest
Wojciech Domachowski
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The inhabitants of Grozny are beneficiaries of the PHO Water Programme
PHO
Polish Humanitarian Organisation
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Polish Humanitarian Organisation
Website: http:/<WBR>/<WBR>www.pah.org.pl
PHO Mission in Ingushetia/Chechnya

The history of the PHO activities in Northern Caucasus

The PHO activities in Northern Caucasus started in 1995, during the first Chechen War. PHO organized an aid convoy from Poland and brought around 150 tons of medicines, medical equipment, first aid materials, baby food, household equipment, clothes, hygienic articles, food for the vunerable groups of inhabitants of Chechnya.

In 2000 PHO conducted another 3 aid convoys. This time not only medical facilities in Chechnya were targeted(Grozny, Alhan-Yurt; Argun, Achhoy-Martan, Gudermes, Katyr-Yurt, Nozhay-Yurt), but also in other Caucasus republics: Priterechnaya (Republic of North Ossetia-Alania), Nazran (Ingushetia)

The destination of the PHO convoys were also the IDP camps in Plievo, Karabulak, Sleptsovskaya, Mayskiy, Nazran and ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 5/25/2005 10:55 AM

23/5/2005
Refugees for 14 years

For more than 14 years 10,000 refugees have lived in North Ossetia's Prigorodnyi district in conditions actually unfit for habitation. They are chiefly former Georgian citizens, ethnic Ossetians, district administration head Pavel Tedeyev told Regnum news agency.

He said local potential is limited in this respect. Budgetary spending provided for this year is 327.4 million roubles, with local earnings at just 54.4 million roubles. Such funding prevents from solving problems of forced migrants and other citizens, in Tedeyev's view. There is a need for effective assistance from the republican and federal government.

"Private investors do not want to put up in the area. Businesspeople are afraid to create new jobs because of proximity to the restless administrative border with Ingushetia, the district administration head emphasised.

The large number of refugees from South Ossetia in the Prigorodnyi district is also a factor that ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 5/25/2005 11:04 AM
Amnesty accuses US over 'torture'
 
Governments around the world betrayed their commitment to human rights in 2004, Amnesty International says.

In a 300-page annual report, the group accused the US government of damaging human rights with its attitude to torture and treatment of detainees.

This granted "a licence to others to commit abuse with impunity", the human rights advocates said.

The report also criticised the world as a whole for failing to act over crises, notably in Sudan's Darfur region.

Afghanistan was slipping into a "downward spiral of lawlessness and instability", it added.

'No safer'

The report, published on Wednesday, accused governments of adhering stubbornly to "politically convenient" but inefficient tactics to address terrorism in 2004, despite a lack of success.

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The televised beheading of captives in Iraq, the bombing of commuter trains in ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 5/25/2005 11:14 AM
Human rights violations 'unchecked' in Chechnya
London
26may05

RUSSIAN and Chechen forces were committing serious human rights abuses in Chechnya with virtual impunity, Amnesty International said in its annual report.

Chechen armed opposition groups were also responsible for abuses, including bomb attacks and the Beslan hostage-taking in September in which more than 300 people were killed, the influential London-based rights group said yesterday.

There were serious human rights issues in Russia as a whole, Amnesty warned.

"Torture and ill-treatment in places of detention continued to be reported throughout the Russian Federation," it said.

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"Attacks, some of them fatal, on members of ethnic and national minorities and on foreign nationals were reported in many regions but convictions for racist attacks were rare."

The main focus in the Russia chapter ...
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