Moscow pledge on Chechen human rights

A Russian soldier accepts the surrender of a Chechen fighter

ZNAMENSKOYE, Russia (Reuters) -- Russia's top human rights envoy for Chechnya has pledged that Moscow will prosecute more troops charged with committing abuses in the breakaway republic.

Vladimir Kalamanov said on Monday that Russia vowed to narrow the gap between the high numbers of complaints registered and the small number of cases that made it to the court system.

He was speaking during a visit by a parliamentary delegation of the Council of Europe.

British peer Lord Judd, who heads a delegation from the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, said during a meeting with judges in Chechnya, that of around 500 complaints filed only 10 have reached court.

The assembly stung Russia last year by suspending its voting rights because of alleged widespread abuses in Chechnya during its campaign against separatist rebels.

The assembly is to review that decision later this month. Russia strongly denied the allegations.

Kalamanov told Judd the disparity between complaints and court cases had been caused by a breakdown in the judicial system linked to the 16-month conflict: "Now a system has been created, so the gap will get smaller and smaller."

Except for France, Western states offered only muted criticism of Moscow during the Chechen conflict. European leaders rebuffed an appeal by Council of Europe parliamentarians to kick Russia out of the European rights and democracy body.

Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), whose North Caucasus mission chief Kenny Gluck was kidnapped south of the capital Grozny on Tuesday, last November accused Moscow of conducting a "policy of terror" in Chechnya.

Russian troops continued their hunt for the 38-year-old American, whose abduction was condemned by Judd.

It has also left MSF "traumatised," according to a senior official in the Nobel prize-winning aid group.

Marcel van Soest, operations director of MSF Netherlands, renewed its criticisms, saying MSF had returned to Chechnya despite security fears because of concern about conditions.

Russia was failing to provide enough medical supplies to the people who have returned to Chechnya to rebuild homes destroyed in the conflict, he said.

Some 90,000 people have returned home while another 150,000 remain in the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia, either with relatives and friends or crammed into unsanitary tented villages and railway wagons.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Chechen kidnapping prompts aid pullout
January 11, 2001
Aid worker kidnapped in Chechnya
January 10, 2001
Chechen tunnel bomb discovered
January 4, 2001
Chechnya talks raise peace options
December 24, 2000

Russian Government
Medecins Sans Frontieres
Chechen Republic Online
Human Rights Internet

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.