RECOMMENDATIOIN TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE NONVIOLENT RADICAL PARTY, TRANSNATIONAL AND TRANSPARTY

Barcelona, September 5, 2010

Considering that,
The General Council of the Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty, meeting today in Barcelona, has received the following information about the abduction of around 100 civilians in Chechnya, in Russia's North Caucasus. Reports are sketchy and difficult to confirm, due to the reality created in the Chechnya under Moscow's appointee, Ramzan Kadyrov and that past practices of Chechen authorities do lend credence to the veracity of the reports;
According to the information received, large detachments of Kadyrov's troops encircled several villages in Chechnya's Vedeno, Kurchaloy, and Nozhay-Yurt districts in the early hours of the morning of 4 September 2010. The armed men barged into people's homes, beat up everyone, and took more than a hundred people hostage, the reports said. The hostages are apparently parents and sisters of armed militants fighting against Kadyrov's forces and Russia's federal troops in the region;
Reports received at noon said Kadyrov's forces took the hostages to the surrounding forests to be used as live shields against the armed rebels. Kadyrov's forces then announced by walkie-talkie that all of the hostages would be executed on the spot if the rebels did not surrender, the reports claimed. The raid and kidnappings, if confirmed, seem to be a response to a rebel attack on 29 August 2010 on Kadyrov's native village of Tsentoroi, which is heavily guarded by Kadyrov's forces.

The abduction of civilians for military purposes represents a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of human rights in the
territory of the Russian Federation;
For this reasons
The General Council calls on the European Commission, the US government, and EU governments to express their concern to the Russian Federation about the fate of the abducted civilians.
The General Council expresses its deep concern about reports of televised threats made by Ramzan Kadyrov against relatives of suspected rebels as well as Kadyrov's offer of a reward of 10 million rubles for information about those who commanded the attack on Tsentoroi.

The General Council urges the President of the Russian Federation to intervene immediately for the Chechen authorities to guarantee the life and freedom of innocent civilians.