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Item 14: specific groups and individuals statement delivered by Mr. Umar Khanbiev
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COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-first Session, 14 March – 22 April 2005
Item 14: SPECIFIC GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS
delivered by Mr. Umar Khanbiev
Mr.Chairman,
I speak on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party. After six years of conflict the situation of the Chechen people is more serious than ever, as they continue to suffer large-scale human rights violations: an alarming rise of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and a worrying pattern of disappearances estimated recently at over 3.000 cases by Human Rights Watch(1).
Acts committed against the civilian population have forced hundred of thousands to flee their homes and abandon their livelihood. Current figures put the number between 200,000 and 250,000, and it is rising daily. In Ingushetia alone, there are presently 35,000 displaced Chechens, living in tent camps or spontaneous settlements under fierce winter conditions. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has criticised Ingush authorities for forcing Chechen refugees to return to their war-ravaged areas. A UN spokesman recently stated that: "UNCHR strongly objects to the aggressive and unacceptable manner in which IDPs from the camps are treated"(2). According to the Global IDP Project, the authorities of the Russian Federation continue to deprive the victims of displacement in the northern Caucasus of adequate protection(3). Since 1999, the priority of the Federal authorities has been to contain the displacement crisis in Chechnya, by denying IDP’s access to safety elsewhere and even pressuring IDPs to leave neighbouring Ingushetia, where most had found temporary refuge. As a result, about 60 per cent of the 340,000 IDPs in the Russian Federation are located in Chechnya, despite widespread insecurity and destitution.
Mr. Chairman, the situation is gravely threatened by the absence of prospects for a political solution to the conflict and the spreading of violence in the region. The killing of the legally elected Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov, by Russian special forces in March 2005, may further aggravate the situation and worsen the condition for vulnerable groups and individuals within the region. In this relation it is important to recognise that the political line of the current Chechen leader, Abdul-Halim Sadulaev, represents a continuation of what Mashkadov was advocating - that is the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict by opening negotiations to bring an end to the war and to solve the mounting problem of refugees. Without a solution on the political level, there will be few opportunities to address and resolve the issue of refugees, IDPs, as well as the general situation of human rights violations.
Mr. Chairman, the TRP is aware of the visit of High Commissioner Arbour’s to the Russian Federation earlier this year, and welcomes the fact that she was invited by the Russian authorities to visit Northern Caucasus, including Chechnya. We also welcome Mrs. Arbour’s reiteration of her willingness to support initiatives aimed at strengthening the respect for human rights in the region and her assertion that, and I quote, “the reconstruction of such regions as Chechnya will be critical both to restoring the dignity of its peoples and also in ending the violence(4).” We call upon the Commission to take serious note of the human rights situation of the Chechen people, and appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take urgent measures commensurate with the extreme gravity of the situation.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(1) http://hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechnya0305/
(2) Statement by refugee agency's spokesman, Kris Janowski, available at: http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/
(3) The Global IDP Project, http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Russian+Fede...
(4) http://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/AE1633B6BDDC3E65C1256FA80065AEFF?OpenDocument
Sixty-first Session, 14 March – 22 April 2005
Item 14: SPECIFIC GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS
delivered by Mr. Umar Khanbiev
Mr.Chairman,
I speak on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party. After six years of conflict the situation of the Chechen people is more serious than ever, as they continue to suffer large-scale human rights violations: an alarming rise of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and a worrying pattern of disappearances estimated recently at over 3.000 cases by Human Rights Watch(1).
Acts committed against the civilian population have forced hundred of thousands to flee their homes and abandon their livelihood. Current figures put the number between 200,000 and 250,000, and it is rising daily. In Ingushetia alone, there are presently 35,000 displaced Chechens, living in tent camps or spontaneous settlements under fierce winter conditions. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has criticised Ingush authorities for forcing Chechen refugees to return to their war-ravaged areas. A UN spokesman recently stated that: "UNCHR strongly objects to the aggressive and unacceptable manner in which IDPs from the camps are treated"(2). According to the Global IDP Project, the authorities of the Russian Federation continue to deprive the victims of displacement in the northern Caucasus of adequate protection(3). Since 1999, the priority of the Federal authorities has been to contain the displacement crisis in Chechnya, by denying IDP’s access to safety elsewhere and even pressuring IDPs to leave neighbouring Ingushetia, where most had found temporary refuge. As a result, about 60 per cent of the 340,000 IDPs in the Russian Federation are located in Chechnya, despite widespread insecurity and destitution.
Mr. Chairman, the situation is gravely threatened by the absence of prospects for a political solution to the conflict and the spreading of violence in the region. The killing of the legally elected Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov, by Russian special forces in March 2005, may further aggravate the situation and worsen the condition for vulnerable groups and individuals within the region. In this relation it is important to recognise that the political line of the current Chechen leader, Abdul-Halim Sadulaev, represents a continuation of what Mashkadov was advocating - that is the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict by opening negotiations to bring an end to the war and to solve the mounting problem of refugees. Without a solution on the political level, there will be few opportunities to address and resolve the issue of refugees, IDPs, as well as the general situation of human rights violations.
Mr. Chairman, the TRP is aware of the visit of High Commissioner Arbour’s to the Russian Federation earlier this year, and welcomes the fact that she was invited by the Russian authorities to visit Northern Caucasus, including Chechnya. We also welcome Mrs. Arbour’s reiteration of her willingness to support initiatives aimed at strengthening the respect for human rights in the region and her assertion that, and I quote, “the reconstruction of such regions as Chechnya will be critical both to restoring the dignity of its peoples and also in ending the violence(4).” We call upon the Commission to take serious note of the human rights situation of the Chechen people, and appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take urgent measures commensurate with the extreme gravity of the situation.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
(1) http://hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/chechnya0305/
(2) Statement by refugee agency's spokesman, Kris Janowski, available at: http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/
(3) The Global IDP Project, http://www.db.idpproject.org/Sites/idpSurvey.nsf/wCountries/Russian+Fede...
(4) http://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/AE1633B6BDDC3E65C1256FA80065AEFF?OpenDocument
