| 23.11.200619:37 (GMT) | A human rights report published yesterday accused security forces in Chechnya of imposing a reign of terror in this Russian republic, MosNews reports, referring to the Reuters news agency.
A joint dossier compiled by Russia’s Memorial rights group and French-based FIDH said Chechen and Russian security forces acted with impunity in Chechnya, where 143 people have been abducted this year so far. Of them, 54 are still missing.
The report, 109 pages in its Russian-language version, urges Russian authorities to investigate abuses in Chechnya, battered by violence and separatist conflict for more than a decade. “The ’anti-terrorist’ operation...is in fact now a policy of terror: hostage taking, torture, kidnapping for political and financial purposes, uncontrolled violence and with impunity guaranteed,” the report said. The report said hostage taking by the security forces was widespread, torture was systematic in secret prisons and illegal detention centres, and arbitrary charges were regularly brought against innocent civilians.
Although capital punishment had been suspended in Russia, “the death penalty is a reality, carried out in practice under the name of ’liquidations’ of undesirables”, it said. The rights report calls for an end to torture and kidnapping, the closure of the ORB-2 provisional detention centre at the heart of many complaints, and for independent medical visits for people detained by security forces.
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