Since October 1999, Chechnya has seen intense conflict between residents and occupying Russian forces.

Grievous abuses of human rights have been reported, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and arbitrary arrests. However, Russia has been lax in its investigation of these reports, and the international community has turned a blind eye to incidents in the region.

Various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have accused Russia of using overwhelming and indiscriminate force to subdue secessionist elements in Chechnya. The most recent conflict began in late 1999, following the defeat of an uprising in the neighboring republic of Dagestan, which came before a series of bombings in Moscow and other regions of Russia that caused 300 deaths. After an aerial bombardment campaign by Russian forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling the current Chechen parliament and president “illegitimate,” ordered his forces into Chechnya, where they now control the northern third of the republic. The objective was supposedly to subdue terrorist elements, although various critics have claimed that the campaign’s true goal was the creation of a puppet government under Russian control.

Russian troops have made large-scale security sweeps, or zachistkas, in subduing terrorist elements. In one July 2001 raid in the village of Sernovodsk, over 700 civilians were detained during a sweep aiming to find rebel forces that might have been hiding in the village. Some civilians were reportedly blindfolded and told to lie in a field; others were crammed in a basement. Primitive hand-cranked electric generators were used to shock the hands and genitals of some detainees—a clear violation of international human-rights treaties. About 50 men were then reportedly taken to a “filtration camp” for interrogation. On June 5, 2001, Russia’s human-rights commissioner in Chechnya confirmed that over 540 Chechens had disappeared during the conflict and admitted that there may be more unreported cases. There have also been other reports of extra-judicial executions during such sweeps.

Lending further credence to reports of extra-judicial executions, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reported on a mass grave in the village of Dachny, less than one kilometer from a Russian military base. At that site, 51 bodies were found, the majority with visible gunshot wounds or signs of torture such as broken bones and mutilated extremities. The official Russian and Chechen spokesmen have implicated each other in the slaughter. HRW and the Russian Memorial Human Rights Center have both criticized Russia’s failure to conduct a “thorough and credible investigation of the mass burial site,” citing the lack of proper autopsies or examination of victims. The groups feel that Russian efforts do not comply with 1989 UN standards of effective prevention and investigation of extralegal, arbitrary, and summary executions.

Russia’s bombing has had an awful effect on civilians and has led to a mass exodus of refugees from Chechnya. Over 75,000 houses and 74,000 apartments are estimated to have been destroyed; the destruction also includes such public centers as hospitals, religious centers, and mosques. Fragmentation bombs have reportedly been used on civilians in the Argunsk Gorge region, and over 170,000 refugees are estimated to be in camps in nearby Ingushetia, where there is also an unknown number of internally displaced persons.

The situation has further deteriorated because of the virtual blackout of information from non-Russian sources; human-rights violations can now occur with minimal attention from media or monitoring organizations. Media coverage has also faced heightened restrictions from the Russian government. In one case, Radio Free Europe reporter Andrei Babitsky, a vocal critic of human-rights abuses during the early stages of the conflict, was detained for several months by Russian forces and only later released as part of a prisoner trade.

Looking back, although the immediate origins of the current conflict can be traced to the Dagestan revolt, Chechnya has been the focus of a long-standing rivalry between Moscow and local inhabitants. The Chechens are an ethnically distinct, traditionally clan-based group with a long history of resisting Russian expansion in the northern Caucasus. The late 1980s saw a surge in the number of secessionist protests in the republic against Soviet rule. Following the attempted 1991 coup in Moscow, Chechnya declared its independence. Russian troops briefly entered the region following the declaration and restored peace; however, war erupted again in December 1995, resulting in over 80,000 casualties before the August 1996 peace settlement. Following Russia’s defeat, Chechen self-determination was left on the political sidelines until 2001. By then, although hampered by a weak economy and the lack of formal recognition from any other foreign government, Chechnya had already established its own government and military.

Following September 11, Putin has tried to compare the international war against terrorism with his government’s efforts in Chechnya. But the international community should not be swayed by such arguments, and the human-rights abuses that have been reported in Chechnya should be further investigated. While the Chechen fighters are by no means innocent of human-rights violations themselves and should similarly be held accountable for their own actions, the Russian response of collective and disproportionate violence violates numerous international standards. Although international coalition-building is needed at present, this need for unity should not create a moral laxity that, while addressing human-rights violations in certain areas of the world, ignores others.

Russia’s transitional status as a democratic power, as well as its standing in the international campaign against terror, has great significance. If Russia desires to become a leader in the world community, it must resolve its domestic issues in a manner appropriate to its status. Allowing atrocities to continue is unacceptable. Furthermore, as part of the international coalition against terrorism, Russia has an obligation to defend the human rights of the Chechens.

The international community should also not stand idly by while human-rights violations continue to occur. The UN Commission on Human Rights, in resolution 2001/24, has called for a “broad-based and independent commission of inquiry” to investigate alleged violations and has also urged the involvement of international organizations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the area. HRW has also recently sent letters encouraging further scrutiny of events in Chechnya to the European Union and United States, both of which are in positions of influence in the Chechen arena. This era of international coalition-building and cooperation in the name of justice would do itself a disservice if the hypocrisy of selective attention is continued.