OSCE Group Reports Bilateral Rights Abuses

Both sides in the Chechen conflict have violated human rights, the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission to Chechnya said Monday.


The mission saw Chechen detainees with traces of beatings in a camp in Mozdok and evidence of torture and violence on Russian soldiers in Grozny.


They did not identify any individual cases of human rights violations. "It was not our task," said Istvan Gyarmati, leader of the mission, on his return from a three-day trip to the Russian-controlled part of Chechnya.


Although he said the mission received "every assistance" from the Russian authorities, Gyarmati said the trip was marred by problems.


Military airport officials in Moscow barred Russia's human rights commissioner Sergei Kovalyov from joining the mission despite their protests.


The delegation has faced some sharp criticism for not taking a tougher stand over Kovalyov. Fellow State Duma deputy and human rights activist Yuly Rybakov said Friday that the group should have refused to go without him and that they would only see what the Russian authorities wanted them to see.


But Gyarmati defended his delegation's position Monday in the face of questioning by reporters.


"We protested. What more could we do? How else do you think we could protest?" Gyarmati said, adding that plans to visit Nazran, capital of neighboring Ingushetia, were also prevented due to "technical problems."


Gyarmati, who will be reporting to the OSCE, criticized Russia's "disproportionate and indiscriminate" use of military force in Chechnya but said he would not be exerting pressure on the Russian government to cease operations. "I do not think an organization should put pressure on the members. It's up to the members to decide if and what kind of pressure they want to put on anybody. My job is much more than simply to draw attention but I am not putting pressure."


Gyarmati specifically outlined Russian infringements of OSCE principles. "Human rights violations occurred both before and during the conflict. They were violated by bombing raids on settlements and the city, and the tactics employed by the Russian armed forces."


Casualties were also probably higher than official figures had led them to believe, he said, calling for an immediate cease-fire to collect corpses and allow in humanitarian aid for the estimated 150,000 people still living in cellars in Grozny. "The humanitarian situation is catastrophic," he said. He suggested such a truce could be arranged by the Red Cross, as any other mediator was not likely to be acceptable to both sides.


In Grozny, Russian forces shelled the southern suburbs of the battered Chechen capital as well as Argun and Gudermes, towns east of Grozny that have tenaciously refused to buckle after more than a month of Russian attacks.


Itar-Tass quoted government officials as saying Russian forces were moving more troops and armor toward Grozny in preparation for a final attack to clear out the remaining Chechen rebels.


Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev called Monday for other Caucasus Mountain nations to unite against Russia.


The appeal followed a warning by the president over the weekend that his forces could take their struggle to Russian cities unless Moscow stopped attacks on Grozny. He told a German newspaper the war could last 50 years.


But the Kremlin dismissed Dudayev's threat. "One has the impression that Dudayev has fully lost touch with reality," Reuters reported a Russian government statement as saying. "The illusions he still clings to are melting like the spring snows in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains."