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This News Service is posted by the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International,
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ
(Tel +44-71-413-5500, Fax +44-71-956-1157)
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RUSSIAN FEDERATION: ILL-TREATMENT OF ETHNIC MINORITIES
CONTINUES

On 14 May 1996 Amnesty International approached the
Procurator General of the Russian Federation,  the Minister
of Internal Affairs, the Procurator of Moscow City, and the
Head of Moscow City Department of Internal Affairs about two
recent incidents of alleged ill-treatment of ethnic Chechens
in Moscow and the subsequent detention of two of them.  The
organization has received numerous reports of ill-treatment
in police custody in the Russian Federation. Amnesty
International is concerned about the apparent pattern of
persecution and ill-treatment of members of ethnic
minorities, specifically those from the Caucasus, by law
enforcement officials in Moscow.

      It has been reported that on 22 March 1996, at around
9pm, between 10 and 13 armed masked men in camouflage
uniforms led by a police officer without a mask entered an
apartment at ul. Onezskaya without identifying themselves.
The apartment was home to two Chechen families, a total of
five adults and six children, all refugees from the conflict
in the Chechen Republic. The armed men allegedly took away
the passports of the adults and with no apparent reason
started beating the men, kicking and punching them with
truncheons and gun butts.

      According to the victims, they were beaten for an hour
in front of their wives and small children. The officer in
charge allegedly also hit one of the women, Raisa
Abdurahmanovna Gunaeva, and threats were made to beat the
other women. It was reported that one of the children, A.
Takaeva, aged 12, who had just been released from hospital,
went into shock and needed emergency medical help. The armed
men allegedly cut off the telephone line and did not permit
the Chechens to call for an ambulance. They also allegedly
threatened to kill everyone in the apartment because they
were of Chechen origin. According to the victims, U.A. Akaev
was threatened that he would be killed for his public
opposition to the war in Chechnya, including participation in
anti-war demonstrations.

      Medical personnel allegedly refused to send an
ambulance to assist the victims for two days after the
incident. Only on 25 March at 3pm an ambulance reportedly
came and took one of the victims, Salambek Hamzatov, to city
hospital No 67, where he was admitted with serious bruises
and broken ribs resulting from the beatings. The doctors
reportedly refused to register the wounds and bruises of the
rest of the Chechens and to assist them. The same day, the
Chechen families managed to get a consultation with the
district physician, Dr I.V. Beikova, from polyclinic No. 81.

      Shortly after the incident, the whole group of Chechens
reportedly moved out of Moscow to another city, fearing for
their lives and hiding from further persecution.

      The second incident concerns the treatment of two
Chechens, residents of Urus-Martan and refugees in Moscow:
Said Selim Bekmurzayev, aged 52, a factory director, a father
of five children and an opponent of President Dudayev~s
government, and his son Sultan Bekmurzayev, aged 24, a
student at the State university in Grozny, who were allegedly
beaten at their apartment and then detained on 23 April 1996
in Moscow by officers of District Department for Combatting
Organized Crime (RUOP). They are held currently on the
premises of the Moscow City Department of Internal Affairs on
Petrovka, 38.

      According to reports, on 23 April 1996, at 3pm, about
10 masked and armed men entered the home of the Bekmurzayevs
at ul. Golubinskaya and without identifying themselves or
showing any order from the procurator began severely beating
the father and the son and accusing them of collusion with
the Chechen fighters. According to an eye-witness account
from Said Selim Bekmurzayev~s wife, Diznat Bekmurzayeva, her
husband and son were hit repeatedly on the head with the
handles of pistols and the butts of machine-guns by the
masked men, who later took them to an unknown destination.
The family heard nothing about their whereabouts until 30
April 1996, when they received information that the two are
being held at the Moscow City Department of Internal Affairs
and have not yet been charged with any criminal offence.

      The family learned that Said Selim Bekmurzayev and
Sultan Bekmurzayev have been detained under Presidential
Decree No. 1226 of 14 June 1994:  ~Urgent measures to defend
the population from banditry and other manifestations of
organized crime~. Under the provisions of this decree a
person suspected of involvement in organized crime may be
detained for up to 30 days without charge. This conflicts
with Article 22 of the Russian Constitution which stipulates
that a person may not be held for more than 48 hours before a
court rules on the legality of their detention. Article 9 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), to which Russia is bound as a successor state to the
USSR, also states that ~anyone who is arrested or detained on
a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge~,
and that ~anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or
detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a
court, in order  that that court may decide without delay on
the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the
detention is not lawful~.

      The presidential decree also makes no mention of the
right of the accused to access to a defence counsel during
the period spent in detention. Prompt access to a defence
lawyer of one~s own choice is recognized as a key factor in
international fair trial standards.

      Amnesty International is concerned about the
allegations of beatings and ill-treatment of the group of
Chechen civilians on 22 March and of the two Chechen men,
Said Selim Bekmurzayev and Sultan Bekmurzayev  by members of
the RUOP on 23 April . The organization urges the authorities
to investigate the circumstances of Said Selim Bekmurzayev~s
and Sultan Bekmurzayev~s detention and the allegations of
beatings and ill-treatment of the two Chechen families and
their relatives. Amnesty International seeks the authorities~
assurances that such investigations will be comprehensive and
impartial, with the results made public. If anyone is
identified by the investigation as being responsible for the
ill-treatment they should be brought to justice.
      Amnesty International also requested further
information from the relevant authorities on the detention of
the two Chechen men, specifically on whether  they have been
charged and if so what the charge or charges are against
them; whether they have been granted access to a defence
lawyer of their own choice; and whether they have yet
appeared before a judge competent to rule on the legality of
their detention.  ENDS.../    

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