From: amnesty@amnesty.oil.ca
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 15:16:09 -0500
Message-Id: <200003272016.PAA12180@amnesty.oil.ca>
To: amnesty-L@oil.ca
Subject: CHECHNYA: Real scale of atrocities in Chechnya: New evidence of cover-up
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* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
News Service 057/00
AI INDEX: EUR 46/20/00
24 March 2000

Real scale of atrocities in Chechnya: New evidence of cover-up

In the run-up to Russia’s presidential election, Amnesty International
has obtained new evidence pointing to an official cover-up of the true
situation in Russia’s "filtration camps".

Amnesty International’s field researcher has obtained three separate
lists containing the names of 61 of the 300 or so people believed to
have been transferred by the Russian authorities from Chernokozovo
"filtration camp" to other detention facilities prior to the official
visit to Chernokozovo by the Council of Europe's Committee for the
Prevention of Torture (CPT) last month.

According to information collected by Amnesty International, on 25 or 26
February, just a few days before the CPT official visit to Chernokozovo,
the Russian authorities reportedly removed about 300 men and women
detainees - - almost the entire prison population of Chernokozovo - -
from the camp to another location in the village of Stanitsa
Chervlyonnaya in Chechnya.

It is believed that the 300 detainees were removed from the camp by the
authorities in order to hide the real scale of atrocities committed in
Chernokozovo.

Two of the lists of names obtained by Amnesty International are
virtually identical, and contain names of detainees believed to have
been transferred from the Chernokozovo camp to the Chechen village of
Stanitsa Chervlyonnaya in four train carriages. The Russian forces
reportedly built a fence of barbed wire around the train carriages.
Relatives of the detainees have witnessed this makeshift camp, while
trying to buy out their family members from the camp commanders.
According to reports, the detainees were later transferred from there to
the village of Kadi-Yurt, where they are thought to be currently held in
detention.

One of these lists was reportedly smuggled out of the detention facility
at Kadi-Yurt on 12 March by detainees who hid it in the pocket of a dead
fellow detainee. The detainee’s body was sold by the camp authorities to
his relatives. The list arrived in Ingushetia on 19 March, having been
smuggled through the border checkpoint.

On 22 March Amnesty International obtained a third list which includes
the names of male and female detainees who were allegedly transferred
from the Chernokozovo camp to the prison hospital at the pre-trial
detention centre (SIZO) in the town of Pyatigorsk in Russia’s Stavropol
Territory. It is thought that these people were sick, injured or
wounded, and therefore were not transferred to Kadi-Yurt. This second
list includes the name of one detainee, Movladi Idrisov, who reportedly
died in detention after being transferred to the Pyatigorsk prison
hospital.

Other makeshift "filtration camps" reportedly include the pre-trial
detention centre (SIZO) known as the "White Swan", (Beliy Lebed) in
Pyatigorsk; the SIZO in the city of Stavropol; a makeshift detention
facility in a school in the Chechen town of Urus-Martan; and other
makeshift camps in various locations, including a fruit warehouse in the
Chechen village of Tolstoy-Yurt, a poultry processing plant and the
basement of the "Chekhkar" café in the Chechen village of Chiri-Yurt.
Other "filtration camps" are reported to be in the towns of Mozdok and
Grigorievsk in Stavropol Territory, and in the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Reportedly, in preparation of the CPT delegation’s visit, some of the
buildings in the Chernokozovo camp were freshly painted and new prison
staff were sent to replace the previous guards who were reportedly
contract soldiers in the Russian federal forces. On 28 February a
busload of foreign journalists was given a chaperoned tour by the
Russian authorities of the newly painted camp. Currently Chernokozovo
"filtration camp" is open for visits by international observers and
media.

Background
Former detainees at the Chernokozovo camp gave testimonies that have
recently come to light, alleging that they were tortured and ill-treated
in the camp. Amnesty International has documented reports of the
following methods of torture being used in "filtration camps" during the
current conflict: rape of men and women detainees, electric shocks,
beatings with hammers and clubs, tear gas, sawing off the detainee’s
teeth, and beating detainees so that their ear-drums burst.

ENDS.../
Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1 Easton Street,
WC1X 8DJ, London, United Kingdom
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