#9
BBC Monitoring
Rebel web site says Russian authorities sanction rights
abuses in Chechnya
Source: Chechenpress web site, Tbilisi, in Russian 26 Nov 01
26 November, Chechenpress correspondent L. Vakhidova: Punishment-repression operations against the entire population of Chechnya have been stepped up. The distinctive feature of this new stage of punishment actions in Chechnya is the no limits approach which Russian occupiers take towards local inhabitants. If previously there was some criticism in the Russian media of the murder, robbery and looting carried out on Chechen soil, the picture has now changed. The entire territory of the CRI [Chechen Republic of Ichkeria] has been turned into a single concentration camp, where unlawful executions are carried out, along with wholesale robbery and looting by Russian occupiers, who are drunk or under the influence of drugs. I would like to point out that only recently, during his visit to the USA, Russian President Vladimir Putin told American journalists when answering a question about human rights being violated in Chechnya that Russian soldiers were not occupiers who carried out such crimes against civilians. The daily crimes committed by Russian soldiers in the CRI tell a different story, however.
We should note that the innumerable crimes committed by Russian soldiers on Chechen soil are probably sanctioned by the Kremlin. Otherwise, the Russian authorities would have stopped these scandalous excesses against Chechen citizens long ago.
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