The Council of Europe's CPT anti-torture committee issued an unprecedented third public rebuke to Russia over its actions in Chechnya, the Reuters news agency reports.
The Council of Europe's CPT anti-torture committee said detainees were being ill-treated, tortured and kept in illegal detention and Russian authorities had signally failed to properly investigate alleged complaints.
"To make a third public statement is something that is extremely exceptional," Mauro Palma, the Italian who heads the anti-torture committee, told Reuters.
"Since the beginning of the CPT's work in 1989 it has made five public statements, so this is a very exceptional measure."
Turkey was the subject of public statements in 1992 and 1996, Russia in 2001, 2003 and this year, reflecting impatience at Moscow's failure to cooperate or improve the situation.
Since the end of the second Chechen war in 2000, Russia has managed to subdue large-scale separatist resistance in the region and install a loyal local administration. But allegations of systematic human rights abuses have persisted.
Moscow denies the charges.
The CPT anti-torture committee, whose public statement follows two visits to Chechnya in 2006, said the Russian authorities had failed to promptly and effectively investigate complaints against local and federal security forces, and so contributed to a climate of impunity.
"Although displaying an open attitude on subsidiary matters related to conditions of detention, the Russian authorities consistently refuse to engage in a meaningful manner with the CPT on core issues," it said.
"This can only be qualified as a failure to cooperate."
Ill-treatment in some cases was so severe it amounted to torture, said the report. Detainees suffered extensive beating, asphyxiation, electric shocks, and suspension by the limbs.
"The general picture which emerged was that any detained person who did not promptly confess to the crime of which he was suspected would be in imminent danger of being ill-treated," the report said.
Palma said there was a high risk suspects would be severely mistreated by staff at the ORB-2 investigation bureau in Grozny. It should be removed from its site at an interior ministry detention facility, he said.
Palma also called on Russia to investigate credible reports that certain sites were being used for the unlawful detention of suspects, notably in the village of Tsentoroy and the "Vega Base" outside Gudermes.
Palma said Russia had around three months to act after which the CPT hoped to return to the province to assess the results.
Source: Mosnews
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