IHF, FIDH indignant at kidnappings of Maskhadov's relatives

Today, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) have addressed an open letter to President Putin on the kidnappings of Aslan Maskhadov's relatives by Chechen enforcement agencies. Copies of the letter have been sent to the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). IHF Executive Director Aaron Rhodes and FIDH President Sidiki Kaba signed the letter.

"For the past several years, our organizations have been regularly monitoring and reporting to the international community on kidnappings in and around the Chechen Republic. In connection with many such cases, there were strong allegations or direct proof that members of local and federal enforcement agencies were perpetrators in these crimes. In 2004, we became particularly concerned by the instances of hostage-taking of rebel fighters' relatives by Chechnya law-enforcers, especially by the presidential security service, with the aim of achieving the cooperation and/or the surrender of the said rebels," the human rights organizations reported.

"We attempted to discuss such heinous practices with Russian authorities but to no avail. Then, after the Beslan tragedy, we were deeply concerned by an attempt to legitimize hostage-taking by state agents made by the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, the chief official supervising compliance with the law, who proposed to the State Duma to take family-members of individuals suspected of terrorism hostage as a necessary and effective measure to fight terrorism. At the time, we hoped for your strong reaction to that initiative coming from such a high official as Mr. Ustinov, but no such reaction followed," Aaron Rhodes and Sidiki Kaba said in the letter addressed to President Putin.

Then they cited reports of the Human Rights Center Memorial on the abduction of eights relatives of Aslan Maskhadov by members of the presidential security service under the command of Ramzan Kadyrov. According to the human rights activists, Maskhadov's relatives have been brought to the "illegal 'prison' in Tsenteroi, Gudermes district of Chechnya, in order to force Maskhadov to give up his armed resistance against the federal government."

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights emphasized that hostage-taking is universally condemned in a number of international legal documents: in particular the 1979 UN Convention Against the Taking of Hostages, which qualifies these acts as an "offence of grave concern to the international community."

"We strongly reject the use of such terrorist methods by the armed group of Ramzan Kadyrov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic and recent recipient of the 'Hero Of Russia' Award. We ask you to ensure that the aforesaid hostages be released and the perpetrators in this crime, including Ramzan Kadyrov himself, be effectively brought to justice. Your expedient reaction to this case would demonstrate to the international community, still taken aback by the Prosecutor General's proposal, that the Russian Federation upholds international human rights standards and shall not tolerate hostage-taking in any form," resumed the heads of the organizations.