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Tuesday, 23 July, 2002,
16:19 GMT 17:19 UK
Russia 'thinning out' Chechens
Russian activities in Chechnya are under scrutiny
An international human rights organisation has accused
the Russian military of a campaign of executions in
Chechnya to deliberately reduce the break-away
republic's male population.
In a report released on Tuesday, the International
Helsinki Federation alleges that Chechen men are
regularly abducted and murdered during sweep and
search operations by Russian special forces.
Russian special forces are now subject to tighter
regulations
Following visits to Chechnya and the neighbouring
republic of Ingushetia, senior representatives of the
federation say between 50 and 80 bodies are recovered
each month after operations by Russian special forces.
They say the corpses are overwhelmingly young and male
- and they describe the situation as "a process of
thinning out a population of young men".
Conservative estimate
Given that Chechnya's population is now thought to be
less than half a million people, the International
Helsinki Federation says the scale of the killings is
almost unprecedented.
"The process by which young Chechen men are being
abducted and murdered... is on a huge scale in a world
context," said the human rights group's executive
director, Aaron Rhodes.
Mr Rhodes said that the number of dead was a
conservative estimate for the past six months based on
research by human rights groups and reports from
Chechen civilians.
Russia has not yet released casualty figures for
civilians in Chechnya, but officials there say that
Chechen accounts of abuses during the search
operations are exaggerated.
Tighter measures
Russia's military in Chechnya introduced new measures
earlier this year in response to reports of abductions
and summary executions during sweep operations.
Russian special forces, accompanied by local Chechen
officials, must now identify themselves properly.
And Mr Rhodes said the toll was not decreasing,
despite the new orders designed to reduce the abuse of
civilians during searches.
The BBC's regional analyst Steven Eke says Moscow's
own administrators in Chechnya say that the process of
accountability is almost non-existent.
President Vladimir Putin recently appointed a new
human rights envoy to Chechnya.
In a tacit admission that abuses are commonplace, the
envoy, himself an ethnic Chechen, pledged to end
abductions and the disappearances of civilians by
strengthening the powers of the local Chechen
authorities.
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