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English Language Page Tanya Lokshina, Moscow Helsinki Group To be honest, when I saw Kadyrov in Geneva, I just lost it and couldn’t regain my composure for quite some time. Just imagine—I managed to get to Chechnya just before the elections and stay there throughout the elections—and all this time I happily avoided meeting the man... And then I come here, and bamn! Here he is. I mean, is it worth it to fly all the way to the shores of Lake Geneva, only to end up constantly having this sullen, unshaven character before me for two days in a row, right after I have been bombarded with his picture by the election fliers in Chechnya? And honestly, it is sad to realize that this guy—now I want to choose my words carefully here—is exactly whom the Russian government deems to be its most deserving representative. This guy is good enough to be sitting right next to the Russian Justice Minister at a key UN human rights forum. I thought I had gotten used to everything by now—I mean there should be nothing that can surprise me. Still, every once in a while, the powers that be somehow manage to find a way to leave us completely dumbfounded. It seems that now that the damage has been done—he’s gone and been elected—it would seem that they would want to tone it down a little, and keep Kadyrov under wraps. I mean, you don’t usually go bragging about your shortcomings—you usually want to keep your skeletons where they belong—in the closet, that is. And yet, they decided to drag him out—how come? But you know what—it already started a while ago. Even before the Chechen elections Putin had Kadyrov come along with him to America. At first, the Americans kept quiet: they neither reacted to the farce of the Chechen elections, nor did they utter a single word of protest. It was the silence of the lambs. Meanwhile, the media and human rights activists were seething, but this was in vain. Ultimately though, there was a breaking point. When it became known that—as part of the tour—Putin’s favorite was going to Camp David to shake hands with President Bush, the State Department stepped in and put an end to that. It was the start of a real diplomatic scandal, but the State Department held firm—with a doubt, they said, “Kadyrov is not going to Camp David.” Strike one. Putin stubbornly kept his batter in to face the next pitch. This time it would be the United Nations, and Kadyrov would be Russia’s representative. Putin-watchers commented that these actions were emblematic of the President being defiant. This side of the President was of course most famously showcased earlier, when discussing the insurgents in Chechnya—Putin had said in locker-room aphoristic style, “we will grab then when they are sitting in the bathroom with their pants down,” “we will break them so they are not even men any more.” This time, we should take Putin’s defiance seriously. After all, it turns out that last time, he wasn’t kidding. And now, the newly elected President of the Chechen Republic is on the political traveling circuit once again. As an observer at the Islamic Conference meeting in Malaysia, Russia demonstrated the Muslim features of the Federation’s brotherhood of people, by sending Kadyrov (along with the always-colorful Murtaza Rakhimov). Another scandal took place at the Conference, as hospitable Mohathir said such things that one must presume that Russia will think twice before attending that party next time. One may wonder what did Kadyrov had to do with it? But I mean, after Geneva one cannot help suspecting some mystic influence, some sort of cosmic destiny of sorts... So, anyways, it turns out that the second pitch—not a strike. Apparently, the powers that be have restored faith in their batter because he was blessed by the popular mandate of the people in the “elections.” I guess they expected that they expected that this would rehabilitate Kadyrov in the eyes of the West, and they would throw him soft ones. Well, at least doors would not be slammed shut in his face when he arrived. In Geneva, Putin finally got what he wanted when the first pitch came down in the States. Kadyrov was third on the Russian list for the diplomatic mission, right after Minister Yury Chaika and Mr. Leonid Skotnikov (local diplomatic mission). So, the fact that he finally got in the door, means that essentially this time our man got on first base with the pitch. However, it is not clear if this was an intention was to walk him, or if he hit the ball of his own accord. Doom and gloom Kadyrov sat silently at the Presidium while the Russian report was being reviewed at the Human Rights Committee’s 79th Session. The Committee’s experts had many questions about Chechnya; they wanted to know about arbitrary actions by federal troops, disappearances, the failure to investigate complaints made by residents, and finally they asked, “why was a state of emergency never introduced?” One after the other, the Russian delegation members took the floor and were grilled by the international community. Each tried to put on a good front about it all, at times withholding things, at times straight-out lying. But throughout, our man Kadyrov was mum. By the middle of the second day, people were beginning to worry that there was not going to be an opportunity to hear from the people’s leader from Chechnya. So I whispered to a colleague sitting beside me, “Do you think he will even open his mouth at all? I mean, this is awkward. This perpetual silence is making the man from the Chechen highlands look perfectly odd. If this is how it is going to be, why even bother bring him here in the first place…?” — “Don’t you get it!?” — said my colleague, — “They are never going to give him the floor. The second he opens his mouth, they will be so much trouble that the Russian delegation would never be able to hear the end of it. It would be a total scandal! The only reason they brought him here was now that they’d elected him, they have to get the world to get used to seeing him so they can accept him.” My friend was right and wrong at the same time. He clearly overestimated the wisdom and foresight of the delegation—because the floor was eventually given to Kadyrov. Whether Kadyrov insisted upon this himself or if the Russian delegation just came to the realization itself that two days of having him act like a mute looked weird—I do not know. But then again, I said that my colleague was both wrong and right. When the mighty Kadyrov opened his mouth, there really was so much trouble that the Russian delegation found it impossible to dig itself out of it. The scandal was glorious, a real blooper as Kadyrov bunted the ball right into the pitcher’s mit. * * * What follows is Kadyrov’s speech — his first in an international forum in the capacity of the “legally elected President of Chechnya.” I would like to thank our veritable statesman for speaking nice and slowly, so I was able to come up with almost a verbatim transcript as he droned on like a tired woodsman hacking through a thick tree with an axe. The text requires referential commentary, so please see my parentheses that clarify anything said by dear Akhmat-Hadji. And so, here it is: “The speech of Akhmat-Hadji Kadyrov at the October 24, 2003 session of the Human Rights Committee in Geneva.” “No one is more concerned about the citizens of the Chechen Republic today than I am. Many different games are being played in Chechnya these days, and all the time, it is just the regular people who suffer. These are the people who on October 5th of this year, gave me their full support to do everything within my power to improve the situation. [This phrase just makes my flesh creep — over the past several years Kadyrov has established himself in Chechnya resorting to such means that now it is scary to imagine what “everything within his power” entails.] It is true that we have had violations and abductions. [many of which the honorable Speaker and his entourage are directly associated with.] It is wrong to subject me to any sort of inquisitorial process here. We have a common task here, and it is not to criticize each other, but rather to come up with solutions. The information that you have received from NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and Chechen NGOs is one-sided, so keep this in mind when you shape how you interact with us.’ “Yesterday here I spoke with a fellow Chechen woman here at the Conference and I asked her, ‘Why don’t you tell us what the bandits are doing? Why is the Council of Europe making us negotiate with thieves and criminals?’ [The Council of Europe required more than just negotiations with Maskhadov, but the other requirements seem to have slipped the newly elected President’s mind. But who was the interlocutor, the aforementioned ‘Chechen fellow woman?’ It was a Chechen journalist who had come to Geneva and whom Kadyrov had a conversation the day before. In front of the camera at that time, the newly elected President had managed to talk about even more interesting things! She was so good at getting him to talk, that she should work for him. In fact, she was so good at getting him to talk, that she might even work for the others. In fact, what were the last words out of Kadyrov during that remarkable interview? None other than, ‘What do you want? Don’t you understand that we cannot fight the Russians now, we have no weapons!’ Now back to our regularly-scheduled programming.] I would like to ask the Committee Chairman to send his special representative to accompany me to each of the settlements for displaced persons in Chechnya and Ingushetia. And if he finds anyone who feels that they have been forced to return to Chechnya — then I would be happy to stand here before you and accept the full criticism of this body. This will not happen, however, because all you have been told are packs of lies. The only truth to these allegations is that there are some that do not want to come back to Chechnya. These, however, are those who are waiting for Basayev and Mashkhadov. These are families who have sons, fathers, and cousins in the bandit groups, and they are the ones actively creating the rumors that Chechnya is a place that people have to be forced to return. [At this point, the Speaker created a big pickle for the Russian delegations, because up until this point, Russia had been refusing to allow UN special rapportuers into Chechnya. Every time the UN asked to be allowed in, Russia would say, ‘not now, not now,’ or they would make excuses about being unable to guarantee security. ‘Maybe, another time,’ they would say. And here after so many refusals, here was Kadyrov was, saying, ‘Sure, go ahead, make my day.’ How are Russian diplomats going to get themselves out of this one?] All violating of citizens [what was probably meant was violations of citizens’ rights] began with illegal infiltrations of the Chechen-Ingush Republic. All crimes dating from that time period will be thoroughly investigated, and for this I will put together a special commission. Nobody else but I am the guarantor of human rights in Chechnya [according to the Russian Constitution the President of Russia is the “guarantor of the RF Constitution, rights and freedoms of the human being and citizen”— and, Chechnya, as repeatedly mentioned by those in attendance at the Conference, is a subject of the Russian Federation. Therefore, here Kadyrov was doing nothing but defying Putin’s authority. I do not know whom the Chechen people would prefer as their ‘guarantor’ — it pretty much seems that you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. However, taking into account the fact that Kadyrov’s men are now dreaded in Chechnya more than federal forces, I think Chechens might just be in the unenviable situation of really feeling like they would like to pull for Putin — at the very least he is geographically more distant than the despot in their back yard.] More than 80% of the residents had cast their votes in favor of me, and for this I must live up to their trust. And the NGOs who seem to be against me, where were they while I have been making things better over the last three years? I invite them to come and have a look around and talk with me openly… [Where have the NGOs been, indeed? Perhaps something prevented them from free access to all parts of Chechnya. Something like, perhaps, a hard-wired desire for self-preservation. I just can’t believe that these people would prefer staying alive rather than openly challenging the now-elected President! What an outrage indeed!] How come they can travel all the way to distant Switzerland and visit with various international bodies, but they won’t come to Chechnya, and let me on in what is going on. Please come! If these people know something, let me get them on the multi-lateral crimes commission. [There is a classic line by Jaroslav Gashek, ‘You think this Commission will help you? The hell it will help you!’ Our colleagues from Chechen NGOs understand this all completely.] Chechnya is no longer the republic that it was prior to March 23, 2003. Then we did not have a Constitution or any kind of order. Cheechnya was governed by bandits. [Now this seems strange, perhaps the Speaker forgets that he has been in charge of Chechnya since June, 2000. How wonderfully self-critical! And accurate!] In the beginning I was with Dudayev. Then I stood with Maskhadov. I expected that each would eventually do something. After the First Chechen War, federal forces gave up and left Chechnya to Maskhadov. All this did was to open the doors for all the criminal elements. These elements came into Chechnya, swallowed us up, and then kept going, all the way to Dagestan. We lived in the midst of a pure criminal order. If one of my countrymen had any kind of savings—15 or 20 thousand dollars—he would be immediately robbed of this and thrown into a pit. I alone realized that I had to stop them. No one stood with me. And I have been fighting them since late 1996. Many of my loved ones have been killed! [All Chechens have lost loved ones in the fighting—but few of them, like Kadyrov, were responsible for these deaths personally.] Today Chechnya is part of the Russian Federation. [O.K., this is today. But what about in the future, what does Kadyrov think it should be generally? Don't worry, our Spokesman will soon explain his thoughts...] The people have spoken on this topic. It was not me, nor Yandarbiev, nor Maskhadov, the people decided themselves. [Much has already been written about WHO and HOW this question was actually decided.] On October 5, elections were held. Government is functioning and in place, and now there will be responsibility for human rights. [It is interesting that the President is so confident in the ability of his governmental bodies, and believes that they will act in an independent, fair manner, benefitting the people.] I want to thank the Committee for having us here, but I do not want the Russian delegation to which I belong, have to assume the role of defendant, before so many accusors. We — are Russian citizens. And I will defend the rights of the Chechen Republic I will defend as its guarantor. [Note, that what he is going to defend is the “rights of the Chechen Republic,” not human rights in Chechnya. Oh, no, this might spell future trouble for the federal center...]” His fervent speech over, Kadyrov rose and left, taking with him Sultygov, Putin's Representative in the Chechen Republic on the Rights of Citizen and Human Being. And that’s when all hell broke loose. * * * Prior to the speech, the experts of the Committee had formulated their questions about Chechnya in a reserved and diplomatic manner. Now after this speech, they seemed to forget all about politesse... or rather as they had been freed from the chains of etiquette. The previous speaker had clearly left an indellible impression on the crowd. I have attended a number of UN forums in the past, but I had never heard the kind of comments that I then heard. The first to speak was the Finnish expert, Sheinin. He first noted that Kadyrov’s lofty platitudes and claims to respect the Human Rights Committee had not facilitated any dialogue. And in general, he continued, the Russian delegation had basically failed to show any desire to conduct open discussion of the interconnection of such important issues as Chechnya and Nord-Ost. Indeed, Kadyrov's speech had proved this lack of desire only too clearly. Sheinin finally said, that turning Committee hearings into an arena for a PR event for domestic consumption was simply unacceptable in principle. In short, such an angry retory, is, by the standards of the United Nations, the equivalent of dropping a large bomb. The diplomatic scandal had begun. Then Virushevsky, the expert from Poland started in. He cited Sultygov’s extravagent claim in September that NGOs were working for the terrorists, and admonished the Russian delegation that this was not the way to treat non-governmental organizations. Finally, came the British expert, Rhodley, a former special UN Rapporteur on Torture. He noted noted that although he had not wanted to ask the question in principle, he deemed it necessary to do so, now having listened to the speech of the honorable spokesperson for the Russian Federation, Mr. Kadyrov. And so he asked the following question, "Here we have extensive testimony provided by NGOs, media, and others that violations took place in the course of the October 5 elections, in particular they pertained to voter turnout. Can you tell us, here today, of any official observers or representative of any international organizations, who in fact characterized the elections as fair and democratic?” Needless to say, the response of the Russian delegation was quite feeble, because neither the Council of Europe, nor the OSCE had agreed to observe presidential elections in Chechnya. The fact there were no observers, is as bad as if there are observers, and they don't like what they see. And so, what happened in the end? Initially none of the Committee’s experts were going to speak about either the Chechen elections or the newly-elected President. Nor had they been ready to tackle the issue in a broader fashion and talk about the fact that Russia was avoiding a straightforward discussion of Chechnya and that Russia’s policy in Chechnya only perpetuates terrorism. This publically was not going to be mentioned publically. But then came along Kadyrov, and gave them reason to advance. They took this opportunity, and ran all the way home with it. Maybe this episode will make Russian authorities think twice before taking Kadyrov with them on away games in the future. The international community can and will turn a blind eye to the so-called "elected President of Chechnya," but only as long as they are not forced to look at him up close. At this point, even diplomats cannot act quite diplomatically. And one would also like to hope that the international scandal brought about by our hero will prompt the Kremlin to ask itself: was it right to put Kadyrov where he is? Is it right in general to insist on tackling the Chechnya issue in a forceful fashion? Probably this will not happen, but hope springs eternal. PS: In its Concluding Observations of November 6, 2003, the UN Human Right Committee, in particular, noted the following: 13. The Committee remains deeply concerned about continuing substantiated reports of human rights violations in the Chechen Republic, including extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture, including rape. The Committee notes that some 54 police and military personnel have been prosecuted for crimes committed against civilians in Chechnya, but remains concerned that the charges and sentences handed down do not appear to correspond with the gravity of the acts as human rights violations. The Committee is also concerned that investigations into a number of large-scale abuses and killings of civilians in 1999 and 2000, in the locations of Alkhan-Yurt, Novye Aldy and Staropromyslovskii district of Grozny, have still not been brought to a conclusion. The Committee acknowledges that abuse of and violations against civilians also involve non-State actors, but reiterates that this does not relieve the State party of its obligations under the Covenant. In this regard, the Committee is concerned about the provision in the Federal Law "On Combating Terrorism" which exempts law enforcement and military personnel from liability for harm caused during counter-terrorist operations. The State party should ensure that operations in Chechnya are carried out in compliance with its international human rights obligations. The State party should ensure that abuse and violations are not committed with impunity de jure or de facto, including violations committed by military and law enforcement personnel during counter-terrorist operations. All cases of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture, including rape, should be investigated, their perpetrators prosecuted and victims or their families compensated (articles 2, 6, 7 and 9). 23. While acknowledging the difficult circumstances under which presidential elections were held in the Chechen Republic on 5 October 2003, the Committee expresses concern at reports that these elections did not meet all the requirements of article 25 of the Covenant. The State party should ensure full compliance with article 25 in its efforts to restore the rule of law and political legitimacy in the Republic of Chechnya. [1] 1 Concluding Observations of the Human Rights Committee: Russian Federation. 06/11/2003. CCPR/CO/79/RUS. (Concluding Observations/Comments. http://www. unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/ 622c5ddc8c476dc4c1256e0c003c9758 ?Opendocument. Back |
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