(From www.ushmm.org/conscience/chechnya.php More information, maps and photographs are on this site.)

The Committee's concern about Chechnya stems from:

• Past persecution of Chechens as a people.
• The demonization of Chechens as a group within Russian society.
• The level of violence directed against Chechen civilians by Russian forces.

A massive Russian military force entered Chechnya on September 30, 1999. Russian officials claimed the "anti-terrorist operation" responded to an incursion by Chechen militias into the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan and to apartment bombings in Moscow and elsewhere that they blamed on Chechens. In the ensuing months, Chechnya was devastated, including the almost complete destruction of Grozny, the Chechen capital. Russian artillery and air indiscriminately pounded populated areas. Human Rights Watch also documented several massacres of civilians by Russian units. Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed Chechnya pacified by Spring 2000. But peace has been elusive for Chechen civilians, victims of a continuing war of attrition. They are plagued by abuses committed by Russian forces--arbitrary arrest, extortion, torture and murder. Chechen civilians also suffer because there have been no sustained efforts to rebuild basic social services, such as utilities or education. Chechen fighters also commit abuses against civilians, but neither on the same scale nor with the same intensity as Russian forces. According to the Washington Post's Jackson Diehl, "the campaign by the Russian military and police against Chechnya's separatists has degenerated into a full-fledged dirty war, complete with disappearances, mass graves, systematic torture and summary execution of civilians."

The roots of today's crisis extend back several centuries. Russia established a permanent military presence in Chechnya in the late eighteenth century. The Chechens periodically rose up against Russian rule throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. In 1944, Josef Stalin ordered the deportation to Central Asia of the entire Chechen population, along with other nationalities in the region. The deportation exacted a heavy toll--as many as three out of every ten Chechens died during the transport, resettlement, and first years of exile. Not until 1957 were the Chechens allowed to return home.

As the former Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Chechen leaders declared independence. Russian President Boris Yeltsin responded militarily in 1994. Two years of warfare presaged the current conflict, with widespread destruction and violence against civilians--more than 30,000 civilians believed killed, some 600,000 displaced. That phase of the war ended with a Russian withdrawal from Chechnya at the end of 1996. A May 1997 peace agreement signed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov set aside the determination of Chechnya's status for five years. Between 1997 and 1999, the Maskhadov government failed to establish stability or rebuild Chechnya's shattered economy.

Chechens in particular, and other "persons of Caucasian nationality" in general, tend to be demonized in Russian society. They often are referred to pejoratively as "blacks" and are assumed by virtue of their ethnicity to be criminals or terrorists. Throughout the Russian Federation, particularly in larger cities, Chechens suffer discrimination in housing and employment, and are subject to arbitrary arrests and harassment. Chechens displaced by the war are not accorded the right of freedom of movement and are effectively barred from resettling elsewhere in Russia.

As in 1994-1996, the fighting since 1999 has been catastrophic for civilians. The Russian siege of Grozny left that city in ruins, and other built-up areas that were held by rebels, however temporarily, sustained enormous damage as Russian forces indiscriminately used air and artillery bombardment. Both sides fought the war without regard to the safety of civilians, although vast Russian superiority in numbers and firepower took a much greater toll.

The end of large-scale fighting has not meant security for civilians in Chechnya. Hundreds of thousands of Chechens who fled their homes for refugee camps in Ingushetia and elsewhere in the region remain displaced. Even though conditions in those camps are poor, the situation is worse where they came from. Those who do remain in Chechnya, especially men between the ages of 15 and 49, face the threat of theft, beatings, arrest, and murder by Russian soldiers during so-called zachistki--door to door searches for rebels--and at roadblocks. Detainees often get swept into a system of "filtration" camps, where torture is routine, before being ransomed back to their families or killed. Many simply disappear.

Although Russian authorities acknowledge some abuses, the number of admitted abuses is much lower than those calculated by human rights organizations. And accountability is virtually nonexistent, as the Russians fail to thoroughly investigate most human rights violations. They also impede access of international monitors, human rights and humanitarian organizations, and the media.