Member News
By Jo Swinson MP - 26th January 2011
The international community must do more to address the plight of Chechen civilians, says Jo Swinson MP.
Last February, I visited Chechnya with Lord Judd on behalf of the all-party parliamentary group on Human Rights. We had significant concerns about reports of appalling human rights violations against Chechen civilians by both Russian soldiers and Chechen security forces.
We felt then that the international community was not doing enough to address the plight of Chechen civilians. This undoubtedly remains so, and is why I have brought the political situation in Chechnya to the House's attention. Sadly the terrorist attack at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday makes a debate about stability in the Caucasus even more timely.
During our time in the Republic we saw shiny new schools, cranes busy with construction, a gleaming and impressive new mosque. At first glance Grozny appeared to be getting back on its feet after the appalling civil war of the 1990s.
However the distressed mother in front of us told a very different story. Clad in a thick black woollen coat and dark pink patterned headscarf, speaking through tears, she placed three photographs in our hands – her brother, her son and her daughter. Three of Chechnya's "disappeared". No information, no investigation, no justice.
Sadly this is far from an isolated example. We met with many people who described house-burnings, enforced disappearances, beatings, forced marriages, and torture. A culture of impunity, especially for president Kadyrov's Chechen security forces, means most people are too afraid to report such crimes, and even those reported do not generally result in thorough investigation and prosecution.
There is no real parliamentary scrutiny or transparency over what president Kadyrov and his government are doing, not helped by the fact that 37 of Chechnya's 41 MPs belong to the same party (United Russia). Chechnya's own Human Rights Ombudsman is hostile to the concept of independent NGOs holding the government to account.
President Kadyrov has created a cult of personality and an image of being all-powerful within Chechnya - even many of the victims we met have great faith in his ability to put a stop to the human rights abuses perpetrated on a daily basis. The atmosphere of fear and terror created by the security forces' scant regard for human rights is counter-productive, and undermines efforts to tackle terrorism. If President Kadyrov is truly in control, he needs to take responsibility for what is happening to his people.
One Chechen told us: "Russian laws do not protect me". If Chechnya is to remain an integrated part of Russia in the future, then president Medvedev and prime minister Putin need to grasp the nettle and ensure Chechens are entitled at the very least to the same legal protections as other Russian citizens. Turning a blind eye to human rights abuses under the misplaced assumption that Chechnya is stable under Kadyrov's iron regime only stores up problems for the future.
Condoned by the Russian federal government, the Kadyrov regime still provokes extremism which provides a recruiting base for the extremist cause across the region and the world. It is a direct challenge to us all in the UK in our concern for security.
Jo Swinson was elected as Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire in 2005. The parliamentary private secretary to business secretary Vince Cable, she is also the deputy leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
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