# UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

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## Chechnya

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience issued a Genocide Watch for Chechnya in 2001. The Committee’s concern in 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, supported by air and artillery. 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 organizations 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, 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.

UPDATE 2007

On April 5, 2007, Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the assassinated former Chechen Prime Minister Akhmad Kadyrov and head of the most feared militia in Chechnya (known as the Kadyrovtsy), was inaugurated President of Chechnya. While he had been the main power broker in Chechnya since his father’s death in 2004, by Chechen law he could not be president until he turned 30. Some four months after his 30th birthday he took the highest office in Chechnya.

The number of disappearances in Chechnya appears to be very slowly decreasing each year, according to the Russian human rights organization Memorial, but remain a significant problem. Additionally, there is systematic torture and ill treatment of detained people in Chechnya. Memorial’s monitoring shows that in the majority of cases, the Kadyrovtsy (the pro-Moscow forces under command of Kadyrov) are responsible for the abuses. There are also many abuses committed by personal of ORB, the Operative Department of the Federal Ministry of Interior. Often, the ORB forces detainees to confess that they are or were members of the resistance, leading to fabricated criminal charges and convictions. The Kadyrovtsy force detainees to join their groups or release them after torture. Civilians throughout Chechnya also face enormous difficulties in securing adequate housing and medical care.

Explore the related links on this page to learn more about the current situation in Chechnya.

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