Rights defenders claim non-transparent inquiries into kidnappings in Chechnya

Case files of people's forced disappearances in Chechnya are classified; and even relatives of those kidnapped have no legal ways to find out details or achieve an efficient investigation, human rights defenders have pointed out, adding that appeals to international structures yield no results.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 23, the human rights "Memory Project" issued an animated documentary "Neither Alive Nor Dead" about the people who fell victim to kidnappings and forced disappearances in Chechnya in the 2000s.

Formally, many disappearance cases are being investigated, Grigor Avetisyan, an advocate with the above project, has stated, noting that "the overwhelming majority of inquiries are suspended or in limbo, and the files thereof are classified. And if you make a request, the substantive part of the answer will be about nothing. Attempts to appeal against inaction are fruitless."

There is no really working legal way to obtain information about missing people, an activist from the human rights organization "Team against Torture" (TaT)* has agreed, adding that "there are a bit more chances if not a Chechen but a resident of another region was kidnapped, as in the case of Maxim Lapunov."

According to the human rights defender, the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances was a relatively efficient UN mechanism, but now its work is paralyzed.

Russia's withdrawal from the Council of Europe (CoE) has significantly worsened the situation with the international leverage over those missing, Grigor Avetisyan has confirmed. According to his story, now, non-commercial organizations (NCOs) should focus on demanding the enforcement of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) taken prior to Russia's withdrawal from the CoE.

As a rule, relatives of those kidnapped wouldn't believe that he/she won't come back, the TaT* activist has added.

The Chechen society perceives kidnappings as hard as the 1944 deportation, "and maybe even worse," Ruslan Kutaev, the President of the Assembly of Caucasian Nations, has noted.

*The "Team against Torture" (TaT, formerly the "Committee against Torture" – CaT) was created by the lawyers who had earlier worked for the CaT, which was included into the register of the NCOs performing the functions of foreign agents.