202. The experts gathered information on cases of secret detention in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
1. Turkmenistan
203. As documented by a range of international organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and non-governmental
organizations, there are persistent allegations that several persons accused of an assassination attempt on former President Niyazov in November 2002 have since then been held in secret
397
A/HRC/8/46, paras. 51-52.
398 Human Rights Watch, “Sri Lanka: world leaders should demand end to detention camps”, 22 September 2009, available from www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/09/22/sri-lanka-world-leaders- should-demand-end-detention-camps.
399
Amnesty International, “Sri Lankan army clashes with detainees”, 24 September 2009. Available from www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/sri-lankan-army-clashes- detainees-20090924.
detention. In his report of 12 March 2003, Emmanuel Decaux, the OSCE Rapporteur, stated that “the fact that their relatives remain up to this time with no news from some prisoners in secret detention, as Mr. Nazarov or Mr. Shikhmuradov, nourishes rumours according to which these individuals - considered as too compromising for the regime - are said to have already died in prison”.400 The case of Boris Shikhmuradov is currently under the consideration of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.401
204. On 7 October 2005, the Special Rapporteur on torture sent an urgent appeal to the Government of Turkmenistan concerning the situation of a number of individuals sentenced in December 2002 and January 2003 to prison terms ranging from five years to life for their alleged involvement in the above-mentioned assassination attempt.402 The Rapporteur noted that the prisoners continued to be held incommunicado, without access to families, lawyers or independent bodies, such as ICRC. On 23 September 2009, Amnesty International issued a “postcard” calling upon the President to shed light on the disappeared persons in Turkmenistan with reference to the group arrested after the alleged attack on the former President in late 2002.403
2. Uzbekistan
205. In its latest recent report on Uzbekistan, the Committee against Torture expressed concern at the numerous allegations of excessive use of force and ill-treatment by Uzbek military and security forces in the May 2005 events at Andijan, which resulted in, according to the State party, 187 deaths, and according to other sources, 700 or more, and in hundreds of others being detained thereafter. Notwithstanding the State party’s persistent response to all allegations that the measures taken were in fact appropriate, the Committee noted with concern the State party’s failure to conduct full and effective investigations into all claims of excessive force by officials. The Committee also expressed concern about the fact that the State party had limited and
obstructed independent monitoring of human rights in the aftermath of the events, thus impairing the ability to make a reliable or credible assessment of the reported abuses, including
ascertaining information on the whereabouts and reported torture or ill-treatment of persons detained and/or missing. The Committee also received credible reports that some persons who had sought refuge abroad and were returned to the country had been kept in detention in unknown places and possibly subjected to breaches of the Convention. In this direction, the Committee recommended that Uzbekistan provide information to family members on the
400
Report on Turkmenistan, ODIHR.GAL/15/03. 401
HRC/13/31, para. 579. 402
E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.1, para. 514.
403 Document EUR/61/005/2009, available from
whereabouts and charges against all persons arrested or detained in connection with the Andijan events.404
206. On 31 January 2006, Erkin Musaev, an Uzbek national and a local staff member of the United Nations Development Programme in Uzbekistan, was reportedly arrested by the Uzbek National Security Service (SNB); his family was not informed about his whereabouts for more than 10 days. During his detention, he was subjected to various forms of pressure, including threats by the interrogators, who forced him to sign a confession. On 13 June 2006, following a reportedly secret and flawed trial, Mr. Musaev was found guilty of high treason, disclosure of State secrets, abuse of office and negligence by a military court in Tashkent. The verdict indicated that the information he provided was utilized by unfriendly forces to organize the disturbances in Andijan. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared his detention arbitrary in its opinion No. 14/2008 of 9 May 2008.405 By notes verbales dated
27 September 2007 and 25 April 2008, the Government of Uzbekistan provided the Working Group with information about the detention and trials of Mr. Musaev. On 9 March 2007, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and the Special Rapporteur on torture sent an urgent appeal summarizing the case and expressing serious concern for
Mr. Musaev’s physical and mental integrity following his alleged transfer to a different prison.406 On 23 February 2009, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the Special Rapporteur on torture sent another urgent appeal to the Government of Uzbekistan. It was reported that, on
26 July 2008, Mr. Musaev was threatened by two officers from the SNB that, if he or his family did not withdraw their petitions or continued to make complaints to international human rights mechanisms or to spread news about the above decision, they would face reprisals.407
C. Europe
207. The experts received information on examples of the current secret detention policies concerning the Russian Federation and, specifically, the provinces in the North Caucasus.
Russian Federation
208. Following two visits to the North Caucasus, in May and September 2006, the Committee on the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe declared that:
404 CAT/C/UZB/CO/3, paras. 7-9. See also the OHCHR report on the mission to Kyrgyzstan concerning the events in Andijan, Uzbekistan, on 13 and 14 May 2005 (E/CN.4/2006/119). 405 A/HRC/10/21/Add.1.
406
A/HRC/7/3/Add.1. 407 A/HRC/13/30, para. 29.
A considerable number of persons alleged that they had been held for some time, and in most cases ill-treated, in places which did not appear to be official detention facilities, before being transferred to a recognised law enforcement structure or released … As for places where persons may be unlawfully detained, a number of consistent allegations were received in respect of one or more places in the village of Tsentoroy, and of the “Vega base” located in the outskirts of Gudermes. Several allegations were also received of unlawful detentions in the Shali and Urus-Martan areas.408
In its statement, the Committee indicated that the problem of what it called “unlawful detention” persisted in the Chechen Republic as well as other parts of the North Caucasian region. It
described its visits to an unofficial place of detention in Tsentoroy, the Vega base and the
Headquarters of the Vostok Battalion in Gudermes. Although no more detainees were held there, the Committee found clear signs that these places had been previously used for detention
purposes. The Committee’s observations are confirmed by judgements made by the European Court of Human Rights, which has frequently established violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, some of which involved periods of secret detention.409 In October 2009, the Human Rights Committee expressed its concern about ongoing reports of torture and
ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killing and secret detention in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus committed by military, security services and other state agents, and that the authors of these violations appeared to enjoy widespread impunity owing to a systematic lack of effective investigation and prosecution. The Committee was
particularly concerned that the number of disappearances and abduction cases in Chechnya had increased in the period 2008-2009.410
209. The Government of the Russian Federation, in its response to a questionnaire about the present study (see annex I), declared that:
408 Public statement concerning the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation, 13 March 2007 (CPT/Inf (2007) 17).
409 See some of the most recent decisions on violations involving secret detention: Babusheva
and Others v. Russia (app. 33944/05), judgement of 24 September 2009; Asadulayeva and Others v. Russia (app. 15569/06), judgement of 17 September 2009; Mutsayeva v. Russia
(app. 24297/05), judgement of 23 July 2009; Yusupova and Others v. Russia (app. 5428/05), judgement of 9 July 2009; Khasuyeva v. Russia (app. 28159/03), judgement of 11 June 2009;
Khantiyeva and Others v. Russia (app. 43398/06); Satabayeva v. Russia (app. 21486/06); Vakhayeva and Others v. Russia (app. 1758/04), judgement of 29 October 2009; and Karimov and Others v. Russia (app. 29851/05), judgement of 17 July 2009.
410 CCPR/C/RUS/CO/6, para. 14. See also Dick Marty, “Situation in the North Caucasus region: security and human rights”, second information report for the Committee of Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe, 29 September 2009, available from
http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2009/ajdoc43_2009.pdf, para. 6. The annex to the report contains several cases of abduction leading to various periods of secret detention in different Federation subjects in the Caucasus that corroborate such reports.
(a) There were no instances of secret detention in the Russian system;
(b) There was no involvement or collaboration in secret detention on the territory of another State;
(c) All detentions fell within the supervision of the Federal penitentiary and the Ministry of the Interior;
(d) For the period 2007-2016, a programme was being implemented to improve detention conditions;
(e) The office of the General Prosecutor supervises situations of detention, and if there is a violation, it is reported;
(f) All places of deprivation of liberty are subordinate to the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishment or the Ministry of the Interior. The Federal Action Programme on the Development of the Penitentiary System provides for a steady improvement of the system. The Prosecutor’s office ensures that the legislation is respected.
210. In its submission to the Human Rights Committee at its ninety-seventh session, the Government of the Russian Federation also stated that criminal investigations had been opened into several cases of disappearances in the Chechen Republic. Some of these investigations were suspended owing to a failure to identify the person or person to be charged or the whereabouts of the accused. The authorities had also created a comprehensive programme on preventing
kidnappings and disappearances.411
211. After receiving the Government’s replies to the questionnaire, the experts conducted interviews with several men who testified about secret detention in the Russian Federation. Owing to fear of repression against themselves or their families, and because of the climate of impunity,412 most people addressed did not want to be interviewed by the experts or to be identified. The experts agreed to preserve the confidentiality of the sources, as the interviewed persons feared that the divulgation of their identities could cause harm to the individuals involved.
212. In an interview conducted on 12 October 2009, X.Z., a Chechen who had been living in Dagestan, and was now living in exile, explained that he had been held in secret detention and tortured for five days in the summer of 2005, apparently in connection with a search for a wounded man who had been brought to his house by a friend. Blindfolded throughout his
411 CCPR/C/RUS/6.
412 On 29 December 2009, Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman of Chechnya, reported that “close relatives of more than 5000 kidnapped and missing citizens are exasperated by the inaction over many years of the Military Prosecutor’s Office and the Military Investigative Department in addressing this problem”. See www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/12126/ and the original website of the Ombudsman (in Russian) at the address
detention, he knew very little about the building where the cell was located. The cell had a toilet, which was also the only source of drinking water for the detainee. For food, he occasionally received a piece of bread. He heard a man screaming close by, indicating that other persons were being detained and tortured in the same building, which had bare concrete floors (in the cell) and could not possibly have been a civilian dwelling”.413
213. In another interview conducted on 12 October 2009, X.X., another Chechen who had been living in Dagestan and now living in exile, explained that he had been subjected to harassment and short-term detention since 1991, when he participated in a demonstration against the war. This led to his name appearing on a “black list”, and he was detained whenever there was an incident, and was usually held for one or two days at a time and secretly (incommunicado and without any subsequent judicial procedure). In early 2004, after the deputy head of the local branch of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) was killed, he was briefly detained, taken to a forest, made to dig his own grave and threatened and beaten, then released. He was then seized again in early March, and held in incommunicado detention for three days in a prison where torture was used to extract false confessions. He was then put on trial with all mention of his incommunicado detention erased from the record. With help from his family, he however managed to avoid conviction and to be released.414
214. In a third interview, X.Y. explained how he had been seized from his house in Dagestan in late 2007, then taken to a secret facility that he called a concentration camp “where people do not come back from”, in Gudermes district, Chechnya, run by the FSB, the foreign military
intelligence service of the Russian armed forces (GRU) and the Anti-Terrorist Centre. He described being held in an old concrete building, recalled a terrible smell and walls covered in blood, and explained that he had been “severely tortured” for 10 days, which included receiving electric shocks, being beaten with iron bars, and being burned with a lighter. He also explained that he was never given food and received only one glass of water per day, and that he had witnessed a man beaten to death and whose organs were then removed. After 10 days, he was taken to a forest, where he narrowly escaped being extrajudicially executed. He also said that several other secret facilities, such as the one where he had been held, exist in Chechnya, and now also in Dagestan.415