RUSSIA-CHECHNYA/RIGHTS Russian rights group says masked men raid its Chechnya office

Record ID: 150073

  • Title: RUSSIA-CHECHNYA/RIGHTS Russian rights group says masked men raid its Chechnya office
  • Date: 3rd June 2015
  • Summary: GROZNY, RUSSIA (JUNE 3, 2015) (REUTERS) PEOPLE IN COURTYARD OF APARTMENT BLOCK BALCONY OF OFFICE OF RUSSIAN RIGHTS GROUP THE COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE VARIOUS OF DAMAGED CAR BELONGING TO THE COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE PARKED IN COURTYARD VARIOUS OF PAPERS, BROKEN FURNITURE AND OFFICE EQUIPMENT SCATTERED THROUGH OFFICE OF THE COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE PEOPLE ON STAIRWAY LEAD
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACTGSDKF7TUK8SZCK8FFYKJZOF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Masked men wearing civilian clothes stormed the office of a human rights organisation in the southern Russian region of Chechnya on Wednesday (June 3), smashing computers, doors and office equipment and leaving the site covered in files.
    Russian non-governmental organisation the Committee Against Torture, one of only two independent rights groups working in Chechnya, said on Twitter police did not respond to calls for help as attackers destroyed their car parked outside the office and then forced their way in its headquarters in the regional capital of Grozny.
    Chechnya is mainly Muslim region where Kremlin-appointed leader Ramzan Kadyrov stands accused of widespread rights violations and heavy-handed tactics against any dissenters, charges that he denies.
    A Reuters witness who arrived to the site shortly after the incident saw the group's offices badly damaged, with smashed window glass, office furniture and computers destroyed and documents covering the floor. Police only arrived after the incident was over.
    The group, which mainly lives of Western grants, has seen its Grozny offices raided and its representatives beaten in the past in Chechnya. On Wednesday, it said its staff flew the office and there was no word on injuries.
    Moscow fought two wars against separatists in Chechnya in the decade after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and is now fighting an insurgency aimed at creating an Islamist state in the broader North Caucasus area.
    Tensions have risen sharply between Russia's federal law enforcement bodies and security forces in Chechnya that are loyal to Kadyrov after ethnic Chechens with links to his aides were charged with killing Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in central Moscow in February.
    Some of Chechen security officials whom Russian media have linked with those charged with Nemtsov killing have proven beyond reach for federal bodies investigating it.
    Further highlighting tensions between central police authorities and the hardline Chechen leader, Kadyrov ordered his police to "shoot to kill" if servicemen from other parts of the country encroach on his territory after servicemen from a neighbouring region shot a Chechen man dead in Grozny in April.
    Before the group's office was vandalised on Wednesday, a crowd of several dozen people gathered outside, some carrying banners with the name of the killed Chechen man and criticising the organisation for not seeking to investigate his murder.
    Chechnya's official state TV broadcaster said the crowd came out to protest what it described as the committee's "politicised" and selective approach to human rights.
    Local police in Grozny declined comment on the Wednesday incident, while the federal police in Moscow said they had no information on that.
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