Amnesty International Condemns Russian Threats
May 26, 2000
Amnesty International has released a public statement concerning Russia's threats to use preventive air strikes against Afghanistan, whose Taliban regime, as the Kremlin has said, provides the training ground for the Chechen fighters.
Amnesty International suggested that "the warning evokes memories of massive human rights violations during the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989 which resulted in the deaths of thousands of defenseless women, men and children and an exodus of one fifth of the population. Russia's aerial bombing of Chechnya, which included the targeting of civilian convoys marked with white flags, demonstrates a continuing disregard for civilian life."
In its statement, the international human rights organization said it is "also concerned that the Russian threats might give further excuses to some of the countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States to engage in human rights violations under the pretext of national security." Amnesty International especially mentions Uzbekistan in this respect.
Amnesty International urges the Russian authorities "to refrain from any military activity that could result - as has done in the past - in the indiscriminate killing of non-combatants and other human rights violations."
Amnesty International further alerts that "such statements by Russian authorities should be a warning to the international community that Russian military action of the type which was carried out in Chechnya and which resulted in massive human rights violations there could be repeated elsewhere. It is therefore imperative that the international community - members of the United Nations and the Council of Europe - remind the Russian authorities of their responsibilities not to engage in any military activity that would cause human rights violations. (Amnesty International)