#13
French Editorial Deplores UN Human Rights Commission's 'Hypocrisy' Over Chechnya
Le Monde
28-29 April 2002
[translation for personal use only]
Unattributed editorial: "Jenin and Groznyy"

It is a tradition and has been respected. Each year the UN Commission on Human Rights beats records for hypocrisy. Its annual session in Geneva sees some states that trample on human rights in the most massive fashion -- China and Russia, for example -- escaping all condemnation. They brandish the same shield: do not touch the sacrosanct principle of the sovereignty of states. There are violations of human rights only insofar as Moscow and Beijing consent to denounce them. That is the most conditional and most abject defense of human rights. And we have just seen a repetition of this pitiful exercise.

Act I: the commission examined the Israeli offensive on the West Bank. It voted on 15 April, with the support of France, for a statement that pilloried Israel for committing "massive slaughter" against the Palestinian people. Moscow and Beijing stood in the front rank of the offensive. Act II: four days later, on Friday 19 April, the commission rejected all condemnation of Russia for the situation in Chechnya. In this latter vote, China, which had escaped any mention of the situation in Tibet or in Xinjiang, lent its support to Moscow in the name of the "antiterrorist struggle" and defense of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.

To justify their vote some states emphasized the date angle of the matter. The destruction of part of the refugee camp of Jenin on the West Bank (probably 50 to 80 dead) took place in April, whereas the complete destruction (several tens of thousands killed) in Groznyy, the Chechen capital, a city of 450,000 inhabitants, by the Russians goes back to 1999. The argument is a quibble because, without in any way diminishing the suffering of the Palestinian population and without in any way lessening the condemnation of Ariel Sharon's policy, it has to be stated that the situation in Chechnya is increasingly tragic with every day that passes. It knows no improvement whatsoever. The army is pursuing a policy of horror, which every source confirms.

In the middle of April the NGO Human Rights Watch mentioned the disappearance of 87 people in Groznyy since the start of the year: abducted for ransom by the Russian forces or found dead, executed with a bullet fired at point-blank range, the body often showing signs of torture. These activities were confirmed by our special correspondent in our report "The Disappeared of Groznyy" (Le Monde 24 April). The Russian forces are bent on terrorizing in order to subjugate a people who have already undergone an ordeal: perhaps 150,000 dead since the last offensive, that of 1999, while only 300,000 to 400,000 Chechens out of a population of 1 million before the war are said still to be living inside the country. The others have been forced into exile in neighboring republics.

By refusing to denounce this tragedy, the UN commission has lost a little more of its credibility.

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