Russian war crimes in Chechnya

Nobody knows how many people have been killed since the Russian onslaught on Chechnya began last September. The number of Chechens, civilians as well as combatants, who have been maimed, tortured, raped, incarcerated in "filtration centers" (Putin- speak for concentration camps) bombed into incoherence or madness, terrorized, beaten and otherwise abused is an even darker secret. This ignorance is the result of a deliberate Russian policy which has barred access to Chechnya to international institutions, as well as (until relatively recently) the mass media.

Alvaro Gil-Robles, from the Council of Europe, yesterday became the first senior western official to be allowed into Grozny, the ruined Chechen capital. He, too, gained a promise of dubious worth: the Russians agreed (in principle) to let a human rights group open a Grozny mission. But much, much more is needed in the way of investigation. There is accumulating, persuasive, eyewitness evidence that Russian forces have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Full, independent inquiries must now proceed urgently and unimpeded.

-- The Guardian, London