ACPC CALLS FOR MORAL CLARITY ON CHECHNYA

The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) on June 30 called on Western governments and observers “to continue to speak with moral clarity on Chechnya during their talks with the Russian Federation,” notably on the eve of the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. The group said in a press release that it was “deeply concerned” about reports of “human displacement and insecurity” in the aftermath of the June 4 raid in Borozdinovskaya, an ethnic Dagestani village situated in northeastern Chechnya, which was carried out by the Sulim Yamadaev’s pro-Moscow Vostok battalion that operates under the Defense Ministry’s auspices.

Eleven local men were abducted in the raid on Borozdinovskaya and some 1,200 villagers fled into Dagestan. Russian media reported on June 30 that nearly 1,000 of the villagers who fled Borodinovskaya returned to the village after long negotiations with and guarantees of security from the authorities. President Putin’s envoy to the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, promised that the state would compensate Borozdinovskaya residents whose houses were destroyed in the June 4 raid, RIA Novosti reported.

The ACPC press release also cited comments by Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Dukhvakha Abdurakhmanov that 300,000 Chechens have been killed since the beginning of the first war in 1994, with another 200,000 missing, noting that this would mean that roughly a quarter of Chechnya’s pre-war population has been killed as a result of the conflict.