COUNCIL OF EUROPE: RUSSIAN FORCES DELIBERATELY VIOLATED HUMANRIGHTS IN CHECHNYA.

A report prepared by Council of Europeexperts who had visited Chechnya earlier this year said that Russiantroops had engaged in widespread beatings, looting, and destructionof property and, in isolated cases, massacres, tortures, and rape.The report, widely covered in European papers, noted that "criminalacts can be described as a deliberate policy of the federal Russiancommand." The report singled out the interior troops as theworst offenders; it also noted that the Chechen forces had onoccasion violated human rights standards, but found that suchviolations were the exception rather than the rule. The reportwill be used by the Council to determine whether Russia can qualifyfor membership in the organization.