HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS TO INVESTIGATE CRIMES IN CHECHNYA.

On December 3, the online news service Lenta.ru reported that the deputy procurator general of the Russian Federation in the Southern Federal District, Sergei Fridinsky, had announced that “public human rights organizations will be permitted to investigate crimes committed in Chechnya.” “Nongovernment human rights organizations,” Fridinsky remarked, “have appealed with an initiative to permit their participation in investigating crimes in Chechnya, including those committed against peaceful citizens. We do not reject their participation, so long as it stays within the parameters defined by law.” Fridinsky noted that an agreement concerning such an arrangement had been reached at a seminar hosted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe during the previous week in Strasbourg.