Russian security forces burn down Chechens’ homes in punitive raids - HRW

A leading human rights group has accused security forces in Chechnya of collectively punishing families whose relatives are allegedly militants, by burning down their homes, AP said.

The accusations by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday were the latest allegations of rights violations in Chechnya under the rule of its strongman pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

HRW said its report, entitled Punitive House Burning in Chechnya, showed a "distinct pattern" of house burnings by security forces to punish families for the alleged militant activities of relatives.

"In all the cases documented in this report, the families whose houses were burned have alleged insurgents among their close relatives, usually sons or nephews," said the report, which documented 13 cases of arson.

"There can be no doubt that the families' houses were burned in retribution for this."

The report said that Kadyrov had warned in 2008 that insurgents' families could expect to be punished using traditional Chechen retribution methods unless they convinced their relatives to surrender.

Local, unofficial reports state that the authorities had strongly pressured the families to bring back relatives from militant bases in "the forest" and threatened retribution if they failed to do so.

"The use of appalling and unlawful tactics by rebel fighters does not justify the use of similar tactics by government forces fighting the insurgency," said Tatyana Lokshina, deputy head of HRW's Moscow office.

On Wednesday another human rights body, Amnesty International, called on Russia to enforce order and transparency in Chechnya and the north Caucasus.

"There has been and continues to be a total failure of political will to uphold the rule of law and address impunity for present and past abuses of human rights in the region," the group said.