Russia's failure effectively to prosecute servicemen for the murder of more than 50 civilians in Chechnya on one day in 2000 can only mean the authorities assented to the killings, Europe's human rights court said on Thursday.
The European Court of Human Rights was delivering its verdict on a case in which about 11 civilians were killed in a suburb of the Chechen capital Grozny on February 5 2000, which has been dubbed by Human Rights Watch "a day of slaughter." "The astonishing ineffectiveness of the prosecuting authorities in this case could only be qualified as acquiescence in the events," the Strasbourg-based court said.
The European court has ruled against Russia a handful of times in the last 12 months for breaching human rights in Chechnya, including a verdict last October on the deaths of five people killed on February 5, 2000.
Human rights groups say at least 56 people died at the scene. The court often criticises Russian prosecutors for being ineffective but Thursday's language was particularly strong. It said all the evidence needed for a successful prosecution was available.
The scene was littered by used ammunition cases with traceable serial numbers, witnesses who saw men in Russian military uniforms shoot people gave statements, and civic groups collected forensic evidence, the European court said. "No meaningful result whatsoever had been achieved in the task of identifying and prosecuting the individuals who had committed the crimes," it said. The Russia Prosecutor-General's office declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
The Russia-based Memorial group wrote a report about the February 5, 2000 killings entitled: "Mopping up: Deliberate crimes against civilians". Russian forces have fought Chechen rebels in two wars since 1994. The wars destroyed Chechnya, killed thousands and forced thousands more to flee.
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