Albert

Russian HR Activists Criticize Bush for Meeting Russian General

Russian human rights groups on Thursday asked U.S. President George W. Bush to explain why he had a White House meeting with a Russian general accused of rights abuses in Chechnya, the Reuters news agency reports.

Bush met General Vladimir Shamanov in March as part of a U.S.-Russian commission on missing soldiers. A spokeswoman said it was “unlikely” Bush would have met Shamanov if he had known about the abuse allegations.

“The rather vague apologies of the White House don’t seem sufficient in such a grave situation. We hope to hear your own explanation,” said an open letter signed by leaders of 13 Russian human rights groups.

“Was that meeting with Shamanov a misunderstanding and a very unfortunate mistake? Or do you believe that ... war crimes and crimes against humanity may remain uninvestigated, and the perpetrators may go unpunished?”

“Whether you wanted it or not, the international community received a signal that the leader of a world power ... welcomes a general who is allegedly responsible for war crimes,” said the letter.

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Shamanov, now retired, of being in charge of a Russian battalion blamed for attacking the Chechen village of Alkhan-Yurt in December 1999, killing 17 civilians.

The signatories of the letter included several prominent Russian human rights campaigners.

One of the signatories, Tatyana Lokshina, met Bush and told him about rights abuses in Chechnya when the U.S. president visited Russia for a Group of Eight summit last year.

The European Court for Human Rights on Thursday awarded a Chechen woman over 50,000 euros ($66,700) in damages to a Chechen woman whose husband disappeared during a security sweep by federal forces in the troubled region.

Date: 06.04.2007
Source: Mosnews

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Albert

Bush met Russian general accused of Chechnya abuse

President George W. Bush met this week with a Russian general accused of human rights abuses in Chechnya, but was not aware of the allegations, the White House said on Thursday.

Bush met Gen. Vladimir Shamanov in the Oval Office on Monday in an attempt to reinvigorate a U.S.-Russian commission on missing soldiers.

Shamanov is co-chairman of the commission along with his U.S. counterpart, retired Air Force Gen. Robert Foglesong, president of Mississippi State University.

The rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Shamanov of being in charge of a Russian battalion blamed for attacking the Chechnyan village of Alkhan-Yurt in December 1999, killing 17 civilians.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it was "unlikely" that Bush would have met the general and posed for pictures with him if he had known about the charges.

"The president was not aware of the allegations made against him, and was seeking to sharpen the focus on the commission's good work, and due to the information about the current Russian commission leadership, we are going to review how best to move forward with that important work, without future photo ops," she said.

Date: March 29, 2007
Source: Reuters

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