A Real Report on Human Rights Abuses in Ingushetia Would be Damning, Mutsolgov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 28 – Several days ago, Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov asked the Ingush republic plenipotentiary for human rights to prepare a report about the state of human rights there.  That report, activist and blogger Magomed Mutsolgov, can be expected to play down many problems (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/40243).

            To indicate what the official report is likely to pass over, he offers a detailed description of major problems in 13 different categories. Among them are disappearances and kidnappings, torture by security personnel who remain unpunished, fabrication of criminal cases, violation of the right of assembly and religious freedom, and massive incarceration of protesters.

            Mutsolgov says that “for the stabilization of the social-political situation in Ingushetia, there must be systemic changes,” including an end to repression, the freeing of political prisoners, the brining of police and other siloviki to justice, and a serious fight against corruption.

            Meanwhile, the former deputy chief of the Ingush interior minister who oversaw the police came out in support of the 17 policemen who were fired for failing to obey an order to use force to disperse demonstrators (doshdu.com/jeks-zamglavy-mvd-ingushetii-podderzhal-uvolennyh-policejskih-otkazavshihsja-razgonjat-martovskij-miting/).

            And a spokesman for the Spiritual Center of Muslims of Ingushetia said that his institution continues to operate despite being ordered to be shut down and that it is filing an appeal against that order by the Supreme Court of the Ingush Republic (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/341671/).