Paul Goble
Staunton, July 20 – The phenomenon
of “disappearnces” when individuals simply “disappear” from their daily
existence as the result of the actions of the government or of those allied
with it, long a characteristic of life in the North Caucasus and of Latin
American dictatorships, is now spreading throughout the Russian Federation.
That is the disturbing conclusion of
“Kommersant” journalist Grigory Tumanov who was asked by the editors of the Snob
portal to investigate this phenomenon in the North Caucasus and its spread from
that troubled region into central Russia and beyond and has today published his
findings (snob.ru/selected/entry/111063).
According to the
Russian interior ministry, approximately 120,000 Russians disappear each year,
including 4500 Muscovites. Most do so on their own and eventually
reappear. But many of these are
involuntary “disappearances” of the kind made infamous by the dictatorship in
Argentina and by thuggish regimes in the North Caucasus.
In the latter region, such cases
have become a commonplace, Rustam Matsyev, a lawyer who tracks down such people
for the Legal Initiative Organization. He told Tumanov that this phenomenon is
now so common in the North Caucasus that many residents of that restive region
see it as the new normal.
What is especially disturbing,
however, is that the use of “disappearances” by the authorities is spreading to
other parts of Russia where the police decide they have to make someone they
cannot easily charge or convict simply go away by “disappearing” him either
into special prisons or even cemeteries.
According to Matsyev, the practice
has spread because police from various parts of Russia who have been sent for service
in the North Caucasus come to view this technique as a quick fix and then apply
it when they return home even if there is no official demand from above for it
there.
It is difficult if not impossible to
say just how many cases of this there are, Tumanov continues, not only because
the police are not interested in releasing details but also because the media
quickly lose interest in cases when journalists assume that an individual may
eventually turn up given that there is no evidence to the contrary.
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