Tag Archives: army

New Publication – A Collection of annual Reports on Xenophobia, Freedom of Conscience and Anti-Extremism by the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis

Publication of the fourth annual collection of reports of the SOVA Center:

Verkhovskii, A.M., Kozhevnikova, G.V., Sibirtseva, O.A. Ksenofobiia, Svoboda Sovesti i Antiekstremizm v Rossii v 2009 Godu: Sbornik Ezhegodnykh Dokladov [Xenophobia, freedom of conscience and anti-extremism in Russia in 2009: A Collection of annual reports by the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis]. Moscow: Sova, 2010. 141 p. ill., tabl.  ­ Nauchnoe izdanie ­ pbk. 14 x 21 cm. Printing 700. ISBN 9785984180160.  In Russian. 

The report summarizes all the major areas of research by the Center for Information and Analysis in 2009. The first report addresses pressing issues, such as the growth of radical nationalism, hate crimes, and the efforts of government and society to combat these problems. The second report focuses on the increasingly visible tendency to limit freedom of speech through further conscience legislation. It explores various cases and areas relating to freedom of conscience in contemporary Russia: religious practices, army, penitentiaries, etc. The third report analyzes unjustified use of anti-extremist legislation in Russia in the year in study. Appendices include statistical data and the cases which were tried by Russian courts on extremist charges.

Workshop Report – The perpetration of sexual violence in conflict zones

On June 25-26, The Hamburg Institute for Sozialforschung organised an international workshop  on The perpetration of sexual violence in conflict zones. Sources of explanation. Discussions and exchanges from a multidisciplinary point of view allowed to raise several interesting issues, and can help to understand and analyse the cases of sexual violence committed during the war in Chechnya. In the attached document are some notes on rape in Chechnya, inspired by the discussion of the workshop and based on the information given in several Human Rights Reports on the period 2000-2004.

Workshop Report HIS june 2010 Rape during the War in Chechnya

Data and Methodology – What Do We Know About Rapes Committed During the War in Chechnya ? (in French)

Des viols de femmes ont été commis durant la guerre de Tchétchénie, dans les « camps de filtration » (prisons illégales), aux checkpoints, dans les cantonnements militaires et lors des « nettoyages » (rafles) dans les villages[1]. Il est cependant très difficile d’en cerner l’ampleur.

Silence et impunité

Comme dans de très nombreux autres conflits, le silence des victimes s’explique par le tabou et de l’opprobre qui pèsent sur elles. « C’est une espèce de loi », témoigne une jeune fille tchétchène, « une fille souillée, pour son père, c’est pire que si elle était morte. C’est un déshonneur terrible. Elle ne peut pas se marier, personne ne lui parle gentiment, même si ce n’est pas de sa faute d’avoir perdu son honneur[2]. ». Aset Asimova (nom d’emprunt), veuve de 43 ans a raconté ainsi à Human Rights Watch avoir été violée par trois soldats ivres en février 2002. Son premier geste « après le départ des soldats fut de cacher ce qui s’était produit afin que son fils plus âgé ne puisse deviner le viol. “J’ai barbouillé mon nez et ma bouche de sang comme si j’avais été battue à ces endroits et que le sang venait de là. J’ai tout nettoyé, j’ai caché ma robe et j’en ai mis une propre. »[3]

Autre problème : l’impunité dont bénéficient les auteurs de violences sexuelles. Le code pénal russe (article 131-1), punit en principe le viol d’une peine d’emprisonnement de 3 à 6 ans, qui peut aller jusqu’à 10 ans en cas de viol en groupe ou avec menaces de mort. Pourtant, selon l’organisation russe des DH Mémorial, début 2003, seul deux soldats avaient été jugés pour viol et condamnés uniquement à des peines avec sursis[4]. Le colonel Boudanov, qui en mars 2000 a enlevé et violé une jeune femme tchétchène, a finalement été condamné pour meurtre, mais non pas pour viol[5].

Viols d’hommes et viols de femmes

Des viols d’homme ont également été commis en Tchétchénie, essentiellement dans les « camps de filtrations » où ils étaient amenés après des arrestations arbitraires  par les forces russes pour « vérifier » leur éventuelle appartenance aux groupes armés tchétchènes. Des hommes détenus ont été soumis à violences sexuelles : application d’électrodes sur parties génitales, viols commis avec des armes ou des bouteilles, s’accompagnant de menaces sur leurs capacités reproductives et d’humiliation (surnoms féminins). Ces viols relèvent pratiques répandues parmi la pègre et dans le monde des camps, qui ont été instrumentalisées et utilisées par l’administration pénitentiaire depuis la période stalinienne en Russie, et appliquées également en Tchétchénie.

L’ampleur de ces viols reste également à évaluer, d’autant que les hommes étaient, au début de la guerre, les premiers visés par les arrestations arbitraires et les rafles, les femmes circulant plus librement. La situation a sans doute changé après la prise d’otage du théâtre de la Doubrovka à Moscou (à laquelle ont participé des femmes voilées) et les premiers attentats suicides commis par les femmes. En 2006, la Rapporteuse spéciale de l’ONU sur la violence contre les femmes, Yakin Ertürk s’inquiétait de l’opération « Fatima », lancée en juillet 2003, qui visait spécifiquement des femmes tchétchènes portant des foulards musulmans traditionnels et notait qu’en détention « ces femmes peuvent être soumises à la torture et à des violences sexo-spécifiques, comme le viol ou d’autres formes de violences sexuelles».[6].

Les rapports d’organisations de défense des droits de l’Homme

Plusieurs rapports ou communiqués d’Organisations de défense des droits de l’Homme, russes ou internationales, mentionnent des viols de femmes ou d’hommes et développent certains cas avec précisions[7].

Parmi ces sources, on peut citer :

Amnesty International, Russian Federation (Chechnya): Rape and torture of children in Chernokozovo “filtration camp, 23 March 2000.

Amnesty International, Russian federation: Continuing torture and rape in Chechnya, 08 June 2000.

Human Rights Watch, No Happiness Remains: Civilian Killings, Pillage, and Rape in Alkhan-Yurt, Chechnya, vol. 12 no. 5, April 2000.

Human Rights Watch, Consideration of the Fifth Periodic Report of the Russian Federation : Serious violations of Women’s Human Rights in Chechnya, Report to the Members of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against women, January 2002.

Human Rights Watch, Russie : enquêter sur les violences sexuelles commises par les troupes en Tchétchénie, New York, 10 avril 2002.

Mémorial / FIDH, Tchétchénie, crimes contre l’humanité, un an de crimes impunis, Octobre 2000.

Moskovskaia Khelzinkskaia gruppa, Diskriminatsia zhenshchin v sovremennoi Rossii, (red S. Lukashevski, T. Lokshina, A. Novikova), 2003.

Physicians for Human Rights, Endless Brutality War Crimes in Chechnya, 2001.

Témoignages de réfugiés

La Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, basée à Londres, à publié en 2004 un rapport portant sur 35 personnes originaires de Tchétchénie que la Fondation avait suivies entre 1999 et 2004. Le rapport note que 16 femmes (sur 19) et un hommes ont été victimes de viol et esquisse une typologie des violences sexuelles : “y a eu 16 cas de viol vaginal, 5 cas de viol anal et 2 cas de viol oral. (…) La fréquence de ces viols va de une à plusieurs fois (par ex. chaque jour pendant un mois). Le nombre d’hommes impliqués comme perpétrateurs va de 1 à “plus de 10”.

Référence : Doctor Charlotte Granville-Chapman, Rape and Other Torture in the Chechnya Conflict: Documented Evidence From Asylum Seekers Arriving in the United Kingdom, Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, London, April 2004.

Sources judiciaires – la CEDH

Une plainte anonyme pour torture et violences sexuelles a été déposée en octobre 2006 auprès de la Cour Européenne des droits de l’Homme , X and Y v. Russia, (43411/06), pour des tortures et violences sexuelles commises en 2004[8]. La communication est disponible en anglais sur le site de la CEDH.

Il s’agit de la seule affaire concernant des violences sexuelles sur les 238 affaires recensée par par l’association Stichting Russian Justice Initiative (SRJI), qui représente de nombreux plaignants auprès de la CEDH.


[1] Cette note porte sur la période de 1999 à 2003. La “seconde” guerre de Tchétchénie commence en septembre 1999, alors que 2003 correspond à la « tchétchénisation » du conflit, c’est-à-dire au transfert des fonctions de police à des supplétifs tchétchènes. Les forces russes restent toujours présentes sur le territoire, mais la configuration de la violence change (violences plus ciblées, émanant le plus souvent des forces tchétchènes pro-russes).

[2] cité par Petra Prochazkova, La guerre russo-tchétchène, paroles de femme, Le serpent à Plumes, 2005, p 46

[3] Human Rights Watch, Russie : enquêter sur les violences sexuelles commises par les troupes en Tchétchénie, (New York, 10 avril 2002)

[4] Memorial, Deceptive Justice. Situation on the investigation on crimes against civilians committed by members of the Federal Forces in the Chechen Republic during military operations 1999–2003 , 2003.

[5] Voir sur ce point Amandine Regamey, « L’opinion publique russe et l’affaire Boudanov [Russian Public Opinion and The Budanov Case] », The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies [Online], Issue 8 | 2008, Online since 14 juillet 2008.

[6] «Rapport de la Rapporteuse spéciale sur la violence contre les femmes, ses causes et ses conséquences, Yakin Ertürk Mission dans la Fédération de Russie » 62ème session, 26 january 2006, Doc E/CN.4/2006/61/Add.2,

[7] A noter que les témoignages recueillis ne peuvent pas s’additionner mécaniquement pour permettre d’évaluer le nombre de viols : les témoignages sont anonymes et il est très possible que plusieurs ONG aient recueilli le même témoignages, d’autant que les ONG internationales travaillaient avec les mêmes « correspondants » russes sur place, essentiellement l’association des droits de l’Homme « Mémorial »

[8] L’association Stichting Russian Justice Initiative (“SRJI”), qui représente les plaignants, décrit l’affaire de cette façon : “In the middle of the night on 26 May 2004 a group of masked military servicemen detained X in Grozny and brought him to the Leninsky District Department of the Interior (ROVD). A number of policemen started to beat him with truncheons, electroluted him with wires attached to different parts of his body and sexually abused him. X eventually signed a confession. In the following weeks, the torture and ill-treatment continued both at the Leninsky ROVD and in ORB-2.”

Data and Methodology – The Post-Soviet Penal system and the Quest for Statistics – A Challenge to Social Sciences Researchers

Studying the link between violence in war situation and violence in post-war situation is in the core of our research. Although one should not jump to the conclusion that there is indeed such a link and should explore as well the role of dedovshchina (violent hazing), of shtrafbaty (penal battalions) etc. in veterans’ trajectories, investigating whether military service – especially combat exposure – increases risk for incarceration compared to non-veteran population is a necessary option that may not be an easy task to accomplish in post-Soviet Russia.

In the USA, using prisoner data and comparing them with the census or using data from national surveys of US veterans and non veterans does not seem to be a problem in terms of access. One limitation though in interpreting the data may come from the fact that inmates may not have mentioned that they are veterans “for fear of losing benefits from themselves and their family”1.

In post-Soviet Russia, as in Soviet Russia, statistics are hard to get. The Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments (FSIN) is a secretive institution and accessing the data needed may require more than competence in statistics! One has to develop strategies to collect them.

Official data, when available, are published with scarcity. The number of prisoners and data about them are hold by the Russian government but are not in the public domain. And the different institutions existing in the framework of the Russian penal system (SIZO – sledstvennyi isolator, three types of IK – ispravital’naia koloniia ) make it difficult to draw a map of the general situation.

Searching journals and newspapers published by FSIN such as:

(The journal “Prestuplenie i Nakazanie” is published monthly since 1992 and is intended for the personnel of the ministry of Justice, the FSIN and all the governmental structures.)

(Founded in 2000, “Kazennyi Dom” is a monthly publication devoted to convicts.)

(Published since 1999, “Vedomosti UIS” is a monthly publication aimed at collaborators of the Russian judicial system.)

… may not be a successful option.

Therefore one should consider turning to prisoner support groups, or human rights NGOs which have been working for a long time in the prison environment and have been able to make personal ties with prison administration personnel2.

Among others, associations such as

–          Arestant – a Russian prisoner support network http://www.arestants.ru/

–          Center for Prison Reform, http://www.prison.org

may be the ones to turn to.

Special issues of Index such as:

Vse Tyurmy Rossii (All Russian Prisons / http://www.index.org.ru/turma/st/)

or

Nevolia, the supplement of Index  (Issue 16-2008 http://www.index.org.ru/nevol/2008-16/) are also recommended for a start….

…to be continued…

  1. Greg A. Greenberg, Robert A. Rosenheck and Rani A. Desai, “Risk of Incarceration among Male Veterans and Nonveterans: Are Veterans of the All Volunteer Force at Greater Risk?”, Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 33, n° 3, April 2007, pp. 337-350. []
  2. On this aspect cf. the interview with Liudmila Al’pern – Center for Prison Reform – published in The Journal of Power institutions in Post-Soviet Societies, issue 9, 2009, http://pipss.revues.org/index1981.html, paragraphs 27-30. []

New Book – On Veterans and Post-War Trajectories – “L’adieu aux armes. Parcours d’anciens combattants”, Nathalie Duclos (Ed.)

The book is published by Karthala, 2010  (in French)

Abstracts in English

Table of Contents

 Nathalie Duclos. Introduction

The introduction examines research in the fields of history, political science, sociology and anthropology concerning combat veterans of various armed conflicts, within and between states. Two research methodologies emerge which, though developed independently of each other, reflect a preoccupation with similar questions. The author proposes a third methodology, reformulating these questions in the aim of laying the groundwork for a political sociology of the ex-combatant’s return to civilian life and their postwar trajectories. Critical of the view that the end of a war opens up a radically new era, the author suggests taking a closer look at the legacies of war, its postwar sociological and cognitive continuities and discontinuities, the possible difficulties involved in ex-combatants ridding themselves of a violent “mode”, the effects, from that point of view, of policies aimed at them, and the strategies of individual veterans in face of the deep sociological and political transformations of the postwar period. The career concept proposed by Howard Becker, certainly helps to better understand and deal with ex-combatants’ postwar itineraries.

 FISRT PART

Anne Le Huérou et Élisabeth Sieca-Kozlowski.  A “Chechen Syndrome”? Russian veterans of the Chechen war: transposing violence into society

This chapter is a study of Russian veterans after the Chechen conflict and the trajectories both of demobilised soldiers and policemen returning to their previous law enforcement functions. The authors explore the hypothesis that the war experience is transposed into episodes of postwar violence. They also bring in related elements, such as pre-war experiences in institutions where brutality is common (army, police) and government policies implicitly or explicitly authorizing violence.

Sümbül Kaya. The Return of Veterans: terrain for a regime of national security?

This article analyses the situation of Turkish soldiers who participated in the Kurdish conflict during their military service. It questions the extent to which the return of ex-combatants has been instrumentalized by the Turkish authorities, in particular through a mythification of past combats and sanctification of martyrs which breeds a need for security in the population and thus facilitates the redeployment of a law-and-order regime in social structures. Indeed, the return of the veterans to civilian life seems to play a role in the security ethos. Furthermore, the spread of this mode of thinking engenders an attitude of “moral armament” towards the Kurdish conflict.

 Sophie Daviaud. The Demobilization Process of Colombian Paramilitary Groups: why it results in a social and political dead end

This article deals with the demobilization process of the Colombian paramilitary groups, begun in 2003 by the government of Alvaro Uribe Velez and ending in early 2006 with the disarmament of more than 31,000 fighters. After describing the short-term effects of the process – a general decrease in the level of violence and a reduction in the number of human rights violations – the author seeks to explain the difficulties which are beginning to appear and which undermine the long-term process. Various hypotheses are considered: the “warrior habitus” of the paramilitaries, which renders them incapable of other than war-like activity and a “brutalization” of Colombian society. The author believes that it is the permanent presence of narco-traffic networks in Colombia which explains the creation of new armed groups and the restructuring of old ones; furthermore, that the failure of the DDR process is evidence of the infiltration of Colombian society and its political system by paramilitaries.

 Camille Boutron. Back to Civilian Life After a War: the blotting out of women’s participation in the Committees for Self Defense in Peru

Between 1980 and 2000, Peru was shaken by violent armed conflict causing the death of more than 69,000 people. In collaboration with the army, civil defence patrols were set up in the peasant communities hardest hit by political violence. Known as Comités de Autodefensa, these organizations armed themselves to protect their communities. Although the majority of their members were men, women made a significant contribution to self-defence activities. Their participation, however, has been obliterated from the memory of the communities. Moreover, incidents of domestic violence against women have increased sharply, a fact interpreted by the author as due to the continuation of a “warrior habitus” in peacetime.

SECOND PART

Béatrice Richard. Can a War Veteran Integrate the American Dream?

What is it like for a war veteran to return to a peaceful and prosperous civilian society? This question is particularly relevant in Canada. Far from the massive operational theatres of both world wars, Canadians experienced these events in a schizophrenic mode: some were caught in the turmoil of the front lines, others remained unharmed on a relatively secure home front. The resulting cultural clash between veterans and civilians was inevitable. How did the veterans experience their return? What were the outward signs of their crises? Veterans told us that after signing their discharge they were asked to abandon their warrior habitus on the spot and pursue the American Dream. It was assumed that the emerging welfare state would create a peaceful and well-ordered life for veterans. However, it neglected to take into account the symbolic dimensions of “civilianization”. At best, the community commemorated its heroes’ ultimate sacrifice, but paid little attention to those who had survived, taking it for granted that they were back to “normal”. Thus, because the community offered no “re-aggregating” rituals which might have helped veterans evacuate the hubris imbued in them by the nation at war, returning soldiers were left to find their own way of repressing their “dark side” and coming to terms with the loss of their brothers in arms. Some managed better than others. But does one ever come back from war? 

Fabien Théofilakis. Veterans, French Authorities and Public Opinion Towards German Prisoners of War (1944-1949)

This paper offers an analysis of the “cultural demobilization” of French veterans. The complex relationship between French veterans and German prisoners of war (POWs) and with French society as a whole reflects the difficult process of reintegrating veterans that began in 1945 and lasted until the departure of the last POW in 1949. The article discusses the impact on this process of how the enemy was viewed, the role of political structures, and the importance of the international context – at three points in time. From 1944 until October 1945, a rationale of surveillance towards an enemy universally despised justified the participation of veterans – in recognition of their sacrifice – in the administration of POWs. As time went on however and the war receded into the past, POWs began to take on a more human and positive image as workers for France, which frustrated veterans’ attempts to remain the focal point of the country’s reconstruction. 1947 was a turning point in the relationship of French society with both POWs and veterans. Official projects aimed at the integration of the soon-to-be-liberated POWs, now accepted by public opinion, aroused conflicting reactions on the part of veterans and foreshadowed their marginalization by French society in the 1950s. 

Samuel Tanner. “Recycled” Militiamen: the reconversion experience of four former members of Serbian armed bands

How do former militiamen who have participated in mass violence “recycle” once the war is over? Do they reintegrate into the postwar “normalized” day-to-day framework of social, political and community relations? Or does the violence experienced during the war transfer into the postwar context? And if so, can we speak of a violent habitus? This chapter, an ethnographic study of the postwar reconversion of four former Serbian militiamen who took part in mass violence in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, underlines the need to view such conversion experiences from a dual angle: collective and individual. From the collective point of view, we find a reconfiguration of the community’s social economy with a tendency towards a new order giving these former members of armed bands the status of a local elite. Individually, the vestiges of war are reflected in the difficulty these men have making sense of their personal investment in an unjustifiable past, in addition to which some also suffer from the continued presence of these war experiences within. This becomes apparent in their ambivalent relation to violence.

Sandrine Perrot. Museveni’s Best Enemies: the reintegration of former LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) combatants in northern Uganda – a political tool and a dilemma

The return to northern Uganda after 2003 of adults and commanders of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in a no peace no war context has posed legal, political and security challenges for the Ugandan government. This article shows that by encouraging and politically exploiting the successful reintegration of a few high-ranking ex-commanders, the Ugandan government has been trying to win over – or at least control – this stronghold of political and military opposition. However, by perpetuating war hierarchies, chains of command and mobilization networks, the political use of LRA chiefs by the government is simply putting off the “civilianization” of former combatants and the pacification of the political arena, in other words, the demilitarization of political relations between northern Uganda and the central government.

THIRD PART

Christophe Roux. From the Great War to Democracy: ex-combatants and the Sardinian autonomist movement

This chapter, a study of Sardinian veterans in the aftermath of the First World War, describes a mobilization by ex-combatants that led neither to totalitarianism nor authoritarianism, but on the contrary to the beginnings of a democratic construction. The article describes the situation in the region after the war, how veterans first organized in an association and how the association developed into an autonomous political party with universal male suffrage before the rise of fascism in Italy.

Aude Merlin. Postwar Years in Chechnya: sabotage of the Chechen state-in-construction by spoilers

This article deals with the way in which the period between the two Chechen wars (1996-1999) was sabotaged by spoilers. Maskhadov, who was head of the Chechen army in Ichkeria – though elected President of Chechnya in 1997– was rapidly weakened by other Chechen ex-combatants, grouped mainly around the Islamists. Taking into account Moscow’s influence on the young independent state of Chechnya and its possible collusion with spoilers inside the country, this article attempts to analyse how the non re-integration of ex-combatants into the postwar social and political framework fostered the spread of violence and undermined the authority of the newly elected president. All this in a context of quasi-total destruction and the absence of a political tradition of the state in Chechnya, along with the growing power of the Islamists. 

 Richard Banégas. A generation of warriors? Violence and the political identity of young militiamen in Côte d’Ivoire

Since the outbreak of war in 2002, militia organizations have flourished in the southern regions of the country. This chapter analyses the role of these militia since the official end of the war and examines their social and political influence. Studies of rural militia in the west of the country and in Abidjan show that since the official end of the conflict young recruits have gained considerable power on the local and national levels, thus disrupting intergenerational relations – though the article insists that the phenomenon is variable and contingent on groups and regions. Although some former fighters have become exemplary figures of social success, others feel the process of peace has left them behind. The article discusses the brutalization of Côte d’Ivoire society and the subjectification of youth by violence. It foresees the possible spread of a “war ethos”, on the hypothesis that it is most likely linked to an (im)moral ghetto economy dominated by the ambiguous figure of the urban “warrior”.

Facing Justice: Russian Military and the War in Chechnya (In French)

En avril 2009, la Cour Européenne des droits de l’Homme prononçait son centième verdict mettant en cause la Russie pour des violences commises contre des civils en Tchétchénie. Pourtant, en Russie même, seuls quelques militaires ont été condamnés, et les procès connus, ceux de Boudanov, Lapine, Oulman et son groupe, et Arkatcheev-Khoudiakov se comptent sur les doigts de la main.

Malgré leur faible nombre, ces procès n’en sont pas moins intéressants. Ils constituent en effet un des rares moments où les militaires sont obligés de parler d’eux-mêmes, de ce que les troupes russes font en Tchétchénie. Obligés de se justifier, directement ou par l’intermédiaire de leurs avocats, ils adoptent une ligne de défense à travers laquelle se dessine une définition du rôle de l’armée, du rapport à l’Etat, aux normes, à la justice. De plus, ces procès donnent lieu à des multiples mobilisations, qui permettent de dégager les positions de différents acteurs politiques et sociaux face à l’armée, mais aussi de voir comment les arguments mis en avant par militaires résonnent dans la société.

On trouvera ici un texte datant de 2008, communication présentée lors du colloque « Militaires et politiques dans une perspective comparatiste » (13-14 mai 2008, Université Paris I / EHESS).