Executions In Chechnya Flout Appeals From Russian Leaders

A Chechen firing squad publicly executed two men Thursday, defying Russian demands that capital punishment be brought to a halt.

Thousands of people gathered to watch the executions in Friendship Square in Grozny, the capital. The Chechen authorities said the executions were in accordance with Islamic law.

A loudspeaker broadcast “God is great!” before six hooded executioners shot the condemned men to death with automatic weapons. The men, who were chained to a wall draped with a black cloth, collapsed as the crowd cheered.

The Chechen authorities said the men, in their 20s, were responsible for one of the region’s most notorious murders: the killing of a mother and two of her children. But the executions were immediately denounced by Russian officials as a violation of international law.

The executions were as much a political as a moral challenge for Russia: They exposed Russia’s humiliating inability to enforce its own laws in the separatist republic, and complicated Russia’s relationship with the West.

To gain entry into the Council of Europe, Russia promised to end capital punishment. Chechnya’s eye-for-an-eye code would not be a problem if Moscow accepted the Chechens’ claim of independence. But because Moscow insists the republic is part of Russia, Chechnya’s actions mean that Russia is unable to fulfill its assurances to the council.

“One should act toughly, but at the same time within the framework of the law,” said Deputy Prime Minister Ramazan Abdulatipov, who negotiated Russia’s entry into the council.

Gennadi Seleznyov, the Communist Speaker of Parliament, was more blunt: He described the executions as a rude challenge to Russian authority.

But some specialists said Russia’s response was somewhat hypocritical. Former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar has shown more interest in Moscow’s unsuccessful effort to build an oil pipeline through Chechnya than in trying to protect human rights there.

And the independent Russian television network NTV reminded its viewers that the Russian military had shown little regard for the rights of civilians with its tactics during the brutal 21-month Chechen war.

The Chechens have dismissed the criticism as naive moralizing, saying public executions are needed to deter a growing crime wave and to uphold Islamic law.

“The fact that Russia and the West do not approve these actions - public executions of criminals - suggests we are on the right path,” said Kazbek Hadzhiev, the spokesman for President Aslan Maskhadov.

On Sept. 3 a Chechen firing squad executed a young man and his wife for murder. The execution was filmed by news crews and shown on the evening news in Russia, provoking widespread comment. President Boris Yeltsin denounced the execution, but Chechen Vice President Vakha Arsanov was not impressed. “I spit on Russia,” Arsanov declared. “We are an independent state.”

Thursday night, the Chechen government was slightly more conciliatory.

A senior Chechen official said Maskhadov believed that public executions should be carried out only in cases of “extreme necessity.” But the Chechens also indicated that private executions would go on because Maskhadov was determined to impose strict Islamic law.

“The world community cannot understand us,” said Magomed Magomedov, the deputy general prosecutor of Chechnya. “They do not live in Chechnya. They are not Chechens. They do not know the specific features of our life.”