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“THE PLIGHT OF ANDREI BABITSKY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S1874-S1875 on March 29, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE PLIGHT OF ANDREI BABITSKY
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to express my concern about Andrei Babitsky, the accomplished Russian journalist who still faces serious charges in Russia after being held captive first by Russian authorities, then by Chechens, and now again by Russian authorities.
Mr. Babitsky has worked for the last 10 years for the U.S. government-funded broadcasting service, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He is well-known as one of the most courageous reporters who has covered the conflict in Chechnya. The skill and courage he demonstrated in his coverage of the conflict are clearly the major reasons for his continuing plight.
Russian authorities repeatedly expressed displeasure with Mr. Babitsky's reporting of Russian troop casualties and Russian human rights violations against Chechen civilians in the weeks leading up to his arrest. On January 8, his Moscow apartment was ransacked by members of the Federal Security Service, the FSB, which is the successor organization to the KGB. They confiscated film alleged to contain photos of dead Russian soldiers in Chechnya.
On January 16, Mr. Babitsky was seized by Russian police in the Chechen battle zone. After first denying that he was in their custody, Russian authorities claimed that Mr. Babitsky had been assisting the Chechen forces and was to stand trial in Moscow.
On February 3, the Russian government announced that Mr. Babitsky had been handed over to Chechen units in exchange for Russian prisoners, a violation of the Geneva Convention to which Russia is a party. Subsequently, Russian authorities claimed to have no knowledge of Mr. Babitsky's whereabouts. As it turns out, he was taken to a so-called
``filtration camp'' for suspected Chechen collaborators, then held at an undisclosed location by Chechen forces loyal to Moscow.
On February 25, Mr. Babitsky was taken to the Republic of Dagestan and told he was about to be freed. But authorities said he was carrying false identity papers, and they arrested and jailed him. Mr. Babitsky says the papers were forced on him by his captors in Chechnya and used to smuggle him over the border.
Facing international pressure to account for Mr. Babitsky's whereabouts since his disappearance, Russian authorities flew Mr. Babitsky to Moscow and released him on his own recognizance.
The allegations of assisting Chechen forces and carrying forged identity papers still stand against Mr. Babitsky. If convicted, he faces at least two years in prison on the identity papers charges alone. The State Department would like to see this case resolved. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is seeking to have all charges against Mr. Babitsky dropped, and I strongly support this effort.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right to seek and to impart information through the media, regardless of frontiers. Taking into custody any reporter, and transferring him to the custody of hostile forces, is a serious human rights violation and behavior unbefitting a democracy.
I urge the newly-elected Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to demonstrate his commitment to the principles of democracy and respect for human rights and freedom of the press by seeing to it that the trumped-up charges against Mr. Babitsky are dropped.
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