Police try 'to wash away' human rights violations

The Commissioner for Human Rights in Stavropol Region claims the Stavropol Regional Police Department does not make a legal assessment of the 11 June mass and gross human rights violations in Ivanovskoye. Moreover, according to Mr Selyukov, it tries "to wash them away, reducing gross human rights violations to violations committed by some officers involved in the incident."

There is noticeable confrontation between the commissioner (former regional prosecutor) and regional security agencies. At first a consultant from the commissioner's staff was included in the commission investigating the illegal detention of 30 residents of Ivanovskoye, but after 23 June he was in fact debarred from taking part in the commission's work. And on 20 June, the commissioner himself was summoned to the regional prosecutor's officer for interrogation.

On the night of 11-12 June 2005, local OMON (special police force) officers detained over 30 residents of the village of Ivanovskoye, Kuchubeyevsky district without legal grounds. The Stavropol Regional Police Department has made its apologies to the residents of the village for "the abuse of people by some police officers."