RUSSIA: Is Anti-Terrorism Bill Merely Lip Service?

By Kester Kenn Klomegah Reprint | | Print |

Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW, Dec 21 2005 (IPS) - Russian parliamentarians have endorsed new amendments to a bill that would allow them to investigate terrorist attacks independently of the country’s security services.

Under the Kremlin-sponsored bill, the State Duma (the Lower House) and the Federation Council (Senate) would be able to create joint commissions to investigate “gross or large-scale” violations of human rights and “threats to the constitutional order” – a phrase popularly used here to describe violent social disorder or terrorist attacks.

But it would prohibit both chambers of lawmakers from investigating any crises involving the president, the judiciary or prosecutors.

Under the amendments the legislators would be able to demand the dismissal of officials who refuse to testify or who provide false information to the commissions.

The bills say lawmakers can continue an investigation after law enforcement agencies begin their own inquiries into the same case. This signals a change from the initial version of the bill, which stipulated that parliamentary probes must be closed when a criminal investigation begins.

Another change would make the parliamentary investigative commission’s hearings open to the media, with the exception of cases involving state secrets.

The Duma gave its approval in a 356-62 vote, with three abstentions. United Russia and Liberal Democratic parties backed the bill, but Communist Party members rejected it.

United Russia deputy Nikolay Kovalyov defended the importance of the bill saying it would contribute towards strengthening civil society.

“We are aware of the president’s call to build a civil society. This can only be achieved when parliament is given more power to investigate violent attacks on society. What we need is a society with peace and respect for human rights. We cannot allow our people to be crushed by people who oppose these democratic ideals,” Kovalyov told IPS.

“A law governing against the threats of terrorists, for instance, must be in place, and we have to thoroughly investigate activities of terrorists wherever they strike. That’s why we have supported the amendments for parliamentarians to independently investigate such cases,” he said.

The amendment emerged because of the current situation in the country, he said, and underscored the need to improve measures against global terrorism, especially after a series of fatal attacks within Russia and in other countries.

“This should not be allowed to infiltrate into the fabric of society. Violations of any kind committed on a large scale has to be investigated on all fronts and by different institutions, including the State Duma,” Kovalyov said.

Liberal and opposition lawmakers had criticised the bill as unfairly limiting the parliament’s investigative powers.

The State Duma Committees on National Security and Constitutional Affairs have asked the Kremlin authorities to reconsider some of the limitations, particularly one that would bar parliamentary commissions from investigating any matter that had already been submitted to the judicial authorities.

Deputy Chairman of the Duma’s Security Committee Aleksey Sigutkin believes in joint efforts involving all branches of government and recognises state agencies backed by law to investigate massive violations of human rights and possible threats of terrorism.

“I am deeply convinced that this bill would provide the basis to undertake any investigative operation and eliminate the perpetrators. It would not be enough to leave this entirely in the hands of Federal Security Services,” he said.

Important lessons have been learned about the previous attacks, of course, but some were not – it is not only our special forces that learn from such bitter events, he said.

“All that is necessary is that changes to the bill would help us coordinate forces together to protect the society, and this can also be seen as an extremely important instrument for creating a better civil society. In this context, we would be encouraging cooperative attitudes toward the problem to an appreciable degree,” Sigutkin said.

The Kremlin’s representative in the Duma, Alexander Kosopkin, pre-empted the deliberations about the bill by saying the Kremlin was to ready to amend it to permit lawmakers to continue an investigation even after a court began hearing a case concerning the issue.

“The bill has been drafted to suit the emerging situation – taking into serious account all suggestions that had been made by various political factions – to strengthen and unite state institutions, especially both parliaments, to effectively carry out joint investigations,” Kosopkin told IPS.

“This would also complement the efforts of the security services to meet the emerging tasks and challenges strongly in fighting terrorism and probing terrorist activities,” he added.

Some deputies have criticised the bill saying that a joint parliamentary commission sanctioned by the president would still not conduct effective investigations. They cited the Joint Parliamentary Commission set up and headed by Alexander Torshin to investigate the Beslan hostage attack. Operating since September 2004, it has yet to submit its final report.

Independent deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov requested Speaker Boris Gryzlov clarify the situation surrounding the investigation into the Beslan attack. “The reports publication has been postponed four or five times,” Ryzhkov said. He demanded that Gryzlov explain “the reasons behind the delays.”

The lawmaker alleged that officials of the Beslan investigative commission have not been very effective and that the new bill will consequently not produce the expected results.

According to a new poll, three-quarters of Russians surveyed support the demand of families of the victims of the 2004 Beslan school siege for re-investigation of the hostage crisis that claimed some 350 lives, including 200 children.

The survey assessed the work of both the parliamentary investigators and the security services as unsatisfactory.

Since the terrorist attacks on two major private residential blocks in Moscow, followed by the Beslan crisis, President Vladimir Putin, the Federation Council and the State Duma have engaged in heated debate on proposals for new laws that would empower the legislative assembly to get directly involved in investigating terrorist attacks.

This is a “positive” step, in the opinion of Yury Korguniuk, director of the Indem Foundation, a political think-tank.

“But this initiative to get a legislation to back their investigative work could be pregnant with corruption at the outset, as is sometimes the case. The deputies are deputies, and we should not expect any marked shift in their work,” Korguniuk told IPS.

Perhaps the popular concern at hand is not only about the bill itself that was set to become law after massive social disorder and infrastructure destruction in Chechnya, Beslan and Nalchik, he said, but the real desire to achieve concrete results and pursue new measures to prevent future threats and protect the lives of ordinary people.

“This could be a strong point to watch, but people are already unhappy about the entire work of the Joint Parliamentary Commission charged with investigating the Beslan affair,” Korguniuk said. “The passage of the bill is theoretically good but there are doubts about its effective implementation.”