President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir V. Putin
Rossiiskaia Federatsia
103132 g. Moskva
4 Staraya Ploshchad
Prezidentu Rossiiskoi Federatsii
Putinu V. V.
RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Dear President Putin:

In April 2003, masked soldiers abducted Grozny human rights volunteer Artur Akhmatkhanov into an armored personnel carrier. He has not been seen since.

According to eyewitnesses, members of the Russian federal forces collected empty cartridges and a blood-smeared cloth from the scene the next day. Police have refused to tell Artur Akhmatkhanov's family anything about what happened to him or why.

Artur Akhmatkhanov's enforced disappearance is part of an unconscionable pattern of ongoing human rights abuses in Chechnya and neighboring republics in the North Caucasus. The Ombudsman in the Chechen Republic reported in 2005 that more than 2,000 people had "disappeared" at the hands of unidentified security forces in Chechnya. The Russian human rights organization Memorial estimates that up to 5,000 men, women and children have gone missing there since 1999.

I urge you to reopen the investigation into Artur Akhmatkhanov's disappearance, which was suspended last year and to ensure that his family is informed of all developments in the case.

More broadly, I urge you to put an end to human rights violations committed by Russian security forces and to ensure that law enforcement agencies operate in full accordance with Russian and international law. Even in the face of terrorism, forced disappearances and other human rights abuses are inhumane and morally wrong.

Thank you in advance for your action on this matter.

Sincerely,