GENEVA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Detainees, including women and minors, are routinely tortured in both official and secret prisons across Russia's Chechnya region, the campaigning group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday. Methods used to extract information from people suspected of backing rebels seeking independence or from relatives of insurgents include beatings with cables, burning with red-hot rods, and electric shocks, according to a report from the group. "Torture in both official and secret detention facilities is widespread and systematic in Chechnya," it declared in a summary of the document, a briefing paper delivered to the United Nations Committee Against Torture. HRW Senior Emergencies Researcher Anna Neistat told journalists that the report was based on interviews in the region with former detainees during two missions this year and on similar work by Russian human rights bodies. She said that 115 cases had been identified, and many documented in detail, but that rights campaigners believed there were many more because people were afraid to speak in an "atmosphere of fear" that prevailed in Chechnya. Most of the recorded cases took place in a network of secret jails, often private houses, run by pro-Russian prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov and groups backing him, the report said. But many also occurred in official prisons operated by the Russian Federal Interior Ministry, it added. Russia is one of several countries which have submitted regular four-yearly reports to a current session of the Committee, set up to monitor performance by signatory states of a 1984 convention banning torture. The Committee, composed of 10 independent experts, is expected to issue its findings at the end of this week. Russian officials deny that torture takes place anywhere in the country, including Chechnya. If cases are reported, they are immediately investigated, they say. But Human Rights Watch said authorities in Chechnya very rarely made efforts to punish anyone for abuses. "In cases where victims do dare to launch a formal complaint, prosecutors refuse to open a formal investigation," it said. Courts "disregard the defendants' allegations of torture, even when they are supported by medical records of witness testimony," the organisation declared. HRW said "the climate of impunity" was made worse by persistent efforts by the authorities to close Chechnya to outside scrutiny. Last month U.N. torture investigator Manfred Nowak cancelled a visit to the region after Moscow refused permission to allow him to move around freely.
