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	Debt collectors in Russia turn to violence to ensure people pay on time by Sean Guillory Russia   As Russia’s personal debt crisis spirals out of control, collectors are turning to violence to ensure people pay on time.   At this point, I should be numb to Russian horror stories. But several days ago, the following story struck a chord, not just for its violence and predatory nature, but because it speaks to the spectre of the 1990s — a period many Russian citizens associate with state and societal collapse, widespread criminality and economic insolvency — which is currently haunting Russia.   On 5 April, in the town of Iskitim in Novosibirsk oblast, four masked debt collectors broke into the home of Natalia Gorbunova, beat her husband and 17-year-old son, and then raped her in front of them. Gorbunova had taken a 5,000 rouble ($75) microloan from two companies, Money Now and Money Quickly, in 2014. She couldn’t make the payments.   But how could she? According to them, Gorbunova now owned them 240,000 roubles ($3,586). The beating and rape weren’t the loan sharks’ first resort. They’d been threatening her family on the phone for two years. A week before the collectors raided Gorbunova’s home, they tried to assault her son, but he managed to get away. The identity of the assailants is still unknown. The cops are scrambling to find them.   Many in the foreign press have noted that revelations of Vladimir Putin’s connections to the Panama Papers weren’t reported in Russia’s federal media. But the reality is that for most Russians who are struggling to stave off constant harassment, threats, and outright violence from predatory lenders, Putin’s alleged two billion dollars matters far less in their immediate daily life. It’s a reminder of the old Russian adage that “God is high above and the Tsar is far away.”   Nevertheless, federal media did report the crime against Gorbunova and her family. National broadcaster NTV even has a topic page devoted to debt collector violence. Indeed, there is growing public concern — in 2015, the amount of outstanding personal debt rose by 25% to 870 billion roubles ($13 billion).   Collector violence is even getting attention. For example, Investigative Committee head Aleksandr Bastrikin has taken the Gorbunova case under his personal control.   Russia’s usually lackadaisical politicians have also been jolted into some action. Several have spoken out about the need to reign in debt collectors, and in Kemerovo oblast, Governor Aman Tuleev and his regional legislature banned collectors outright. (Collection agencies quickly denounced the move as “populism” and the Justice Ministry said that the law was a blow to “economic freedom”.)   The Duma has passed the first reading of a bill that restricts debt collectors’ activities and their interactions with debtors, prohibits harassment, threats and violence, and raises fines by ten times to two million rubles.   A week ago, even Mr. Putin spoke out and demanded an end to the lawlessness, threats, and psychological and physical abuse by “quasi-collectors”.   “The main purpose of this law is to protect debtors from collectors, but it will only relieve the symptoms, not cure the disease,” Pavel Medvedev, a financial ombudsman, told RBK. Indeed, in many respects, the current outcry is too late for many victims of collector terror.   Media reports of harassment and violence against debtors have become all too common. Most debtors and their relatives are subject to constant harassment —in Stavropol, debt collectors shut down a hospital’s phone system with their constant harassment of a hospital worker over the telephone. Similar incidents have happened in other towns as well.   Threats and outright violence are increasingly frequent. In January, debt collectors in Ulyanovsk threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a 56-year-old grandfather, severely burning his two-year-old grandson. The grandfather took a 4,000 rouble ($60) loan to buy medicine; the collectors demanded he pay them 40,000 ($598).   In Krasnodar, a debt collector broke a woman’s finger over a 300 rouble ($4.50) debt payment. In Penza, a 54-year-old woman took a microloan for 30,000 rubles ($448) to, once again, buy medicine. She put her home down as collateral. The collectors now say she owes 470,000 rubles ($7,022), and as a result, they’re to seize her home. In Rostov-on-Don a collector was sentenced to ten months in prison for threatening to blow up a kindergarten if an employee didn’t repay his loan.   In Yekaterinburg, collectors “cut the telephone wires and filled the locks with glue” as they locked a debtor’s child in an apartment. Aleksei Selivanov, a Yekaterinburg lawyer who defends debtors against predatory lenders, was threatened by a group of collectors led by Maksim Patrakov, a former Donbas volunteer fighter. According to the jurist, Patrakov threatened to throw him in a car trunk and murder him out in the forest. The media is filled with these stories.   In some cases, the crushing debt and constant threats and harassment are just too much.   The total amount of general individual debt in Russia is about 8.6 trillion roubles ($128.5 billion), and roughly 59% of adults in employment are in debt. But this percentage varies by region. The highest is in Altai Republic — here, 91% of the employed population is in debt. In Kemerovo in Siberia where collection agencies were recently banned, 74% of the employed population is in debt.   The average debt per person in Russia today is 210,000 rubles ($3,138) and credit payments equal an average of 30% of a Russian’s monthly income. In some regions like Karachaevo-Cherkessia, the debt payment to income ratio is 75%. Around 16.9% of debts are delinquent on their payments, and 12.7% of them are late for more than 90 days.   Mortgages and car loans make up the majority of this debt, but many people are increasingly turning to “informal credit” — often high interest microloans or payday loans — especially as formal bank loans are harder to get. Microloan companies are capitalising as a result. The Russian microloan industry has seen steady growth over the last few years. It grew by 14% in 2015, and experts project it to increase at least another 12%, or by 73 billion rubles ($10.9 billion) in 2016.   As some of the stories above note, many Russians are taking microloans to cover health costs. This is directly tied to Putin’s neoliberal reforms to “optimise” healthcare. The Financial Times recently noted that in 2000, 75% of Russians’ health costs were out of pocket. It reached 92% in 2014. A few of the regions with the highest debt payment to income ratios are also the ones with the highest poverty rates.   This comes at a time when 76 of Russia’s 83 regions have budget deficits, and several are cutting spending on education, and healthcare. Russia’s economists are not satisfied and argue that there are still “possibilities for optimisation,” Russia’s own euphemism for austerity.   For many Russians, the rapaciousness of debt collectors and the ineffectiveness of the federal government and local police to do anything about them conjures reminders of the 1990s. As a recent article in Nezamisimaya gazeta put it:   But the government’s attempts to pin the guilt or to shift the blame on others does not solve the problem. This is obvious in the example of debt collectors: the federal government’s inaction and just plain dawdling in solving pressing social problems comes with the fact that the power vertical built in Russia is beginning to fall apart. This situation is reminiscent of the late 1990''s, when after the Federal default, regional authorities began to enact "measures of economic self-defense."   This connection between a return to the 1990s and debt collectors is hitting home.   Vyacheslav Kurilin, the leader of Stop! Debt Collector, told Gazeta.ru: “Microfinance organizations were created by criminals, and their ways of collecting payments are very harsh. They themselves say: we ran racketeering in the 1990s, but now that it’s legal, we’re called debt collectors.”   Anton Tsvetkov, a member of Russia’s Public Chamber, said that debt collectors use methods that “remind many of the 1990s.” It’s no wonder Putin used the common 1990s word for “lawlessness” (bespredel) in his comments on debt collectors. It’s likely it resonated with many Russians.   And therein lies the problem. Mr. Putin’s long tenure has been predicated on the elimination of that very lawlessness. But now as Russia is in the throws of economic crisis, and more and more people are turning to microloans to survive, the situation is ripe for predation.   The outcry after the horrible crime against Gorbunova is telling. And the federal centre’s lack of response to the economic situation is compelling regional leaders to take action themselves.   Citizens, particularly in the provinces, are pushing back too. Social media pages like Stop Collector provide a space where hundreds of people share experiences, give advice, and discuss the problem of debt and debt collectors. There’s also the project Russia Without Debt, which aggregates news about debt and tries to educate debtors about their rights.   The social organisation Sovetnik in Chelyabinsk is dedicated to protecting the rights of debtors. In Pskov, residents staged a small protest against collectors and payday loan outfits.   And some are directing their anger over the existence of collectors to Putin himself. On the site where people can submit questions for Putin’s annual “Direct Line” telethon, one of the most popular ones says: “Who made and for what reason are the activities of collection agencies legal? They’re complete gangsters! How else to call them? They threaten, beat, and set people on fire. I want to say that thanks to these collectors’ behavior not only are debtors themselves afraid, but so are people who have absolutely nothing to do with these debtors.” Visit the related web page
	Chad’s Ex-Dictator Convicted of Atrocities by FIDH, Human Rights Watch, UN Women   May 2016 (Human Rights Watch/FIDH)   The conviction of Hissène Habré, the former president of Chad, for serious international crimes, is a vindication of the decades-long campaign waged by his victims, Human Rights Watch said.   Habré was convicted of torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including having raped a woman himself, by the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Senegalese court system and sentenced to life in prison on May 30, 2016.   “This is an enormous victory for Hissène Habré’s victims, who for 25 years never gave up fighting to bring him to justice” said Reed Brody, counsel at Human Rights Watch who has worked with the survivors since 1999. “This conviction is a wake-up call to tyrants everywhere that if they engage in atrocities they will never be out of the reach of their victims.”   The trial against Habré, who ruled Chad from 1982 to 1990, began on July 20, 2015.   Habré fled to Senegal in 1990 after being deposed by the current Chadian president, Idriss Déby Itno. Although Habré was first arrested and indicted in Senegal in 2000, it took a long campaign by his victims before the Extraordinary African Chambers were inaugurated by Senegal and the African Union in February 2013 to prosecute international crimes committed in Chad during Habré’s rule.   “I have been waiting for this day since I walked out of prison more than 25 years ago,” said Souleymane Guengueng, who nearly died of mistreatment and disease in Habré’s prisons, and later founded the Association of Victims of Crimes of the Regime of Hissène Habré (AVCRHH). “Today I feel ten times bigger than Hissène Habré.”   Habré’s trial is the first in the world in which the courts of one country prosecuted the former ruler of another for alleged human rights crimes.   Ninety-three witnesses testified at the trial, the majority travelling from Chad to be there. Survivors presented powerful testimony about torture, rape, sexual slavery, mass executions, and the destruction of entire villages.   Notably, the court convicted Habré of sexual crimes, including rape and the sexual slavery of women to serve his army.   The court also found Habré guilty of having raped Khadidja Hassan Zidane on four occasions. The court found Hassan’s testimony credible and supported by an account she gave at the time. It is the first time that an ex-dictator is found personally guilty of rape by an international court.   “Found guilty of sex crimes, including his rape of one woman, Hissène Habré’s conviction signals that no leader is above the law, and that no woman or girl is below it” said Reed Brody.   The chambers will hold a second set of hearings in July on damages for the civil parties and other victims.   Habre’s trial underscored the importance of universal jurisdiction, Human Rights Watch said. That principle under international law allows national courts to prosecute the most serious crimes even when committed abroad, by a foreigner, and against foreign victims.   In March 2015, a court in Chad convicted 20 top security agents of Habré’s government on torture and murder charges. Habré’s one-party rule was marked by widespread atrocities, including waves of ethnic cleansing.   * Human Rights agencies report under Habré’s presidency, close to 40,000 people were assassinated and over 200,000 were victims of torture and other violence.   31 May 2016   Statement by UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on the conviction of Hissène Habré   UN Women welcomes the historic conviction of Hissène Habré, ex-president of Chad, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape and sexual slavery of women during his time in power from 1982 to 1990. The Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal convicted Mr. Habré on 30 May 2016, and sentenced him to life in prison. This is the first time that the court of one country has prosecuted the former ruler of another for human rights crimes. It is also the first universal jurisdiction case to proceed to trial in Africa.   This conviction—and in particular, the charges of rape and sexual slavery—has been hard-won. The original indictment of Habré did not include charges relating to sexual violence. However, through persistent witness testimony, these crimes became a central feature of this trial. Four women testified before the court about their experience of being sent to a camp in the north Chad desert in 1988, where the army forced them into sexual slavery. One woman, Khadidja Hassan Zidane, testified that Mr. Habré himself had raped her on four separate occasions. This allowed the international court to find the ex-dictator personally responsible for committing rape—the first time this judicial finding has been possible against a former Head of State.   The original exclusion of gender-based crimes from the charges against Mr. Habré is not unique. It underlines the on-going challenges that survivors and their advocates face in breaking the silence that so often surrounds grave crimes like these, which are used as a weapon of fear and a tactic for subjugating populations. UN Women congratulates the Extraordinary African Chambers for its efforts to rectify this omission.   UN Women stands in solidarity with the survivors of the crimes of Mr. Habré’s regime in Chad, who have waited more than two decades for this conviction. The brave men and women who testified exemplify the strength of survivors around the world who tirelessly advocate for an end to impunity, often at great personal risk. This conviction would also not have been possible without the inspiring determination of lawyers, victims’ advocates, human rights defenders, and local and international civil society organizations, including Human Rights Watch, who insisted on justice for Mr. Habré’s victims.   This year, UN Women joined these organizations, and supported the Extraordinary African Chambers in its work to consider the gender dimensions of human rights and international humanitarian law violations. Through the JRR-UN Women Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Justice Experts Roster, we deploy investigators and gender advisors around the world to support the investigation and prosecution of these crimes at national, regional and international levels.   The African Union is also to be commended for its support for the Habré trial. The trial, and an AU-supported commission of inquiry for South Sudan that took place in 2014, are critical facets of work towards ending impunity in the region. These processes send an important message to Heads of State: that abuses against their own people will not be tolerated within the African Union. However, the conviction of Mr. Habré is only one step towards the full goal of transformative justice that we seek for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Chad, and elsewhere.   UN Women encourages Chad to act on its international obligation to provide reparations to victims of gross violations of human rights, with the support of the African Union and the international community. Chad’s support of both male and female survivors to rebuild their lives through access to land, education and healthcare, and its fostering of a more stable, equal and peaceful society, are essential steps to ensure that these crimes will never occur again.   The conviction of Mr. Habré joins several other landmark rulings on sexual and gender-based violence in recent months. In February, a Guatemalan national court convicted two former military officers of rape and sexual slavery. In March, the International Criminal Court handed down its first conviction for sexual and gender-based crimes, against Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, for atrocities committed in the Central African Republic.   Decades of efforts by lawyers, advocates and survivors are now bearing fruit, signifying the global commitment to end impunity for sexual and gender-based violence. UN Women is committed to ensuring that this global momentum for accountability continues to grow, until there is an unstoppable force for justice which makes these crimes a relic of the past.   http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2016/5/ed-statement-on-conviction-of-hissene-habre http://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/30/chads-ex-dictator-convicted-atrocities http://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/30/dispatches-hissene-habre-sentenced-life-atrocities http://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/chad/hissene-habre-case-a-historic-and-long-awaited-verdict-19999 Visit the related web page
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