On the face of it, Russia's refusal to let Ms. Mary Robinson, the United Nations' chief human-rights official, visit sites where atrocities are alleged to have occurred during the Chechen war is a setback for her cause. But appearances are deceiving. Moscow's readiness to pretend such things did not happen will not make them go away. Russia's unwillingness to take its international obligations seriously -- an attitude shared by other governments -- will only trigger more scrutiny in the future.

There have been reports of serious human-rights violations throughout the Chechen conflict. The charges include incidents of rape, looting, summary executions and massacres by soldiers during the war; civilians in so-called filtration camps are alleged to have been tortured and beaten. Ms. Robinson went to investigate the charges, but her efforts were frustrated by the Moscow government, which refused her access to many of the places she wanted to go.

Nonetheless, she concluded on the basis of what she did see that there "has been a serious pattern of human-rights violations" and called for an international probe of abuses in the detention centers. Her findings were supported by a Russian parliamentary report, published earlier this week by the Council of Europe, that said Russian military investigators have checked into more than 300 crimes apparently committed by Russian soldiers in Chechnya.