Theater Cancels Chechnya Festival

By Yevgenia Borisova Staff Writer The Kinocenter movie theater on Wednesday refused to screen hard-hitting documentaries about Chechnya for a film festival, saying the 18 films from six countries were "unacceptable" and "too much politically charged."

Festival organizers accused the authorities of intimidating Kinocenter into canceling the event and promised to show all of the films at the Sakharov Museum instead.

Kinocenter found that "several foreign films are unacceptable to be shown," theater manager Vladimir Medvedev said in a statement Wednesday.

"We don't mind Russian films, but foreign films have anti-Russian tendencies, and we don't need that at our Kinocenter," he told Ekho Moskvy radio. "We are not into politics. We just show movies. We don't show films linked to politics, especially when they are linked to the Russian government and the president.

"We have good relations with all the top power structures. Why should we spoil our relations?" he said.

Medvedev said he particularly objected to "Assassination of Russia," a documentary financed by Boris Berezovsky that accuses Russian secret services of masterminding the 1999 apartment bombings that killed several hundred people in Moscow and other cities.

"Berezovsky is not needed here. We would rather show films that bring Russia fame," he said.

Yury Samodurov, director of the Sakharov Museum, an organizer of the festival, said Kinocenter officials had asked him whether he had cleared the program with Vladislav Surkov, a deputy head of the presidential administration.

"I have the impression that Kinocenter was pressured into refusing to take part in the festival," Samodurov said at a news conference.

The traveling festival was to have opened at Kinocenter on Thursday, after making stops in London, Washington and New York. It will now be held at the Sakharov Museum at 57 Zemlyanoi Val.

Most of the films show the first and second Chechen conflicts through the eyes of foreign correspondents. In one of the films, "Babitsky's War," Radio Liberty's Russian correspondent Andrei Babitsky interviews Russian soldiers, rebels and ordinary Chechens to expose the suffering, fear and desperation of those living in Chechnya. Another film, "Terror in Moscow," is a chilling British television documentary about the Dubrokva theater hostage crisis last October.

In addition to the Sakharov Museum, the free three-day festival is organized by Berezovsky's Foundation for Civil Freedoms, the Holocaust Foundation, the Memorial human rights group and a number of other Russian human rights groups.

A large-scale autumn campaign on Chechnya started in Japan

Wednesday, 1 October 2003

This autumn, the human rights groups, as well as representatives of various public movements and creative groups join to the action of solidarity carried out in support of the Chechen people throughout Japan. It is an unprecedented mass campaign, the analogues of which hardly ever have been held.

Three films on Chechnya were first shown on 27 September in Tokyo: A documentary video film "Not Children's Stories" (2000), made by a Chechen journalist Zara Imaeva. The film is based on the interviews of the Chechen children aged 12 to 14, who experienced the horrors of the second Chechen war.

The first Chechen feature film "Marsho" (2002), made by Murad Mazaev. The film is about a young Chechen man, a fighter of the Chechen Resistance Movement, defending his native land.

And, a documentary film of the Dutch film director Jossa de Putter "Dance, Grozny! (The Goddamned and the Blessed)", (2002). The film was awarded Grand Prix at the International Documentary Film Festival in Chicago, USA, and won a prize of the Saint-Petersburg Film Festival. The film is about the Grozny children's choreographic company "Daymokh".

The name of the campaign held in Tokyo "Noah's People - Who Are the Chechens?" indicates the character and point of the action.

The action was carried out in one of the halls of the Bunkyo Civic Centre, and more than 80 people attended it, including the human rights activists and well-known scientists and workers of culture.

The organizer of the action Okada Kadzuo, a documentary film producer, noted: "The reports of the Japanese mass media about Chechnya are limited with the information about the Shakhids suicide actions, and in such a way, join the fabrications of the Kremlin's propaganda, depicting the Chechens as bloodthirsty terrorists. But real Chechens are noble and proud people respecting honour and industry according to the traditional Islamic faith. Frankly speaking, there are few people in Japan who know much about Islam, but the morals and values of the Chechen people at a great extent coincide with that of the Japanese. These films will acquaint us with the characteristic features of the Chechen nation. And when the spectators are aware of the Chechen people's cultural wealth, their support to the aspiration of the Chechen people for freedom will gain strength. And, in my opinion, it is very important that these films demonstrate the fairness of the Chechen people's struggle for independence. The resistance of the Chechens is supported not only by a narrow circle of Moslems, but also by the most diverse sections of society all over the world".

Kavakami Sonoko, a representative of the Amnesty International organization urged the audience to support the action on Chechnya launched by them within the framework of the Amnesty International Campaign in Russia. The AI of Japan invited Zara Imaeva and her son Timur to Japan to give a series of lectures about the situation in Chechnya in 17 cities of Japan from the end of October to December. It is also intended to show the film of S.Mamilov about the friendship of the Chechen and Russian orphans during the deportation of the Chechens in 1944.

The Editor-in-chief of the Japanese web-site on Chechnya Ootmi Akira gave a talk about the activities of the Japanese Internet editions on Chechnya. "Despite the attempts to prohibit the information on the situation in Chechnya, this action has already failed in Japan. Any information of the Chechen sites such as "Chechenpress" and "Kavkaz-centre" is available on the Japanese sites "Chechen Sogo Jouhou" or "Chechen Watch". He also spoke about the report made by Ruslan Arsanukaev, a Chechen archaeologist, about the destruction of the Chechen museums.

An activist of the "Society for Support of the Chechen Children" and her colleagues spoke about the activities of their organization in Ingushetia and Azerbaijan, and called on the participants of the action to make a contribution to the Baku youth organization "Nokhcho" to purchase the national musical instruments.

On completion of the film, K.Okada noted that "national education and protection of traditional culture are the two driving-wheels for the not numerous nations to survive. I graduated from the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), and as a documentary film producer, I am well aware of the tragedy of many nations of the former USSR, who, though being alive genetically, have lost their culture in a stream of Russian chauvinistic nationalism. I consider it one of the varieties of genocide. That's why, thinking about Chechnya, it is important to focus attention on the protection of the country's traditional national culture. With that end in a view, I urge the workers of art all over the world to unite their creative potential".

The participants of the action collected signatures under the appeal to NHK (National Broadcasting Association), making a request to show the film "Dance, Grozny!", especially as the film has been rated highly by the Russian human rights groups at the film festival in St. Petersburg. Several employees of the NHK promised on their part that they would further the realization of this project.

The organizers informed the audience that Chechnya Film Festival which began in London and has been held in Washington and New York, should end in Moscow. The participants expressed solidarity to the organizers of film festival in Moscow and were acquainted with the appeal of Elena Bonner.

(Watanabe Chiaki) watanabechiaki@hotmail.com Editor-in-chief of Internet edition "Chechen Watch" http://groups.msn.com/ChechenWatch

Chechen refugees do not want to return home

Oct 01, 2003 Posted: 13:24 Moscow time (09:24 GMT)

TBILISI - A delegation of the Russian government headed by Russian Minister for Chechnya Stanislav Ilyasov spoke to Chechen refugees currently living in the Pankisi gorge in Georgia today. They brought with them 20 tonnes of Russian humanitarian aid.

The Russian delegation also tried to persuade the refugees to return to Chechnya. Those willing to return were offered the chance to travel back with Mr Ilyasov as he had arrived on a Il-86 plane which seats up to 360 passengers. However, nobody wanted to return despite guarantees of security, work, accommodation and compensation of USD 12 thousand for every family. The refugees also refused to accept the humanitarian aid.

Speaking to journalists they said 'Russia is trying to trick us and they only need us because of the election campaign in Chechnya.' /Rosbalt/

http://www.chechenpress.com/news/09_2003/17_30_09.shtml

Passport checks go on in Russia`s Ingushetia refugee camp

Today, 30 September: Interior ministry officers are continuing to check passports, which they started yesterday, in the Chechen refugee camp Bart located on the outskirts of the town of Karabulak in Sunzhenskiy District of the Republic of Ingushetia. Official reports say that the checks are aimed at finding members of "illegal armed formations".

According to refugees, numerous checks have been carried out over the last few months. They were often accompanied by unprovoked violence and random arrests. The information centre of the Russian-Chechen friendship society said that those were one of the forms of putting pressure on refugees to make them return to Chechnya ahead of the Kremlin-announced Chechen presidential elections.

30.09.03

Russian Leader Dismisses Chechen Elections As 'Farce'

MOSCOW, October 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – While human rights activists accused the Kremlin of intimidation after a Moscow cinema cancelled a festival of documentaries on the horrors of the war in Chechnya, a leading Russian opposition politician Wednesday, October 1, denounced as "a farce" the Moscow-sponsored presidential election in the troubled southern republic of Chechnya, saying electors had been given no choice.

Boris Nemtsov, leader of the centre-right Union of Rightist Forces (SPS), said his party will not send observers to Sunday's poll in which the pro-Russian head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, is a near-certain winner, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The poll is a "farce" marked by "a lack of choice," Nemtsov told a press conference.

"What is the point of this election, seeing that Kadyrov, hated by 70 percent of Chechens, is incapable of restoring peace in the republic?" Nemtsov said.

"This election will not end either the atrocities or the sweep operations (by the Russian military) nor the attacks," he said.

Media reports said last month that the Kremlin had rigged the race for the sake of Kadyrov after four front-runners had mysteriously withdrawn or been ejected from Chechnya's troubled election, leaving Kadyrov as the almost certain winner.

Moscow's key objective was to sideline Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected in Chechnya's only free presidential polls, in1997 .

Chechen lawmakers have repudiated claims by pro-Moscow parliament deputy speaker Issa Temirov that they have signed a petition to overthrow Aslan Maskhadov from his post as president of Chechnya.

Maskhadov, who is not taking part in presidential election, was elected to a five-year term in 1997 after the republic won de facto independence from Russia following a brutal1994 - 96war.

The presidential election campaign started officially Friday, September5, amid controversy and cries of foul play.

International organizations including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have also declined to send observers to the troubled poll.

Kremlin Intimidation

Meanwhile, Russian human rights activists Wednesday accused the Kremlin of intimidation after a Moscow cinema abruptly cancelled a festival of hard-hitting documentary films providing graphic and sometimes harrowing accounts of the war in Chechnya as seen through the eyes of local people, Russian soldiers sent to the republic to enforce the Kremlin's rule and their parents.

Some recount the difficulties and dangers faced by journalists attempting to report on the war.

Festival organizer Yury Samodurov said he was informed late Tuesday, September 30 , by the cinema, the popular Kinocentre in central Moscow, that it would not host the free festival, already presented in Washington, New York and London, as previously agreed.

"My feeling is that the Kinocentre has come under pressure from the FSB (the Russian intelligence services," AFP quoted Samodurov as telling a press conference.

Cinema manager Vladimir Medvedev told Moscow Echo radio that the non-Russian films "showed anti-Russian tendencies."

Moreover the films were "pure politics, and we are apolitical. There was no pressure on us, we simply don't show political films," he said.

But members of the festival organizing committee were in no doubt where the responsibility for the cancellation lay.

"This is absolutely a political decision," said Anna Politkovskaya, the campaigning journalist who earlier this month presented the films in Britain and the U.S.

"I thought this would be impossible. I'm shocked," she said. "For me the whole point of organizing the festival was that it should reach a wider public."

The cancelled program included "Assassination of Russia", a documentary funded by the self-exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky, one of the Kremlin's strongest critics, that accuses the FSB of staging the 1999 apartment bombings that served as a pretext for the current Chechen war.

Other films were from Britain's Channel Four television: "Terror in Moscow", about last year's hostage crisis in a Moscow theatre in which 129 people died after special forces used gas to stun the hostage-takers, and "Babitsky's War", about a Russian reporter in Chechnya who was kidnapped by the secret services.

Politkovskaya dismissed on Monday, September29 , as "a political scandal" the decision taken by the Frankfurt International Book Fair to retract an invitation to the much-celebrated event set for October8 .

She said the pressures exercised by the Russian authorities have paid off, particularly in light of the forthcoming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Fair.

Chechen refugees surge into Poland before visa regime changes

01 October 2003

Hundreds of Chechen refugees have flooded into Poland in recent weeks, seeking to beat the introduction of a new visa system, a top interior ministry official said on Wednesday.

From today holders of Russian passports, including Chechens, require visas to enter Poland as part of Warsaw's preparations for entry to the European Union next year.

According to the official, Jan Wegrzynla, some 800 asylum seekers arrived in Terespol, a town on the border with Belarus, last month. The number of Chechens entering the country so far this year has already reached 3,600, compared with 3,200 for the whole of 2002.

"Russian citizens of Chechen nationality could until midnight on Tuesday enter Poland without a visa," he told AFP.

"From now on they must have, like all Russian citizens, an entry visa to Poland, which will complicate their situation."

He said that Chechen asylum seekers had tended to take buses from the capital Grozny to Brest, a Belarussian town close to the Polish border, taking a train from there to Terespol, where they made their asylum application.

After the introduction of visas on Wednesday they have to apply for a visa for Poland at the Polish consulates in Moscow or Minsk.

The biggest of 10 countries due to join the European Union on May 1 2004, Poland introduced new visa requirements for citizens of its eastern neighbours Belarus, Russia and Ukraine at the demand of the EU, which wants to ensure its eastern border is secure.

Under an agreement between Poland and Russia signed on September 18, both sides will charge each other's citizens 10 euros (11.60 dollars) for a single entry, 16 euros for a double entry and 50 euros for a multiple entry visa.

Students and pensioners will be able to get the visas for free.

A similar arrangement applies to Belarus.

In the case of Ukraine, Poles and Ukrainians will be be able to secure free visas to travel in their respective directions, as will inhabitants

of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the only part of Russia that actually borders Poland.

AFP.

October 1st 2003 · Prague Watchdog

Refugee camp Bella dismantled

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – The refugee camp Bella in Ingushetia has finally been dismantled. The last two tents were removed today.

The majority of refugees have been moved out during the past two weeks. Some were sheltered in the nearby camp Satsita, and others returned to Grozny.

Camp Bella was built in 2000 and housed about 3,500 refugees. According to official figures, approximately 150 families remained in the camp when the dismantling process started.

02 October 2003

Head of district administration shot dead in Chechnya

The head of the Shali district administration in Chechnya and his son were killed on Wednesday evening.

The Shali police received a report at 7:50 p.m. Moscow time Wednesday that unidentified gunmen had fired automatic weapons at a Volga car carrying the administration head and his son at the crossroads of Pervomaiskaya and Razdelnaya Streets at about 6 p.m., a source with the Shali administration reported on Thursday. The official and his son, a local policeman, received numerous gunshot wounds and died on the spot.

Shali law enforcement agencies are taking measures to identify and seize the people involved in the killing.

[http://gazeta.ru/]