Moscow warns against politically charging UN commission on human rights

GENEVA, March 15, 2004. (RIA Novosti) - Russia has warned against politically charging the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which opens its 60th session in Geneva today.

"We are alarmed that the UN Commission's activities have been politicised and confrontational," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov, who is leading the Russian delegation to the session, said in a RIA Novosti interview.

"The whole groups of countries and separate countries are attached to the category of delinquents and are treated in an edifying manner, which does not promote constructive cooperation and the high standards of human rights even in the countries with recorded infringements on human rights," said the diplomat.

Russia expects the new Commissioner on Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to help direct the Commission's activities into a more constructive channel, which will bring better results, said Mr. Fedotov.

Ex-High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Viera de Mello was killed in a terrorist act in Baghdad in August 2003. Bertrand Ramcharan was appointed acting High Commission for Human Rights.

"Issues related to terrorism, which is a blatant violation of human rights, will, undoubtedly, dominate the agenda (of the session)," said Mr. Fedotov.

Russia is expected to advance an initiative to work out a code of measures to protect human rights from terrorism.

The Commission, which was set up in 1946, is the UN's key body overseeing human rights. The 60th session, which will be presided over by Mike Smith of Australia, will last into April 23, 2004.

The Chechen Times 15.03.2004

Police seize 5-thousand circulation of the «Pravozaschita» newspaper

On March 11, 2004 representatives of the department investigating financial crimes at Nizhny Novgorod Region police office seized the 5-thousand circulation of the «Pravozaschita» newspaper in the printing-house «Riyad-Balakhna». «Pravozaschita» is the joint edition of Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights and inter-regional public organization «The Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship».

It is devoted to the events in the Chechen Republic. This is a human rights and anti-war edition. On March 11 representatives of the OBEP (department investigating financial crimes) at Nizhny Novgorod Region police office headed by the chief of section 2 of the OBEP Yury Buzamakov (his office telephone is +7 831 2 31 52 81) arrived at the editing-house and showed authorization No. 34/2/04 on examination of the storage facilities.

On searching them, the police officers drew up a statement on the temporary seizure of stocks of materials and capital equipment. That is the circulation of issue 56 of the «Pravozaschita» newspaper (5000 copies). Yury Buzamakov explained to the chief editor of the newspaper Stanislav Dmitrievsky that the newspaper had been seized within checking financial activities of the editing house «Riyad-Balakhna». The staff of the editing office of the Information Center at the Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship think that the seizure of the circulation before the presidential elections was caused by articles criticizing the Russian authorities and personally president Putin in Chechnya.

The chief editor of the newspaper is sure that this action is aimed at hindering the lawful activities of the journalists and releasing the human rights edition. Since 2002 activities of the SRCF and «Pravozaschita» newspaper have been checked three times by the fiscal police, two times by the Ministry of Justice and one time by the Mass Media Ministry. The editorial office at the Information Center at the Society for the Russian-Chechen Friendship This edition has been put out with the support of The National Endowment for Democracy, as part of their «Russian-Chechen Information Partnership»

SRChF

15 Mar 2004

2004-03-16 16:26    

Pace deputy speaker against UN consideration of Chechen issue

MOSCOW, March 16 (RIA Novosti) - Chairman of the International Affairs Committee of Russia's Federation Council (upper house) and PACE Deputy Speaker Mikhail Margelov does not approve of some countries' attempts to raise the Chechen issue at the session of the UN Human Rights Commission that opened in Geneva on March 15.

The attempt to raise the Chechen issue (though it was closed two years ago) at this session is perplexing, he told RIA Novosti on Tuesday. "This is done in the threatening context of explosions in Moscow and Madrid with no attention to the involvement of international terrorists operating in Chechnya in these crimes," he said.

The Russian Senator described these proposals as provocative, adding that they "undermined the basis of international partnership in the fight against terrorism and erected obstacles on the way to peaceful settlement in Chechnya." Mr. Margelov also noted that double standards were typical for the current session devoted to the fight against terrorism. He particularly pointed out to some Western and East European representatives' division of terrorists into "their own" and "others". "This is a wrong position," said the Russian Senator. In his words, "the policy of double standards is a terrorism- breeding policy."

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 16/3/2004

Elena Batenkova: authorities want to ban antiwar picket

Elena Batenkova, a member of the Feedback group and the Committee for Antiwar Actions, is a participant in the picket on Pushkinskaya Square, protesting against the war in Chechnya and appealing to stop the conflict their through negotiations. The picket has been regularly held since February 2000. Elena Batenkova has been rewarded for her peacemaking activity with the Peace Prize recently. She gave the Caucasian Knot correspondent an interview about her public activity.

- An attempt to ban you picket was made on March 11. What happened?

- There was an attempt to disperse the picket. Viktor Sakirko and I were illegally detained as organizers of the action and sent to a police department. Viktor Sakirko was called up an hour before the beginning of the action and was told the picket was banned. They explained it by saying he had spoken at the meeting held on Pushkinskaya Square the day before under the title "People Against Dictatorship" and had proved the idea of boycotting the [presidential] election. This in itself is absolutely legal, as I know, let alone that it was the height of disrespect on the part of the authorities to notify of the ban an hour before the action. Therefore we made the firm decision to hold the picket anyway. The deputy prefect of Moscow's Tverskoy district conducted long negations with us, assuring nobody would arrest us if we broke up quietly. After it, we spent three hours at the Tverskoy police department, refused to give any explanations, signed our disagreement with the report, and decided to provide explanations in court.

- What is the date of the trial?

- The trial was to be held on March 12. But we did not have summonses in hand and decided to act consistently, within the framework of the legal action. We have lawyers and legal support. We are waiting for the summonses. We are completely sure we are in the right. According to the law, any citizen has the right to notify about his/her intentions and then put them into practice if they are not at variance with the Constitution currently in force. Our appeals and declarations contain nothing conflicting with it.

- How did the picket on Pushkinskaya Square appear?

- When the second Chechen campaign started, the group which forms the core of the Committee for Antiwar Actions now decided to create a kind of permanent point to inform people of what was going on there [in Chechnya]. We have prepared leaflets and distributed them among people who know little about this war. Our action is of enlightening nature. We want people who hold the other, official point of view to be able to look at the problem otherwise.

- Would you tell a little about picket participants? What people come to you?

- Very different people do. There are teachers, journalists, householders, pensioners, and students among them. We all adhere to different ideological views. There are communists, democrats, and liberals among us. We picket without flags. The only strict requirement we have is not to show political convictions. The only thing unites us: the wish to make the end of the war closer.

- How do you estimate your odds for success?

- And what do you call success? If to speak about the end of the war, we understand our voice is not a decisive one. But the war destroys our civic and human self, and we would like to be able to remain human beings in future, when this severe conflict is over.

Author: Ksenia Ladygina Source: Own correspondent

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 16/3/2004

Ruslan Gelayev's relatives cannot take his body for burial

The body of Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev, a notorious Chechen commander, has not been given to his relatives so far. The agreement that the relatives were allowed to take his body was reached a week ago, one of them said in his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent. But the relatives have not been able to take the dead body from the morgue of the Rostov Hospital. "We left for Rostov on March 10 to take the body of Khamzat for burial. We informed relatives and acquaintances that we were allowed to take him and the funeral would be conducted the next day at the cemetery of the village of Gikalo, Chechnya's Grozny district. However we were unexpectedly refused at the morgue in Rostov at the very last moment. Nobody explained the reasons, they only told us somebody had called up from somewhere and had forbidden to give us the body of Gelayev," said the interlocutor.

At the same time, the memorial ceremony (tezet) for Ruslan Gelayev is continuing in the village of Gikalo. His mother and sister arrived from Georgia several days ago. Relatives of the killed field commander do not know when they will be able to take the body of Ruslan Gelayev and bury him and whether they will be able to take the body or not at all.

Author: Sultan Abubakarov Source: Own correspondent Germany calls on Russia to respect Chechen rights