| Threat of
Closure of the Chechen Committee for National Salvation (ChCNS) Vienna, 23 September 2004. The Chechen Committee of National Salvation (ChCNS), a human rights NGO member of the All Russian Movement for Human Rights network, faces closure by the authorities of Ingushetia. The organization, headed by Ruslan Badalov, is based and legally registered in Nazran, Ingushetia. It is active in gathering and disseminating information on the human rights situation in and around Chechnya, primarily via regular press-releases on the Internet. In August 2004, the prosecutor's office of Ingushetia made a submission to the Nazran district court, claiming that the ChCNS disseminates information of extremist character, thus violating Article 13 of the Federal Law "On Countering Extremist Activities." In its submission, the prosecutor's office specifically referred to twelve press-releases by the ChCNS and affirmed that they featured unverified data and/or erroneous, over-generalized conclusions with the aim of accusing the Russian armed forces and law-enforcement bodies of mass-crimes. The prosecutor's office further claimed that in this way the ChCNS was purposefully inciting public hostility toward representatives of the State and attempting to make the population resist the State. The prosecutor's office requested that a court hearing be scheduled to have the press-releases examined and recognized as "extremist." As part of his defense, Ruslan Badalov asked for an opinion by the Independent Council of Legal Expertise (a renown group of prominent Russian lawyers), who found all twelve press releases of the ChCNS to be free of extremist contents. The IHF also refutes the merits of the prosecutor's office assessments, which declare as extremist and groundless various passages of the ChCNS press-releases, including for example the following sentence: "in the opinion of the local residents, those people had become victims of the terror conducted by the Russian power structures". (Press release no. 550, "Five Corpses Found in the Leninsky District of Grozny", 1 April 2004). The court hearing was scheduled for the first week of September but had to be postponed until 24 September due to the illness of Ruslan Badalov. The IHF fears that if the Court rules that the ChCNS press-releases constitute extremist materials, the activities of the organization risk being considered as extremist under the Federal Law "On Countering Extremist Activities", leading to a warning and to the possible suspension without trial of their activities for a period of up to six months. Under the same law, the Prosecutor's office or the Ministry of Justice can request a Court ruling to close down the organization. The IHF has serious grounds to believe that the ChCNS is being prosecuted for its independent reporting on human rights violations committed by the Russian armed forces actions in Chechnya. It is feared that the Russian law "On Countering Extremist Activities", which was criticized by the UN Human Rights Committee in 2003 for its potential for selective application against non-extremist organizations, is being used in order to suspend the work of one of the strongest human rights groups in the North Caucasus. For further information: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Aaron Rhodes, Eliza Moussaeva, +43-1-4088822 Moscow Helsinki Group, Tanya Lokshina, +7-916 624 1906 (mobile) Chechen Committee for National Salvation, Ruslan Badalov, +7-873-22 22 400 __________________________________________ Joachim Frank, Project Coordinator International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Wickenburggasse 14/7 A-1080 Vienna Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 22 Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50 Web: http://www.ihf-hr.org ______________________________________ Chechenpress Statement by President of the ChRI A. Maskhadov In connection with Shamil Basayev's statement, in which he took responsibility for the organization of the terrorist act in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia, I categorically declare that the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria under my command have nothing to do with this terrorist act. I want to say once more that I most decisively reject and condemn such methods of fighting, no matter who uses them. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible under the conditions of the continuation of the present war, to call to account those who are guilty of this terrorist act. However, I categorically declare that after the end of the war, persons who are guilty of carrying out provocative acts will be taken to court, including Shamil' Basayev. I call the international community to establish an international tribunal for the comprehensive investigation of all crimes committed during this war by both sides of the conflict. However, I find it necessary to mention that such acts are a consequence of and reaction to the genocidal war of the Russian government against the Chechen nation, during which the Rusian army has killed 250,000 people, including 42,000 children. The continuation of this war might finally lead to the situation becoming uncontrollable, and the result will inevitably be an increase in the number and scale of terrorist acts. It is widely known that the reason for this conflict with a four-century-long history, during which the Chechen people has suffered extremely severe acts of genocide, is the striving of Russian colonialism to quell the will of the Chechen people to realize its vested right for self-determination. The only possible and correct solution of the Chechen-Russian conflict is a political one, which would provide an international guarantee of the stop and the impossibility of a renewal of the genocide of the Chechen people by Russian colonialism. President of the ChRI Aslan Maskhadov, 23.09.04 Chechenpress, Department of Governmental Information, 24.09.04 http://chechenpress.com/news/2004/09/24/10.shtml [Tr. by N.S.] 52-year-old Muscovite misappropriates RUR15 mln of Chechen restoration program in 2002 23.09.2004, 12.06 GROZNY, September 23 (Itar-Tass) -- A 52-year-old Muscovite misappropriated a big sum of money allocated under the programme for Chechen restoration. Officers of the department for the fight with economic crimes of the Argun police department found out that director general of the closed joint stock company Siti-Finstroi Leonid Simakov misappropriated 15 million roubles in 2002, the alert force of the Chechen Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Thursday. According to police, the businessman embezzled funds by deliberate overestimation of the amount of work at a facility under the programme for Chechen restoration. Materials are handed over to the prosec Sep 24 2004 5:48PM Ombudsman appointed in Chechnya GROZNY. Sept 24 (Interfax) - Lawyer Lema Khasuyev has been appointed provisional Chechen human rights commissioner. Under the Chechen constitution, the human rights commissioner is to be appointed by the Chechen parliament. But Chechnya still has no legislature, and so it has been decided to appoint a commissioner who will hold the office before the parliament is elected, Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Dzhabrailov told Interfax. Comment: About Lema Khasuyev see Anna Politkovskaya's article http://www.amnestyusa.org/amnestynow/chechnya.html Kavkaz memo.ru , 22/9/2004 Ingushetia, Russian Federation 14 IMC doctors wanted by federal police On September 20, 14 doctors from international medical organization "International Medical Corp" (IMC) turned to Nazran office of HRC "Memorial" for assistance in bringing authorities to investigate the fact that the police have issued a public call for information, connecting them to terrorist acts in Russia. According to the doctors, in early march 2004, in public places of Moscow (airports Sheremetevo 1-2, at railway and police stations, in the supermarket "Stolichny", located in the south of Moscow) were posted leaflets with photos and names of 14 women. All of them were wanted by the police and suspected of terrorist activity, namely, contriving a terrorist act, similar to the explosion in Moscow metro of February 6, 2004. The head of IMC in Moscow recognized his employees from Nazran in the wanted women. All the 14 of them reside in Ingushetia and work for "International Medical Corp", a humanitarian organization, since 2000 providing medical aid to forced migrants from Chechnya. Scanned photographs used in the leaflet had been sent to Moscow from Nazran for creating personal employee files in the head office. Under each photo was the name of the doctor spelt in English and the date of her acceptance to work. In the leaflet issued by police the photos were reprinted with the original notes. Only under the photo of Anna Uzhakhova was an additional notice that she was the first wife of Shamil Basayev (Uzhakhova has no connection to Basaev, and is married to another man of whom she has 5 children) Having learnt about these unfortunate developments, the anxious doctors turned to the Prosecution of the Russian Federation and Republic Ingushetia, to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, to FSB and MVD of the Russian Federation and Republic Ingushetia, to the Ombudsman of the RF and RI with written requests to carry out investigation on the grounds of their prosecution and urged the authorities to punish the persons responsible for disseminating libel. Interestingly, when the "wanted" doctors tried to visit the republican department of FSB, all of them were ousted from the territory of the department. An FSB officer asked women to choose four representatives to carry out talks. From the correspondence with the officials the doctors learnt that "information concerning their possible involvement in terrorism together with the color photos arrived to the Center "T" at the Central Department for Combat of Organized Crime of MVD and FSB Russia; from there the photographs were delivered to the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs of Moscow for using them in the anti- terrorist investigating measures". An official source in FSB claimed that the list and the photos of the doctors were found in an weapon cache, belonging to Kh. Tazabaev - the head of a terrorist group, which actively involved women suicide bombers. Upon carrying out the investigation into the matter, the representatives of law enforcement assured the doctors that all the departments of Moscow police had been ordered to eliminate leaflets with photographs. However, on September 16, two weeks after the tragic events in Beslan, a North Osetian weekly newspaper "Slovo" / Nykhas"/ # 96 (9433) again printed the information and photos of the 14 doctors from Nazran wanted by the police. This time the list was completed by names and photos of three other women, whose identity is unknown. The doctors from IMC are seriously concerned about their situation. In the conditions of increasingly frequent illegal detainments and disappearances in Ingushetia, they feel their lives are threatened. The list of the "wanted" doctors is below: 1. Ausheva Ludmila, dermatologist 2. Malsagova Fatima – general practitioner 3. Yandieva Tamara - general practitioner 4. Albogacheiva Maddan – pediatrician 5. Dolgieva Khava – gynecologist 6. Mogushkova Motya - general practitioner 7. Shishkhanova Birlant - pediatrician 8. Yandieva Radimkhan - general practitioner 9. Uzhakhova Anna - pediatrician 10. Timurzieva Mariam – pediatrician 11. Batalova Zinaida - general practitioner, gynecologist 12. Mukhieva Fatima- general practitioner 13. Khutieva Madina - surgeon 14. Yusupova Marem - general practitioner Source: Representative Office of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Nazran, Ingushetia) |