| Today's date: Tuesday, 6 December 2005 UNHCR News Stories For Chechens, Poland is not west enough WARSAW, December 5 (UNHCR) Shema drags her teenage daughter down the stairs together with the wheelchair. They live on the second floor of a reception centre for asylum seekers in Poland. There is no lift, so the tiny, grey-haired lady in her forties fights with the wheelchair twice a day, up and down the stairs, to get her daughter some fresh air. "I have one dream: to get the girl on her feet," Shema says. "I know some people who had operations in other countries. I don't know why I can't go where I want, to treat my baby. I am stuck in Poland." Shema believes that going west would solve all her problems. She does not listen to anyone with a different opinion. Not to doctors, who say the girl will never walk. Nor to fellow asylum seekers, who were sent back to Poland and tell her that the magic "West" is not the haven she dreams of. Nor even to non-governmental agencies (NGOs) which try to find simple solutions to make Shema's life easier like moving the family to the ground floor. There are thousands of Chechen asylum seekers in Poland who, like Shema, are convinced that Poland cannot help them. They are not interested in the modest possibilities that exist there, and are determined to seek a better life elsewhere. Although the number of asylum seekers coming to Poland seems to be dropping 5,900 by 25 November this year (down from totals of 6,900 in 2003 and 8,100 in 2004) the percentage of Russians (the great majority of whom are Chechens) has increased from 81 percent of the total in 2003 to an anticipated 95 percent this year. Although Poland has been a member of European Union for over a year now, Chechens do not think of the EU as starting here. Expecting more comprehensive assistance, they are quickly disappointed by the standards of Polish reception centres and by the limited integration possibilities. The 16 Polish reception centres host nearly 3,500 asylum seekers, mainly Chechens who are citizens of the Russian Federation. They are provided with accommodation, basic health care, canteen food and some pocket money. Despite its limited funding, the Polish Office for Repatriation and Aliens makes an effort to ensure conditions in the reception centre are adequate. But the asylum seekers still find plenty to complain about: "We have only one washing machine for almost 100 people." "The cockroaches are the fattest ones you have ever seen." There is not enough sports equipment and too few playgrounds; no library, only one TV. Education facilities for the children are limited and the medical assistance is unsatisfactory or so people say. Still, for people fleeing violence and persecution, the centres undeniably offer safety. "The reason for so many complaints and frustrations is not really the conditions, but a lack of future perspectives," says Manana Anjaparidze, of Médecins Sans Frontičres, who runs a psychological assistance project in Poland. Only a small percentage of Chechens can count on acquiring full refugee status in Poland. Out of more than 8,200 individuals whose cases were processed between 1 January and 25 November 2005 (of whom probably more than 90 percent were Chechens), only 283 people were given refugee status. Another 1,631 individuals were granted 'tolerated stay' the Polish name for subsidiary protection and 2,114 were rejected. A further 4,212 people (51 percent of the total processed) had their cases terminated without a substantive decision. Earning a living in Poland, even for those with settled legal status, can be extremely difficult for Chechen families, which tend to be large. In recent years, Poland has introduced integration programmes for recognized refugees in their first year. These include education and measures to help refugees integrate in the labour market. But 'tolerated stay' the status given to around 85 percent of those recognized to be in need of protection provides its beneficiaries with almost nothing in the way of sustenance. Even though it does provide for a work permit, finding a job is extremely difficult in a country where 18 percent of the population is unemployed. In reality, many 'tolerated' foreigners find themselves homeless and jobless. Some even choose to re-enter the asylum procedure, just to be able to stay in the centres, while others head west. Many Chechens leave without even waiting for the decision of the asylum authorities. More than half the cases dealt with between 1 January and 25 November this year were terminated mainly because the applicants had disappeared from Poland. "I'll be frank with you: I don't want to be here," Masha, a Chechen asylum seeker, says. "I want to have a new life, but here I have no hope. I was already in France my kids went to school, everything was so good, but they sent me back." She is among the increasing number of people, who tried to leave Poland, but were returned under the Dublin II regulation. "I will try again," she says. Under the Dublin II regulation, which came into force in February 2003, it is no longer possible for asylum seekers to choose the country where they apply for asylum. Now, they can file their asylum applications only once in principle in the first EU country in which they set foot. For these Chechens, this is unwanted Poland. Many Chechens are convinced that Dublin II is a Polish concept, and that it is Poland which seeks their return from other EU countries. Such misunderstandings, false beliefs and ungrounded suspicions add to tensions between asylum seekers and Polish social welfare staff. Many Poles working with Chechen asylum seekers have got so accustomed to Chechens treating Poland as a transit country, that they sometimes fail to notice those who actually wish to stay. And there are some: a Chechen nurse, a Chechen doctor and a lawyer, some Chechen cooks they all struggle, but they get by. Their children go to school. They make friends with Poles, and seduce them with Chechen food. Nowadays, a few Warsaw sweet shops are to be found selling delicious 'Chechen pastries.' However, turning Poland into a destination country for Chechens requires more than a greater demand for cakes. So most Chechens decide to leave and look for a new life elsewhere. As the Dublin II regulation does not allow them to transit Poland on their way to other EU countries, they resort to smugglers. In 2004 alone, Polish border guards arrested 178 organized groups of smugglers. Their chief 'clients' were Russian citizens, many of them ethnic Chechens. 'Every week we receive several persons returned to Poland under Dublin II," says a border guard official at Warsaw's Okecie Airport. "We see an increasing number of people who are repeatedly returned for a second or third time." So, in search of the fabled West, many Chechens continue to play out an expensive and traumatic circular drama. They arrive in Poland and seek asylum. Then they pay for illegal transit westwards, are picked up and deported back to Poland. They return to the same centres from where they once fled, escape again, get caught, are deported once more.... By Agnieszka Kosowicz In Warsaw http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/news/opendoc.htm?tbl=NEWS&id=43947275a Legal Harassment Against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. An Update Vienna, 29 November 2005. The legal harassment against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) continues. While the efforts of the Registration Department of the Justice Ministry to deregister the RCFS were turned down by the court in Nizhny Novgorod, the criminal proceedings against Stas Dimitrievsky, the head of the RCFS, are proceeding, as well as the procedure at the arbitration court regarding the decision of the tax inspection that the RCFS has violated the Tax Code and has to pay profit tax and a fine totaling 1.001.561 Rubles (around 28.200 Euro). The next hearing in the criminal case is scheduled for 7 December 2005. The next hearing of the Arbitration Court is tomorrow, 30 November 2005, 2:30 pm. 1. Judicial case against the Pravo-zashchita newspaper. Justice Ministry / Prosecutors Office use Criminal Persecution under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (âInciting ethnic hatredâ) On 3 November, the hearing on the criminal case against Stas Dimitrievsky (as being responsible for Pravo-zashchita newspaper), ended with the decision to reject two appeals of the RCFS. The case was postponed to 16 November, the same day, when there was the hearing at the arbitration court regarding their tax issue. On 15 November, the British human rights lawyer Bill Bowring, en route to observe the trial proceedings in Nizhny Novgorod was denied entry to the Russian Federation. Despite being in possession of a valid multiple-entry visa and letters of accreditation as a trial observer from the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales and from the NGO Frontline Defenders, he was held without explanation by border officials for six hours at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 airport before being put on an airplane back to the UK. Professor Bowring had visited Nizhny Novgorod already on 16-18 June 2005, when he monitored the situation of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, and made a detailed report on his observations of the situation. On 16 November, the first main hearing in the criminal case against Stas Dimitrievsky took place in the Nizhny Novgorod Sovetsky district court. Two lawyers are defending Dimitrievsky in court, Yury Sidorov (Nizhny Novgorod), and Leyla Khamzaeva (Moscow). Several members and staffers of the RCFS and the Nizhny Novgorod Society for Human Rights were interrogated as witnesses for the prosecution. They stated to the court that they are absolutely sure that the publications used to incriminate Stas Dimitrievsky are aimed at establishing peace in the Chechen Republic as they contain calls to political reconciliation of the armed conflict there. Then, the next hearing was fixed for 25 November 2005, but was later postponed for the 28th November. In the hearing of 28 November, Sergey Kovalev, former Russian human rights ombudsman and former State Duma deputy, Lydia Jusupova, a member of chamber of lawyers of the Chechen Republic and staff member of the âMemorialâ Human Rights Center, and Laila Amirkhadshieva, inhabitant of Chechen village Katyr-Jurt, were questioned as witnesses of the defense. They were invited by the defense to acknowledge the actual circumstances in Chechnya, to which the appeal from Aslan Maskhadov to the European Parliament referred, which is one of the two bases of the indictment. Additionally, the author of the linguist expert opinion, Larisa Teslenko â expert of the Privolzhsky Regional Center of Legal Expertise at the Ministry of Justice, ordered by the chief investigator of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the FSB, on which the indictment is based - was questioned. While firmly insisting that the incriminated materials raise racial, national and social enmity âbetween Russian and Chechensâ, Teslenko refused to give an answer to most of the fifty questions, explaining that they were beyond her competence. She refused, for example to define the terms âraceâ, ânationalityâ and âsocial groupâ, declaring that on these questions the sociologist, instead of the linguist should answer. During the trial, about thirty members of the patriotic youth movement âNashiâ (âOursâ) held a picket outside the court building with a poster âA terrorist cannot be a human rights defender". The next hearing of the case was scheduled for 7 December 2005. 2. The fiscal harassment of the RCFS, threatening the continuation of its activities. On 16 November 2005, the Arbitration court of Nizhny Novgorod region, to which the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society lodged their complaint about the actions undertaken by the tax inspection of Nizhny Novgorod, decided to postpone the main hearing of the case to Wednesday, November 30, 2005. Judge Evgenia Belyanina took this decision to postpone the hearing as a result of the alleged illness of two of the staff members of the tax inspection, despite the fact that for a juridical person illness of any of its staff members can't be an obstacle to present the position of the organization in court, creating the impression that the tax inspection was deliberately trying to retard the consideration of the complaint. A young staff member of the tax inspection appeared in court by proxy. He appealed to the judge to postpone the hearing in connection with the illness of one of the two staff member who had dealt with the case before. Asked about the other one, he answered that she was likely to have fallen ill too. Asked why he was not able to represent the interests of the tax inspection himself, he explained that he was unaware of the details. On 15 August 2005 the tax inspection of Nizhegorodski district had made Resolution #25 claiming that the RCFS had violated the Tax Code, and that they have to pay profit tax for grants to implement specific human rights projects in the period from 2002 to 2004 from three foreign donors. Additionally the tax inspection ordered them to pay a fine. The total amount of the claims is 1.001.561 Rubles (around 28.200 Euro). 3. Efforts by the Justice Ministry Registration Department to Deregister the RCFS After having decided on 1 November to postpone consideration of the de-registration-case against the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) for an indefinite period of time, judge Samartseva unexpectedly changed her mind and scheduled the main hearing for 14 November 2005. This hearing turned out to be the final one. Judge Samartseva made a ruling, in which she refused the Nizhny Novgorod Main Registration Department at the Ministry of Justice in its civil action to liquidate the RCFS, after considering the documents and debates between the sides. As this decision was not appealed by the Justice Ministry within the 10 days period, in which this would have been possible, the judgment is final. Unknown Persons Broke into the Flat of Dimitrievsky on 28 November On 28 November, unknown persons broke into the flat of the family of Stas Dimitrievsky in Nizhny Novgorod. When his wife came home at 17:30 she found things scattered on a floor and boxes opened. There were no broken doors, and it seems that nothing was stolen. See also: IHF statement, âBritish Lawyer Barred From Entering Russia to monitor trial of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society in Nizhny Novgorod, 15 November 2005 IHF statement, âThe âRussian-Chechen Friendship Societyâs Under Severe Risk of being Destroyed by Russian Authorities. Its Director Stas Dimitrievsky Faces a Prison Term, 2 November 2005 IHF statement, "Russian Federation: Nizhny Novgorod Authorities Launch Final Crackdown on Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Todayâs Protest Picket Dissolved after Five Minutes â Participants Detained", 2 September 2005. IHF statement, âContinuing Persecution of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society. Its Partner Organisation Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society Closed Down by Authoritiesâ, 10 June 2005 IHF statement, ââWe Fear for the Safety of our Colleagues in the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society⌠Russian Human Rights Organization Threatenedâ, 19 March 2005 IHF statement, âFSB Raids the Russian-Chechen Friendship Societyâ, 20 January 2005 IHF/NHC Report, The Silencing of Human Rights Defenders in Chechnya and Ingushetia, Sept. 2004 For further information: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights In Vienna: Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director, +43-1-408 88 22 or +43 -676-635 66 12; Henriette Schroeder, IHF Press Officer, +43-676-725 48 29 In Moscow: Tanya Lokshina, +7 -916-624 19 06 Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, Stas Dmitrievsky, Oksana Chelysheva, +7-8312-171 666 or +7-920 015 9218 (mobile) __________________________________________ 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 ______________________________________ Tuesday, December 6, 2005. Issue 3310. Page 4. Residents of Nalchik Tell of Beatings and Torture The Associated Press NALCHIK -- Relatives of men killed in an assault on police in Nalchik said in a letter Monday that the violence had been rooted in official repression of Muslims, and accused authorities of beating and torturing the suspects. At least 139 people died in the brazen daytime assault Oct. 13 on law enforcement offices in Nalchik, the provincial capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, including the 94 accused attackers, according to official tallies. Relatives of the men killed during the fighting said the attack had been provoked by relentless official repression of innocent Muslim believers in the North Caucasus region. "Our sons didn't turn their weapons against the people; they only responded to police violence against them," said the letter, signed by 62 people and released by the Moscow-based For Human Rights group. Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed he was behind the Oct. 13 assault. Basayev said the attacks were carried out by local militants affiliated with the Chechen rebels. The letter accused local authorities of allowing Basayev and other rebels to freely move across the region. "Aren't there traffic police checkpoints on every step?" it said. The relatives warned that it would be impossible to restore stability in the region without protecting Muslims' rights, ending repression and conducting a fair investigation into the Oct. 13 attack. Their letter said several people were found dead after they were questioned by police after the assault, and that many other suspects were beaten and tortured. Officials said they had investigated 2,000 people for involvement in the attack and arrested 50. Relatives Of Men Killed In S Russia Attack Blame Government NALCHIK, Russia (AP)--Relatives of men killed in an assault on police in the Caucasus city of Nalchik said in a letter Monday that the violence had been rooted in official repression of Muslims, and accused authorities of beating and torturing the suspects. At least 139 people died in the brazen daytime assault Oct. 13 on law enforcement offices in Nalchik, the provincial capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkariya, including the 94 accused attackers, according to official tallies. Relatives of the men killed during the fighting said the attack had been provoked by relentless official repression of innocent Muslim believers in the region, which is near Chechnya. "Our sons didn't turn their weapons against the people, they only responded to police violence against them," said the letter, signed by 62 people and released by the Moscow-based For Human Rights group. Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, the purported author of modern Russia's deadliest attacks, has said he was behind the Oct. 13 assault. Basayev said the attacks were carried out by local militants affiliated with the Chechen rebels. The letter accused local authorities of allowing Basayev and other rebels to freely move across the region. "Aren't there traffic police checkpoints at every step?" it said. The relatives warned that it would be impossible to restore stability in the region without protecting Muslims' rights, ending repression and conducting a fair investigation into the Oct. 13 attack. Their letter said several people were found dead after they were questioned by police after the assault, and that many other suspects were beaten and tortured. "It's a genocide of our people, the destruction of Muslims," the letter said. Officials said they had checked 2,000 people for being involved in the attack and arrested 50. One of those arrested was Rasul Kudayev, a former prisoner of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Kudayev's relatives complained he was severely beaten to extract confessions, and his lawyer told Human Rights Watch that he couldn't walk without assistance when she saw him in late October. "All confessions made by my client and other defendants have been extracted under torture," said Kudayev's lawyer, Inna Komissarova, who was later barred by authorities from defending Kudayev. Another defense lawyer, Larisa Dorogova, also banned from defending suspects in the assault, said that officials had launched a rampant campaign to intimidate people in the region. "The horror has been building up," Dorogova told The Associated Press. "People live in fear that their sons could be detained at any moment. They don't care whether people are guilty or not; it's what they call mass repression." Kabardino-Balkariya has long been rattled by spillover violence from Chechnya, as well as local criminal elements. Rights groups have accused law enforcement authorities of persecuting innocent believers who worship outside the officially sanctioned mosques, falsely branding them militants and planting compromising evidence, such as drugs or weapons, to ensure their prosecution. "Muslims' rights haven't been restored, and they bar us from speaking out," the letter said. It urged the U.N. and the European Union to open an investigation into the attack. (END) Dow Jones Newswires Ex-Guantanamo Prisoner Tortured by Russian Police Defense Lawyer Created: 05.12.2005 12:55 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:55 MSK, 6 hours 40 minutes ago MosNews Lawyers of people arrested on suspicion of participating in October's terrorist raid on the Russian Caucasus city of Nalchick, claim their clients have been tortured by police, the Gazeta daily reported. On Sunday they distributed photos of the suspects with injuries seen on their bodies to major world media, Alexandra Zernova, an attorney for former Russian Guantanamo prisoner Rasul Kudayev, who was also arrested in Nalchik, said. Zernova told the paper that she could not even recognize Kudayev on the photo at first due to the injuries he received at the hands of prosecutors. The pictures will show international experts how Russia treats the 1984 International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the lawyer stressed. Kudayev's mother was reportedly also pressed by prosecutors. After she filed a complaint to Amnesty International she was summoned for questioning. Investigators asked her how she dared to say her son had been tortured if she had not seen it. Local Russian Interior Ministry employees in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria deny the torture allegations. Three attorneys for the suspects have been suspended from the case after they sent complaints about prosecutors. One of the lawyers removed, Larissa Dorogova told Ekho Moskvy radio station last week that all the Nalchik detainees, including many innocent local residents, are being subjected to "real tyranny". "All the beatings take place with the knowledge of the prosecutor's office," Dorogova said. "The arrested people are questioned by investigators from the Southern Federal District department of the Prosecutor General's Office. They can see what condition the detainees are in but do nothing about it." Lawyers have no power in the region, she claimed. "I was forced to give evidence regarding one of the complaints, but it was a trick: the report said that I had given evidence not about the complaint, but about the criminal case itself, which I am not allowed to do," she said. "As a result I was removed from the case and a court upheld the decision," she concluded. MosNews Chechen HR Delegation Heading to Strasbourg Has Internal Passports Confiscated at Russian Airport 04.12.2005 Officials at the Russian Domodedovo airport have confiscated national (internal) passports of 17 Chechen human rights activists heading to Strasbourg for a European Council summit, Interfax quoted head of the delegation as saying Sunday. Officials at the checkpoint in Domodedovo confiscated the internal passports and demonstrated disrespect towards the delegation, including women, Nurdi Nukhazhiyev said. Nukhazhiyev, who heads the Chechen Council of Human Rights Organizations of Chechnya, said after the incident he considered canceling the trip, but Chechen authorities asked him to continue the mission. Considering the importance of the planned Strasbourg meeting, the Chechen Republic authorities asked me to continue the trip, he said. Nukhazhiyev added he made it clear to officers at the checkpoint that they were acting against the all-Russian policy of presenting equal rights to all ethnicities within Russia. He said on arriving in Strasbourg he would definitely make the incident known to the Council of Europe. A delegation of 17 Chechen human rights officials have been invited to Strasburg by Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. Officials at the Domodedovo airport have yet not given any comments on the incident. British protest as Russia deports rights lawyer Owen Bowcott Thursday December 1, 2005 The Guardian The Foreign Office has protested to Russia about the deportation of a leading British human rights lawyer on his way to observe the politically sensitive trial of Stanislav Dmitrievsky, a director of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship. The decision to detain Professor Bill Bowring at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and then expel him has raised fears that contacts with other Russian civil liberties groups may also be targeted. Professor Bowring, who served as an adviser to the Department for International Development and whose wife is Russian, was stopped on November 15. eng.kavkaz.memo.ru Caucasian Knot 3/12/2005 Local residents demanding imam's release A spontaneous public meeting is under way in front of the building of the Achkhoi-Martan district administration in the district centre currently. Residents of Achkhoi-Martan are demanding that Mr Ali Khaskhanov, an imam at a local mosque, abducted earlier today, supposedly by officers of a law enforcement or security agency, should be released, the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society reports. Mr Ali Khaskhanov was abducted in the afternoon in a village street while going home. Unknown people in masks driving several cars seized him, threatening weapons, and brought him away. Mr Khaskhanov is a great authority for villagers and hundreds of people have gathered to hold the public meeting to protect him. The central square of the village is currently flooded with people and a great number of cars. Participants in the public meeting believe that the abducted man may be kept in custody by one of the law enforcement and security agencies in the district centre. Dagestan: IHF Open Letter to the Prosecutor regarding the unlawful detention and fabrication of a criminal case against human rights defender Osman Boliev To: Rashidhan A. Magomedov, Prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan, RF, Via facsimile Copy: Vladimir Ustinov, Prosecutor General of the RF, Via facsimile +7(095) 921-41-86 Vladimir Lukin, Ombudsman for human rights of the RF, Via facsimile +7(095) 207-76-30 Ella Pamfilova, Chair of the Human Rights Commission of the RF, Via facsimile +7 (095) 206-48-55 OPEN LETTER Vienna, 5 December 2005 Dear Prosecutor, I am writing on behalf of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) regarding the case of the human rights defender Osman Boliev (born 1968), who was detained on 15 November 2005 at his home at 32, Mira street in Khasav-Yurt. On 15 November around 15.00, Traffic Police officers detained Boliev claiming that his car looked like one reported stolen. This story still remains neither denied, nor confirmed. Boliev was then given over to an OMON special police unit, who delivered him to the city police station. Since then, he has been held in custody. The following day, 16 November, Bolievâs relatives learned through informal channels that he was held by the Khasav-yurt police (GOVD). First on 17 November at 1600 hrs, lawyer Akhmed Umaev met Boliev. According to the lawyer, a judge sanctioned a 48 hour remand detention of Boliev on the day of his arrest. It appears that on 16 November, the day after his arrest, a grenade was allegedly planted in his coat pocket. Based on this new âfindingâ, a criminal case was opened under Art. 222, § 1, of the Russian Criminal Code (âunlawful possession of weaponsâ). Boliev was then transferred to the pre-trial detention facility (SIZO) N5/3 in Khasav-Yurt. Soon, the official mass media claimed that Boliev was detained as an insurgent. Osman Boliev is a well-known human rights defender in the North Caucasus and respected figure in his community in Khassav-Yurt. His NGO âRomashkaâ initiated litigation in the case of Israilov, a citizen of Khasav-Yurt, who was kidnapped by employees of Khasav-Yurt GOVD on 19 October 2004. Boliev prepared and sent this case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In a letter from prison to fellow human rights defenders, Boliev writes: âDear colleagues! I am grateful to you all for your help at this tough moment in my personal and professional life. You all know what risks human rights defenders in Russia, and especially in the North Caucasus, take. To get rid of them, the authorities often charge them with crimes like membership in illegal armed formations and illegal possessions of weapons. In my case, after they had tortured me for a long time, the authorities planted a grenade in my coat pocket. This happened the morning after my detention, that is on 16 November. I did not sign any confession and completely denied any wrongdoing. However, there are inmates in this prison, who are ready to sign statements incriminating anybody - me in particular.â The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights is seriously concerned about the safety of our colleague Osman Boliev, and wants to express its conviction that the serious criminal case against him is fabricated. We kindly ask you to use your authority to ensure Bolievâs immediate release and to initiate a criminal investigation into the actions of the local police in this appalling case. Sincerely, Dr. Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director) cc OSCE Delegations Council of Europe, Mr. Rudolf Bindig, Chechnya-Rapporteur for the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; Mr. Andreas Gross and Mr. Konstantin Kosachev, Chairperson and Vice-chairperson of the Ad Hoc Sub-Committee for the organisation of the Round Table on the political situation in the Chechen Republic of the Political Affairs Committee; Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, Commissioned for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Mr. Stephen J. Toope, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances National Helsinki Committees __________________________________________ 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 ______________________________________ |