Two human rights groups on Thursday demanded the United Nations hold Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable for kidnappings and abuses in the war-torn province of Chechnya. As Putin addressed the General Assembly, the protesters rallied across the street from U.N. headquarters. Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and Amnesty International activists said abductions of humanitarian workers had brought humanitarian aid to a standstill for 80,000 displaced Chechens.

Amnesty's Maureen Greenwood invited Putin and other officials to a film festival "Human Rights Atrocities in Chechnya" in a hotel near the U.N. building. "Mr. Putin, the plot line is familiar. Disappearances, impunity and current attempts by your government to forcibly return displaced people from camps to Chechnya," Greenwood said. "Here's your chance to see these human rights violations in the movies, here in New York. If you don't like what you see, it's up to you to change the story," she said.

The two groups urged Putin to meet his obligation under a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month to ensure the release of kidnapped MSF volunteer Arjan Erkel, a 33-year-old Dutch national who disappeared in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan 13 months ago. Resolution 1502 affirmed the responsibility of the host country to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers. "The political and legal responsibility to solve this case lies with President Putin," said Morten Rostrup, international president of Doctors Without Borders. "We urge other member states to ensure that Putin will mobilize all necessary resources to secure Arjan's release."

The Chechen Times [26.09.2003 16:08]

Pogroms of Chechens in Kabardino-Balkaria

Pogrom in the city of Nalchik has continued since mid-September. In the city where there is a policeman on every corner, and whose pride of the law enforcement agencies knows no limits, militant youths have been attacking Chechen students for a week.

The events that began in Nalchik 15 September and have continued for a week, to-date are far from over, and there are details of new incidents emerging all the time. It appears that for pogrom organisers the first two days were something of a warm-up: two cases of beatings of three Chechen university students and teenagers at the sports pitch of school No 23 in Nalchik went unnoticed.

17 September an angry mob of up to 300 people burst into the student accommodation block of Economics and Law College No 1, where on the third floor about 20 students locked themselves behind thin doors. 'I've never seen anything like this in my life,' said Aimani Salamova, who arrived to the college as soon as she heard about the carnage. 'The attackers completely blocked the building.

I could hear screams, the sounds of something breaking, something was falling down with a crash. I tried to pacify the attackers but nobody heard me. In this situation nobody listened or heard anything. Everything was driven by some animal instinct'.

This is how this terrifying scene was described by the eye-witnesses. The attackers appeared to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol. According to some eye-witnesses, among the attackers there were many students from PE faculty of the local university. They were carrying wooden bats and knives. Ilyas Salamov, a medical student, came to the college just before the violence began to pick up his younger brothers, and like the college students was brutally beaten along with his fellow student Alibek Dikiev from the same year. Both talk about what happened very quietly: both have obvious traces of beating on their faces, Ilyas's lip is bleeding and he has a bad bruise under his left eye, from time to time he clutches his side trying not to make it obvious. His friend Alibek Dikiev has suffered a concussion, he has bruises on his face, his nose is broken, his lip is bleeding and there are bruises all over his body. They were both continuously kicked and passed out at about the same time; they don't recall the end of the drama.

They didn't regain consciousness until they were in a police cell. Then, when they were barely able to stand up, they were taken for questioning. According to Alibek, 'one thing the police were most interested in was whether we were going to write a statement to report the beating'. But the young men were feeling very poorly, they could hardly spare any strength for the red tape. To get out as soon as possible, they signed some papers that the policemen put in front of them. For all that, the students said that they were not going to write any statements. When they recovered next morning and read the copies of the papers they had signed, to their great surprise they learnt from the text of the documents that they apparently had been breaking public order by using obscene language in a public place and reacting with aggression to people's remarks. Each of them had to pay 500 roubles in fine.

The events reached their peak 17 September. Several Chechen students were beaten outside Vostok cinema in the centre of Nalchik. A white Lada car drove up to a bench where a group of students were sitting. Four men got out of the car, called over one of the students, Ruslan Soltoukiev, and asked him whether he was local. When he replied that he was from Grozny, they began to beat him. Soon the attackers were joined by ten more people. Three of the students passed out during the beating; the fourth was dragged aside and hidden in a nearby cafe by a waitress who worked there. At about the same time several more students of the Economics and Law College were beaten outside Elbrus cinema. According to the victims' words, they could feel there was something amiss and decided to go home. They barely managed to get on to the minibus when it was surrounded by a dozen or so people. They demanded that the driver opened the doors. He turned off the engine, put on the light and left the vehicle staying away from it. The four students who remained inside the vehicle were brutally beaten. All the four lost consciousness. Similar scenes occurred in other parts of the city: three people were attacked outside the State Concert Hall, eight were beaten at the school's No 23 sports pitch, two students were beaten outside the university with one to two hour interval, and then three more were attacked. All the three suffered concussions. On the same day six students were beaten in the Academy of Agriculture. In every incident the number of the attackers always exceeded the number of the victims by several times.

But most of all suffered the students in the accommodation block of the Economics and Law College. The police who arrived at the scene of the carnage took away 28 victims to the local police department. Six students under 18 were released immediately, the rest were offered to sign examination records which read as if they were carbon copies of the papers mentioned by Alibek Dikiev. When the young people refused to sign the documents, they were threatened by the police. The total number of those who suffered serious injuries such as concussion, fractures etc., was 54. All the victims are convinced that this is a carefully planned operation aimed at destabilising the relationship between the people of Chechnya and Kabardino-Balkaria. The account of the incident given by Timur Turpulkhanov, a student of the Economics and Law College, also gives an idea of the attackers' methods:

'There were only five of us in the accommodation block when a mob began their attempts to break into the building. When they noticed other Chechen students returning from the lectures, they disappeared instantly. About half an hour later I went out. I was leaving the [college] territory when four people jumped onto me out of nowhere. They began to beat me. Two of them held me down and the other two kicked me in the stomach. Then they threw me into a car and we drove off. When in the centre of the city the car stopped at the traffic lights, I hit one of the gang and jumped out. They followed, but at a bus stop I managed to get into a passing minibus and lost them. Because the driver sped up, I managed to get away.'

Timur remembers his abductors and their car perfectly. Like Timur, other students who have suffered from the violence in these last few days, also remember their attackers' faces well. If the law enforcement officials of Nalchik were suddenly to show interest in what had happened, the victims are prepared to give the full information about those who attacked them.

Next day members of the Council of Elders and some members of the Chechen community in Kabardino-Balkaria who were concerned about the goings-on, went to see Khachim Shogenov, the Minister of Internal Affairs. The minister assured the elders that those guilty of the mass beatings of the Chechen students would be punished. He also promised that there would be police patrols outside the accommodation blocks where Chechen students live. However, by the evening of 18 September there were no patrols. That is why members of the Chechen community had to take turns to keep guard outside the student accommodation blocks all night.

There are still rumours about the militant youths in Nalchik who organised mass beatings of students from Chechnya. Law enforcement agencies continue to do nothing.

[26.09.2003 20:08] Tamara Chagayeva/Prima News Agency

26 September 2003

Ekho Moskvy [BBC Monitoring]

Council of Europe`s assembly not to send observers to Chechen election

[Presenter] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

[PACE] will not send its observers to the forthcoming presidential election in Chechnya [5 October]. This decision was taken at a special session at the PACE bureau. PACE Chairman Peter Sheder told journalists that the decision had been taken for safety reasons. At the same time, Sheder said that observers would like to visit Chechnya after the election. Leonid Slutskiy, the deputy head of the international affairs committee of the Russian State Duma, said that this decision by PACE will not negatively affect either the election or it's perception by Europe.

[Slutskiy] Observers of PACE's political and legal assemblies can go to Chechnya after the presidential election takes place. I don't think this will badly affect the international image of the presidential election, which will be absolutely legitimate. I believe that the assembly is tired of the whole Chechen story and there are fewer and fewer occasions to find negative things there. We are constantly cooperating with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

[Presenter] As a rule, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe does not send observers to regions of countries that are members of the Council of Europe. The invitation to send PACE representative to the Chechen election has been submitted recently and discussed at the assembly's bureau.

The European Union is concerned by the risk of a "biased" presidential election next week in Chechnya, the Italian-held presidency said in a statement Friday.

"The EU is concerned over reports suggesting that some candidates are being intimidated and the electoral process is biased," the statement said.

The EU also stressed the "important" role of "independent media, a precondition for any free election."

"It is extremely important to make sure that Chechnya's population, including those temporarily displaced, recognise the legitimacy" of the poll, which is scheduled to be held on October 5.

The EU reiterated its support for "all genuine efforts to restore sustainable peace in Chechnya" and its condemnation of "all forms of terrorism" while recognising "Russia's territorial integrity."

The EU hoped the election would put an end to the conflict with Russia, restore the rule of law, encourage respect for human rights in the region and pave the way for a genuine reconciliation process in Chechnya.

The EU statement also stressed the need for Russia "to do more to uphold human rights in Chechnya and to prosecute those behind violations."

The Russian government bills the election as the final step of a political peace process settling a brutal four-year war in the separatist Caucasus republic.

The Chechen campaign has already see all the main opponents to Akhmad Kadyrov -- the pro-Moscow administration chief backed by the Kremlin in the race -- disqualified or otherwise sidelined from the race.

Critics claim that it is impossible to hold a legitimate election in Chechnya, which has been shattered by the years of war and where soldiers, rebels and civilians still die on a nearly daily basis.

CPJ and CJES call on President Bush to raise press freedom at meeting with President Putin

September 24, 2003

President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500

Via Facsimile: 202-456-2461

Dear President Bush:

In advance of your September 26-27 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Camp David, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent organization of journalists dedicated to defending our colleagues worldwide, and the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situation (CJES), a Moscow-based press freedom organization, would like to draw your attention to the deterioration of press freedom conditions in Russia. Of particular concern are new pressures on the media as Russia heads into December parliamentary elections and March presidential elections.

Since taking office in December 1999, President Putin has overseen an alarming assault on Russia’s independent press that has limited media pluralism and curtailed direct criticism of the president and his policies. These developments jeopardize Russia’s future stability and prosperity, because without a free press to promote accountability, the country’s weak judiciary, corrupt bureaucracy, unaccountable police and security forces, quasi-democratic elections, and politicized media regulators are unlikely to be reformed.

In advance of the elections, the Kremlin has tightened already stringent controls over the domestic press. In particular, we would like to draw your attention to the following government policies:

Impunity—Independent journalists continue to be murdered with complete impunity because police, prosecutors, and courts have failed to properly investigate and prosecute these crimes. One of the few cases that has gone to trial during the last decade, the October 1994 assassination of Dmitry Kholodov, a reporter for the independent newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets who had investigated corruption in the Defense Ministry, took six years to go before the courts and has yet to produce a conviction. Police have also not reported any progress in investigating the July 4 abduction of Agence France-Presse correspondent Ali Astamirov in the southern republic of Ingushetia.

There have been a dozen journalists killed in Russia between 2000 and 2003 (see attached list). In each case, the murderer has not been brought to justice. This culture of impunity sends a shocking message to the world of Russia’s indifference to press freedom.

Broadcast Media—The Kremlin and its allies have closed or taken control of all independent national television stations that had previously provided Russia’s citizens with alternative sources of news. Most recently, the Media Ministry pulled the independent television station TVS off the air on June 21 without obtaining a court order and replaced it with Sport TV, a state-run sports channel. Media Minister Mikhail Lesin ordered TV-6 off the air in January 2002 following a legal battle between the television network and the oil giant LUKOIL, a Kremlin ally. The government-controlled gas giant Gazprom took over NTV from media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky in an April 2001 boardroom coup.

Criminal Defamation—Russia’s Criminal Code contains criminal defamation laws that are used to stifle critical news reporting. German Galkin, the publisher of Rabochaya Gazeta and deputy chief editor of Vecherny Chelyabinsk, both opposition newspapers in the southern Urals city of Chelyabinsk, was convicted of criminal defamation on August 15, 2003, in a trial that was closed to the public. Galkin was sentenced to one year in a labor camp for allegedly writing anonymous articles that were published in Rabochaya Gazeta about government misspending in the Chelyabinsk regional administration.

Chechnya—The Kremlin continues to maintain a tight information blockade on Chechnya by restricting journalists’ access to the region and limiting reporting on the conflict, all the while claiming that life in the republic is returning to normal. During the last nine months, the Kremlin has pressed neighboring countries to shut down the pro-independence Chechen Web site KavkazCenter (www.kavkazcenter.com), and the Media Ministry issued an official warning to the Moscow-based ultra-nationalist weekly Zavtra on February 26 for publishing an interview with an exiled Chechen separatist leader.

Military—The government continues to persecute journalists for exposing corruption and wrongdoing in the country’s powerful military, police, and security ministries. Grigory Pasko, a former military journalist for the Pacific Fleet’s newspaper Boyevaya Vakhta, served two and a half years in prison after being wrongfully convicted for treason in December 2001. He was imprisoned in retaliation for exposing environmental abuses committed by the military. Pasko was released in January 2003, but authorities denied him a travel passport in March 2003. In August, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal challenging his criminal conviction.

Police—Police officers continue to abuse journalists investigating police activities or criticizing law enforcement officials. Among examples in recent months: On February 16, an Interior Ministry unit in the Chechen capital of Grozny detained and assaulted Zamid Ayubov, a journalist for the local pro-Russian administration’s thrice weekly Vozrozhdeniye Chechni, while he was researching the activities of police units during evening patrols. On May 6, some 40 police officers fired tear gas and stormed the temporary office of the opposition radio station Krasnaya Armiya in the city of Noyabrsk, in the central Ural Region, which had supported an opposition candidate in the May 4 elections. Police officers handcuffed, assaulted, and detained staff members for several hours.

Media Restrictions—The Duma passed media legislation in June, signed into law by President Putin in July, granting broad, excessive, and arbitrary authority to the Media Ministry, Central Election Commissions, and regional electoral commissions to shutter media outlets for printing or broadcasting “biased” political commentary during the forthcoming elections. These restrictions severely hamper news coverage.

All of the previous cases contravene international standards of freedom of expression, as guaranteed under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, which Russia ratified in 1976. They also violate domestic Russian law, including the constitution and the Criminal Code.

Putin’s administration has demonstrated some sensitivity to international public opinion when dealing with the country’s independent national broadcasters, resulting in a shift from blatant pressure to more subtle and covert tactics. While the closure of TVS and TV-6 and the takeover of NTV during the last two-and-a-half years demonstrate the Kremlin’s intolerance for criticism in the national broadcast media, it also highlights the Kremlin’s willingness to paint outright repression as seemingly apolitical business disputes that are settled through the selective enforcement of laws. The recently enacted media restrictions are yet another legal tool to encourage self-censorship in the independent media.

These policies have a tremendous impact on Russian society. In the short term, coverage and debate will be hindered in these important elections. And in the long term, these policies threaten progress toward the free and open dialogue that democratic societies need in order to grapple with problems confronting Russia such as the war in Chechnya and high-level government corruption.

We hope that you will realize the importance of speaking out forcefully against ongoing press freedom abuses in Russia and will communicate your concerns about criminal defamation, impunity, and media restrictions to President Putin during your meeting.

Please do not hesitate to contact our office if you would like further information. Thank you for your attention to this important matter; we await your response.

Sincerely,

Ann K. Cooper, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists Oleg Panfilov, Director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations

Russian Journalist invitation to German book fair withdrawn

SOURCE: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Brussels (IFJ/IFEX) - The following is a 23 September 2003 IFJ media release:

JOURNALISTS ACCUSE RUSSIA OF "SINISTER INTERFERENCE OVER GERMAN BAN ON MEDIA CRITIC"

The International Federation of Journalists today condemned "sinister political interference" which it says is behind a decision to stop Anna Politkovskaja, a leading independent journalist, from taking part in the Frankfurt Book Fair next month.

The IFJ and its regional group, the European Federation of Journalists, says a Russian-inspired ban on Politkovskaja is directly related to her challenging articles in Novaja Gazeta critical of the Russian policy in Chechnya and for her books about the war, which have focussed attention on the brutal effects of the war on civilians in the region.

"This ban is completely unacceptable," said Gustl Glattfelder, Senior Vice-President of the IFJ and Chairman of the EFJ. "It bears the hallmarks of sinister political interference from the top and is an attempt to gag one of Russia's leading journalists." Anna Politkovskaja has experienced threats from Russian authorities and state security officers have raided the newsroom of her newspaper, but she has defiantly continued to write and to participate in international seminars and debates about the Russian violation of human rights in Chechnya. The IFJ and EFJ are calling on the German journalists' associations to intervene with the German authorities and the Book Fair organisers in order to lift the ban.

Politkovskaja had been invited to Frankfurt for the book fair, which runs from October 8th to 13th, to take part in a debate about the situation in Chechnya, but it then emerged that because Russian literature is a theme of this year's event. Russian President Vladimir Putin will be attending as a guest of honour.

Russian officials told Book Fair organisers that they saw it impossible to combine the attendance of their guest of honour with the presence of Anna Politkovskaja and the invitation to her was withdrawn.

"This is a terrible blow for freedom of _expression in Europe," said Glattfelder.  "The work of this courageous journalist on behalf of the people in Chechnya should be respected and recognised. The perception of giving way to political bullying is bad for Germany and flies in the face of the principles of pluralism and quality that the Frankfurt Fair represents."

The IFJ and EFJ say that the invitation should be reissued and that Anna Politkovskaja must be able to speak her mind without intimidation.

The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 100 countries.

For further information, contact the IFJ, International Press Centre, Residence Palace, Block C, 155 Rue de la Loi, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium, tel: +322 235 2200 or +322 235 22 01, fax: +322 235 22 19, e-mail: safety@ifj.org, Internet: http://www.ifj.org/

The information contained in this press release/alert is the sole responsibility of IFJ. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit IFJ.

IFEX - News from the international freedom of _expression community _________________________________________________________________

PRESS RELEASE/ALERT - GERMANY/RUSSIA

24 September 2003

**For further information on past threats against Politkovskaja, see IFEX alerts of 5 March 2003 and 16 October 2001. Please note that the journalist's name is spelled "Politkovskaya" in previous alerts** ________________________________________________________________

DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF _EXPRESSION EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE 489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA tel: +1 416 515 9622    fax: +1 416 515 7879 alerts e-mail: alerts@ifex.org    general e-mail: ifex@ifex.org Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/ ________________________________________________________________

Ps. According to the Norwegian newspaper "Aftenposten", Politkovskaya was to be invited to take part in the mentioned debate, but her German publisher, Suhrkamp, said that they couldn't afford to pay her travel expenses.

"Der Spiegel" reports statements from book fair officials, who accused Politkovskaya of lying and said that there was no problem at all, since Putin wasn't coming to the book fair, and since nobody had banned Politkovskaya. According to these officials, it was the "Heinrich Böll Foundation" that couldn't afford to pay Politkovskaya's travel expenses, but a Norwegian foundation now might do this. It's unclear what really happened, but apparently some political manoeuvering has started. N.S.