http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/chechnya-day-world
23d February 2009
Today is World Chechnya Day. On this day in 1944 Stalin deported the entire Chechen population of 500,000 people to Siberia and Kazakhstan, where almost half of them perished in 13 years of exile.
Sixty-five years on, the Chechen people are still suffering. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Chechnya existed as an independent state in all but name before Russian troops invaded in 1994. Following a bloody war, a peace accord was signed and democratic elections were held in Chechnya in 1997, only for Vladimir Putin to order its invasion in 1999, resulting in the displacement of several hundred thousand refugees and the death of another 100,000 civilians.
The Kremlin now claims that the war is over and that there is peace and stability in the region. The reality is that the intensive bombings have been replaced with a regime of fear and oppression which has eroded civil society in Chechnya and suppressed any open and democratic voice. Visits are carefully choreographed for western journalists and dignitaries. They do not see the daily realities of Moscow-imposed Ramzan Kadyrov's rule.
The facade of stability is dangerous. The only way to establish lasting peace in Chechnya is through free and fair elections, which last took place over 10 years ago. On this World Chechnya Day, we urge President Medvedev to find a genuine political settlement that will finally put an end to an entire people's suffering.
Ivar Amundsen Director, Chechnya Peace Forum,
Malcolm Rifkind MP, Andrew Motion, Ken Loach, Prof AC Grayling, Dr Benjamin Zephaniah, Andre Glucksmann, Aki Kaurismäki, Prof Brendan Simms, Jonathan Heawood, Glen Howard, Danny Alexander MP, Raymond Jolliffe, Nicolas Rea, Peter Tatchell
Monday, February 23, 2009
Chechnya needs a fair political settlement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/23/chechnya-day-world
Today is World Chechnya Day. On this day in 1944 Stalin deported the entire Chechen population of 500,000 people to Siberia and Kazakhstan, where almost half of them perished in 13 years of exile.
Sixty-five years on, the Chechen people are still suffering. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Chechnya existed as an independent state in all but name before Russian troops invaded in 1994. Following a bloody war, a peace accord was signed and democratic elections were held in Chechnya in 1997, only for Vladimir Putin to order its invasion in 1999, resulting in the displacement of several hundred thousand refugees and the death of another 100,000 civilians.
The Kremlin now claims that the war is over and that there is peace and stability in the region. The reality is that the intensive bombings have been replaced with a regime of fear and oppression which has eroded civil society in Chechnya and suppressed any open and democratic voice. Visits are carefully choreographed for western journalists and dignitaries. They do not see the daily realities of Moscow-imposed Ramzan Kadyrov's rule.
The facade of stability is dangerous. The only way to establish lasting peace in Chechnya is through free and fair elections, which last took place over 10 years ago. On this World Chechnya Day, we urge President Medvedev to find a genuine political settlement that will finally put an end to an entire people's suffering.
Ivar Amundsen Director, Chechnya Peace Forum,
Malcolm Rifkind MP, Andrew Motion, Ken Loach, Prof AC Grayling, Dr Benjamin Zephaniah, Andre Glucksmann, Aki Kaurismäki, Prof Brendan Simms, Jonathan Heawood, Glen Howard, Danny Alexander MP, Raymond Jolliffe, Nicolas Rea, Peter Tatchell
Today is World Chechnya Day. On this day in 1944 Stalin deported the entire Chechen population of 500,000 people to Siberia and Kazakhstan, where almost half of them perished in 13 years of exile.
Sixty-five years on, the Chechen people are still suffering. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Chechnya existed as an independent state in all but name before Russian troops invaded in 1994. Following a bloody war, a peace accord was signed and democratic elections were held in Chechnya in 1997, only for Vladimir Putin to order its invasion in 1999, resulting in the displacement of several hundred thousand refugees and the death of another 100,000 civilians.
The Kremlin now claims that the war is over and that there is peace and stability in the region. The reality is that the intensive bombings have been replaced with a regime of fear and oppression which has eroded civil society in Chechnya and suppressed any open and democratic voice. Visits are carefully choreographed for western journalists and dignitaries. They do not see the daily realities of Moscow-imposed Ramzan Kadyrov's rule.
The facade of stability is dangerous. The only way to establish lasting peace in Chechnya is through free and fair elections, which last took place over 10 years ago. On this World Chechnya Day, we urge President Medvedev to find a genuine political settlement that will finally put an end to an entire people's suffering.
Ivar Amundsen Director, Chechnya Peace Forum,
Malcolm Rifkind MP, Andrew Motion, Ken Loach, Prof AC Grayling, Dr Benjamin Zephaniah, Andre Glucksmann, Aki Kaurismäki, Prof Brendan Simms, Jonathan Heawood, Glen Howard, Danny Alexander MP, Raymond Jolliffe, Nicolas Rea, Peter Tatchell
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The heirs of Budanov
http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000008-000001-000498&lang=1 By Andrei Babitsky, special to Prague Watchdog
It is obvious that the motives for Colonel Budanov's early release are legally questionable and morally preposterous. No sane, normal person living in Russia would want to see an unrepentant psychopathic murderer (and probably also rapist) walk free on the street among his fellow citizens. Nevertheless, because of the campaign that has been organized by the Chechen authorities, the focus of this story has changed, and the Budanov case has suddenly broadened in a topical way.
The sentence passed on the Russian army colonel was, of course, unduly lenient, and this has been repeatedly pointed out by human rights defenders and relatives of his victims. But if we are honest we will admit that against the backdrop of a huge number of similar crimes which have remained unpunished, the Budanov case looks like an exceptional instance – the accidental or deliberate sacrifice of a single criminal, while thousands of others who killed, tortured, and mocked enjoyed the protection of a State which has absolved them of responsibility on the grounds that they were taking part in military operations.
As a result, although Budanov has (for whatever reason) been made into a scapegoat, this in no way reduces the degree of his responsibility for the murder he committed. However, the situation itself may prompt a timely reflection on the fact that an enormous stratum of war crimes and crimes against humanity has been determinedly sheltered from justice, throwing to the surface a wretched figure who has been forced to take on his shoulders the entire weight of the Russian army's criminal actions in Chechnya. While the selectivity with which the government has acted in this situation naturally gives us no reason to sympathize with Budanov, this is something that must be borne in mind if we are to understand the questions that need to be raised today.
The problem is that the condemnation of Budanov and other Russian officers who have accidentally received their "just deserts" does not relieve society of the essential task: that of returning, sooner or later, to an investigation of the past in order to identify and punish the criminals responsible for the killings, disappearances and torture. The attention human rights defenders are giving to Budanov's early release is understandable: beyond any selective approach, they are simply assessing the circumstances of a specific criminal case. Their conclusions are purely professional – the court's decision is a highly questionable one.
But the mass campaign of protest which has been organized in Chechnya completely reproduces the logic of the Kremlin's selective approach. From the government's point of view, Budanov is a criminal. His early release may well have been authorized without the involvement or support of politicians at a federal level, and it does not alter its status. He is a man who has been convicted of murder, and will forever remain so.
On the other hand, the thousands of Russian army officers who have killed, tortured and raped are – by default – fully-fledged citizens who are safely protected from any criminal prosecution, and whose status is therefore intact. Kadyrov's official human rights agency has violently protested against Budanov's release, but it does not even plan to raise the issue of the legitimacy of the federal government's approach. It merely insists that the Russian colonel should serve the term that was prescribed by the sentence of the court.
Neither Kadyrov nor even his human rights Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev are in any position to declare the need for an investigation of the crimes of all the Budanovs who fought in Chechnya. For one thing, it would call into question the legitimacy of the military campaign for the pacification of the republic, a tenet that is a cornerstone of Putin's power. And for another (and this is more important), the Budanov case has not been forgotten. Kadyrov himself and his gang of many thousands are the Russian colonel's talented and successful heirs, who have multiplied his glorious deeds many times and have achieved significant advances in the use of the most heinous methods of reprisal.
There is also a strong element of nationalism here. Kadyrov lives in the absolute certainty that he alone has been granted the right to punish or pardon the Chechens because they are a nation over which he has been given the right of ownership, either by the will of Allah or the will of Putin – which to him seem to be more or less the same thing. Only he and his bloodstained servants are authorized to spill Chechen blood, and this is an intimate process, one in which intervention by an ethnic Russian must be publicly labelled as interference in internal Chechen affairs. It is obvious that his attempts to thus play on the national feelings of his compatriots clash with the tacit denial of thousands of other crimes that have been covered up by the Kremlin. But this does not worry Kadyrov too much. Most probably he has never even noticed the contradiction.
The wretched, hounded killer who has now been so shamefully released will probably sink into an outer darkness so complete that no more will be heard of him for many a long year. But the other Budanovs – yesterday's, with Russian names, and today's, with Chechen ones – will not even dream of encountering a final retribution, either in this world or the next. And the weight of their crimes continues to form part of the moral fabric of the Russian state and society,
and irreparably distorts our way of life.
The photograph is borrowed from the website of Novaya Gazeta.
It is obvious that the motives for Colonel Budanov's early release are legally questionable and morally preposterous. No sane, normal person living in Russia would want to see an unrepentant psychopathic murderer (and probably also rapist) walk free on the street among his fellow citizens. Nevertheless, because of the campaign that has been organized by the Chechen authorities, the focus of this story has changed, and the Budanov case has suddenly broadened in a topical way.
The sentence passed on the Russian army colonel was, of course, unduly lenient, and this has been repeatedly pointed out by human rights defenders and relatives of his victims. But if we are honest we will admit that against the backdrop of a huge number of similar crimes which have remained unpunished, the Budanov case looks like an exceptional instance – the accidental or deliberate sacrifice of a single criminal, while thousands of others who killed, tortured, and mocked enjoyed the protection of a State which has absolved them of responsibility on the grounds that they were taking part in military operations.
As a result, although Budanov has (for whatever reason) been made into a scapegoat, this in no way reduces the degree of his responsibility for the murder he committed. However, the situation itself may prompt a timely reflection on the fact that an enormous stratum of war crimes and crimes against humanity has been determinedly sheltered from justice, throwing to the surface a wretched figure who has been forced to take on his shoulders the entire weight of the Russian army's criminal actions in Chechnya. While the selectivity with which the government has acted in this situation naturally gives us no reason to sympathize with Budanov, this is something that must be borne in mind if we are to understand the questions that need to be raised today.
The problem is that the condemnation of Budanov and other Russian officers who have accidentally received their "just deserts" does not relieve society of the essential task: that of returning, sooner or later, to an investigation of the past in order to identify and punish the criminals responsible for the killings, disappearances and torture. The attention human rights defenders are giving to Budanov's early release is understandable: beyond any selective approach, they are simply assessing the circumstances of a specific criminal case. Their conclusions are purely professional – the court's decision is a highly questionable one.
But the mass campaign of protest which has been organized in Chechnya completely reproduces the logic of the Kremlin's selective approach. From the government's point of view, Budanov is a criminal. His early release may well have been authorized without the involvement or support of politicians at a federal level, and it does not alter its status. He is a man who has been convicted of murder, and will forever remain so.
On the other hand, the thousands of Russian army officers who have killed, tortured and raped are – by default – fully-fledged citizens who are safely protected from any criminal prosecution, and whose status is therefore intact. Kadyrov's official human rights agency has violently protested against Budanov's release, but it does not even plan to raise the issue of the legitimacy of the federal government's approach. It merely insists that the Russian colonel should serve the term that was prescribed by the sentence of the court.
Neither Kadyrov nor even his human rights Ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev are in any position to declare the need for an investigation of the crimes of all the Budanovs who fought in Chechnya. For one thing, it would call into question the legitimacy of the military campaign for the pacification of the republic, a tenet that is a cornerstone of Putin's power. And for another (and this is more important), the Budanov case has not been forgotten. Kadyrov himself and his gang of many thousands are the Russian colonel's talented and successful heirs, who have multiplied his glorious deeds many times and have achieved significant advances in the use of the most heinous methods of reprisal.
There is also a strong element of nationalism here. Kadyrov lives in the absolute certainty that he alone has been granted the right to punish or pardon the Chechens because they are a nation over which he has been given the right of ownership, either by the will of Allah or the will of Putin – which to him seem to be more or less the same thing. Only he and his bloodstained servants are authorized to spill Chechen blood, and this is an intimate process, one in which intervention by an ethnic Russian must be publicly labelled as interference in internal Chechen affairs. It is obvious that his attempts to thus play on the national feelings of his compatriots clash with the tacit denial of thousands of other crimes that have been covered up by the Kremlin. But this does not worry Kadyrov too much. Most probably he has never even noticed the contradiction.
The wretched, hounded killer who has now been so shamefully released will probably sink into an outer darkness so complete that no more will be heard of him for many a long year. But the other Budanovs – yesterday's, with Russian names, and today's, with Chechen ones – will not even dream of encountering a final retribution, either in this world or the next. And the weight of their crimes continues to form part of the moral fabric of the Russian state and society,
and irreparably distorts our way of life.
The photograph is borrowed from the website of Novaya Gazeta.
(Translation by DM)
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Sell out!
Kadyrov has nothing but praise for Putin. "He's my idol," he says. "Putin is a beauty."
Selling out to the oppressor is only an action of one who is an oppressor! Kadyrov needs to think for the people and their interests - not to line his own pockets at the expense of Chechnya!
Sponsor the 20 mile walk for Children of Chechnya!
20 MILE WALK for
CHILDREN of CHECHNYA!
A small group of us are going to do a 20-mile (32 km) sponsored walk on Wednesday 23rd July through Slough. Please sponsor this walk as all proceeds will go to Medical Aid and Relief for the Children of Chechnya (MARCCH).
MARCCH is a great charity with very dedicated and active people doing wonderful and much-needed work in and around Chechnya. So far, they have been able to:
- Provide vital medical equipment and medicines to the main children's hospital in Grozny.
- Deliver 300,000 syringes for TB testing to the Chechen health
authorities; TB is rife in Chechnya.
- Help individuals who otherwise might have been deprived of essential medical treatment such as the mentally or physically handicapped children.
- Provide children with prosthetic limbs who lost their arms or legs in the war.
- Help an orphanage for Chechen refugees in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia with rent, food and clothing.
- Provide every child in the children's hospital in Grozny who needs it with an oxygenator.
Currently, MARCCH are looking into building a new wing in the children's hospital in Grozny to allow mothers to stay with their children. Today, in Chechnya, women travel long distances every day to visit and be with their children.
Read more about MARCCH @ http://www.marcch.org/
HOW TO SPONSOR US:
1. Donate online at: http://www.marcch.org/donations.html
2. Post a cheque, payable to MARCCH, to: MARCCH, PO Box 22982, London N10 3EZ
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Russia's Chechnya moves memorial, citizens complain
GROZNY, Russia, June 3 (Reuters) - Authorities in the Chechen capital have dismantled a memorial to the victims of Soviet repression, triggering public outrage in the southern Russian region.
Workmen appeared without warning last week and dismantled the monument, erected by Chechen separatist leader Dzhokbar Dudayev who fought Russia's armies in the 1990s.
"I'm outraged. To move such a monument you should ask the people," Zaur Timerbayev, who lives in the city, said.
"There should be a referendum. This is a catastrophe."
Thousands of Chechens died when Soviet leader Josef Stalin deported almost the entire 500,000 population in 1944 for suspected collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War Two. In 1956 the Soviet leadership encouraged Chechens to return.
Just a 20 minute walk from the centre of Grozny, the monument -- a stone fist clutching a sword and surrounded by Chechen tombstones -- dominated a busy road junction.
After two wars since 1994 between Russian soldiers and Chechen forces, Kremlin-backed Ramzan Kadyrov rules with little opposition and public dissent is now rare.
He wants to build a new monument commemorating the Soviet deportation of the Chechens on the outskirts of the city.
"The original place for the memorial was not very convenient," Kadyrov said in comments distributed by his press service.
"The new location will include a place for ceremonies, a mosque and a composite history of the subject. An obelisk will be built with all the names of the people who died in the relocation of the Chechens."
But many Chechens were angry the memorial has been dismantled.
"I consider the removal of this monument as abuse," 59-year-old Idris Gaitukayev said.
"I was born during the time of the expulsions, many of my compatriots died and I am seriously affected by what happened during this terrible period of my people's history."
Dudayev, a former Soviet air force general, emerged as head of the Chechen separatist movement after the 1991 break up of the Soviet Union.
He ordered the monument to be built and it has long been associated with him and Chechen nationalism. A laser-guided missile killed Dudayev in 1996 at the end of the first war in Chechnya when Chechen fighters forced Russian soldiers to leave. (Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Charles Dick)
Workmen appeared without warning last week and dismantled the monument, erected by Chechen separatist leader Dzhokbar Dudayev who fought Russia's armies in the 1990s.
"I'm outraged. To move such a monument you should ask the people," Zaur Timerbayev, who lives in the city, said.
"There should be a referendum. This is a catastrophe."
Thousands of Chechens died when Soviet leader Josef Stalin deported almost the entire 500,000 population in 1944 for suspected collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War Two. In 1956 the Soviet leadership encouraged Chechens to return.
Just a 20 minute walk from the centre of Grozny, the monument -- a stone fist clutching a sword and surrounded by Chechen tombstones -- dominated a busy road junction.
After two wars since 1994 between Russian soldiers and Chechen forces, Kremlin-backed Ramzan Kadyrov rules with little opposition and public dissent is now rare.
He wants to build a new monument commemorating the Soviet deportation of the Chechens on the outskirts of the city.
"The original place for the memorial was not very convenient," Kadyrov said in comments distributed by his press service.
"The new location will include a place for ceremonies, a mosque and a composite history of the subject. An obelisk will be built with all the names of the people who died in the relocation of the Chechens."
But many Chechens were angry the memorial has been dismantled.
"I consider the removal of this monument as abuse," 59-year-old Idris Gaitukayev said.
"I was born during the time of the expulsions, many of my compatriots died and I am seriously affected by what happened during this terrible period of my people's history."
Dudayev, a former Soviet air force general, emerged as head of the Chechen separatist movement after the 1991 break up of the Soviet Union.
He ordered the monument to be built and it has long been associated with him and Chechen nationalism. A laser-guided missile killed Dudayev in 1996 at the end of the first war in Chechnya when Chechen fighters forced Russian soldiers to leave. (Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Charles Dick)
collateral damage - so its ok then?
Three children injured by mine explosion in Chechnya
GROZNY, June 3 (Itar-Tass) - Three boys, aged from seven to ten, were injured by a mine explosion in Chechnya. “The children got mine-explosion injuries and were taken to the district hospital of Gudermes,” a representative of the Chechen Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
The police established that the boys had found an explosive device at the south-western outskirts of the village of Ishkhoy-Yurt, where an army unit had been deployed in 2000. The children had started playing with it, and it had set off because of careless handling.
The case is being investigated.
GROZNY, June 3 (Itar-Tass) - Three boys, aged from seven to ten, were injured by a mine explosion in Chechnya. “The children got mine-explosion injuries and were taken to the district hospital of Gudermes,” a representative of the Chechen Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
The police established that the boys had found an explosive device at the south-western outskirts of the village of Ishkhoy-Yurt, where an army unit had been deployed in 2000. The children had started playing with it, and it had set off because of careless handling.
The case is being investigated.
Indicative of a wider social problem in Russia
Amnesty highlights racism in Russia, Chechnya rights violations
LONDON, May 28 (RIA Novosti) - Amnesty International highlighted in a report on Wednesday a rise in race-hate attacks in Russia, the authorities' increasing intolerance of dissent, and ongoing human rights violations in the North Caucasus.
"The number of racist attacks that came to the attention of the media rose; at least 61 people were killed across the country," the organization said in a 400-page human rights report.
The international rights group said Russian authorities have recognized the problem, and that the number prosecutions for racially motivated crimes has increased, but that these measures have failed to curb racist violence.
Russia's non-governmental organizations called on Tuesday for drafting a national program to counter racism and xenophobia. The Moscow Human Rights Bureau, citing its data at a news conference, said 126 race-hate crimes were committed in the first five months of this year, in which 66 people were killed and 132 injured.
Racist attacks occur mainly in big cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, where the majority of foreigners and ethnic minorities live. Voronezh in western Russia, which has a large number of foreign students, has also seen a large number of attacks.
Amnesty International also traditionally criticized Russia for strict media control and arrests of protestors, human rights activists and political opponents, some of whom have suffered beatings.
Amnesty said there were fewer reported cases of disappearances in Chechnya last year, as "individuals were reluctant to report abuses fearing reprisals."
The group said serious human rights violations were still frequent in the North Caucasus republic, which has remained unstable since the end of the second military campaign against separatism in the early 2000s.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia was responsible for enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions in 15 judgments relating to the second Chechen conflict.
Neighboring Ingushetia saw an increase in serious violations, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, Amnesty said.
LONDON, May 28 (RIA Novosti) - Amnesty International highlighted in a report on Wednesday a rise in race-hate attacks in Russia, the authorities' increasing intolerance of dissent, and ongoing human rights violations in the North Caucasus.
"The number of racist attacks that came to the attention of the media rose; at least 61 people were killed across the country," the organization said in a 400-page human rights report.
The international rights group said Russian authorities have recognized the problem, and that the number prosecutions for racially motivated crimes has increased, but that these measures have failed to curb racist violence.
Russia's non-governmental organizations called on Tuesday for drafting a national program to counter racism and xenophobia. The Moscow Human Rights Bureau, citing its data at a news conference, said 126 race-hate crimes were committed in the first five months of this year, in which 66 people were killed and 132 injured.
Racist attacks occur mainly in big cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, where the majority of foreigners and ethnic minorities live. Voronezh in western Russia, which has a large number of foreign students, has also seen a large number of attacks.
Amnesty International also traditionally criticized Russia for strict media control and arrests of protestors, human rights activists and political opponents, some of whom have suffered beatings.
Amnesty said there were fewer reported cases of disappearances in Chechnya last year, as "individuals were reluctant to report abuses fearing reprisals."
The group said serious human rights violations were still frequent in the North Caucasus republic, which has remained unstable since the end of the second military campaign against separatism in the early 2000s.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia was responsible for enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions in 15 judgments relating to the second Chechen conflict.
Neighboring Ingushetia saw an increase in serious violations, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, Amnesty said.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
WORLD CHECHNYA DAY
LONDON, 24TH FEBRUARY 2008
** APOLOGIES if you have received this message before. The Campaign mailing list will now be managed through Google Groups **
On 23rd February, 1944 the Stalin ordered the immediate deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush peoples to the steppes of Central Asia resulting in the deaths of up to half of the population. In 2004 the European Parliament recognised this event as Genocide.
The Save Chechnya Campaign will be marking World Chechnya Day with a commemorative event on Sunday 24th February, 1:30-5:30pm at Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place (off Edgware Road) London, W1H 4LP. Nearest tube Marble Arch and Edgware Road.
Please attend to learn more about a day that few are aware of and yet none should forget.
All welcome. Entry free.
1:30pm: TALK: DEPORTATION AND EXILE. THEN AND NOW
Learn about the deportations, the consequences for the Chechen people and the continuing effects being felt today.
2:00pm: FILM SHOWING: COCA - THE FILM FROM CHECHNYA
Coca - The Dove from Chechnya is the heroic and true story of one woman: Zainap Gashaeva (nicknamed Coca) was born in the exile. Since the beginning of the Chechen war in 1994 she has been collecting video tapes and interviews about the war that Europe and World has ignored.
It is estimated that in the last ten years up to a third of the Chechen population may have been killed as a result of Russian "anti- terrorist" operations. Disappearances and murder of civilians by the security services remains commonplace in Chechnya. In the midst of war and repression Coca and her helpers have remained determined to discover and record the truth of what has been happened to Chechnya. This film is a story of Chechnya today told by Chechens themselves.
For more information:
w: www.worldchechnyaday.org
e: info@savechechnya.org
LONDON, 24TH FEBRUARY 2008
** APOLOGIES if you have received this message before. The Campaign mailing list will now be managed through Google Groups **
On 23rd February, 1944 the Stalin ordered the immediate deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush peoples to the steppes of Central Asia resulting in the deaths of up to half of the population. In 2004 the European Parliament recognised this event as Genocide.
The Save Chechnya Campaign will be marking World Chechnya Day with a commemorative event on Sunday 24th February, 1:30-5:30pm at Abrar House, 45 Crawford Place (off Edgware Road) London, W1H 4LP. Nearest tube Marble Arch and Edgware Road.
Please attend to learn more about a day that few are aware of and yet none should forget.
All welcome. Entry free.
1:30pm: TALK: DEPORTATION AND EXILE. THEN AND NOW
Learn about the deportations, the consequences for the Chechen people and the continuing effects being felt today.
2:00pm: FILM SHOWING: COCA - THE FILM FROM CHECHNYA
Coca - The Dove from Chechnya is the heroic and true story of one woman: Zainap Gashaeva (nicknamed Coca) was born in the exile. Since the beginning of the Chechen war in 1994 she has been collecting video tapes and interviews about the war that Europe and World has ignored.
It is estimated that in the last ten years up to a third of the Chechen population may have been killed as a result of Russian "anti- terrorist" operations. Disappearances and murder of civilians by the security services remains commonplace in Chechnya. In the midst of war and repression Coca and her helpers have remained determined to discover and record the truth of what has been happened to Chechnya. This film is a story of Chechnya today told by Chechens themselves.
For more information:
w: www.worldchechnyaday.org
e: info@savechechnya.org
Sunday, January 20, 2008
RED CROSS: Russia must find Chechnya's missing!
MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The International Red Cross appealed to Russia on Wednesday to speed up work in discovering the fate of more than 1,000 people who have disappeared in war-torn North Caucasus over the last 20 years.
Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said in an interview during a visit to Moscow that Russian officials needed to do more to help the families of those who have disappeared to find out about their loved ones.
"Our concern is that the families affected, who have relatives missing ... get information on what happened", Kellenberger told Reuters.
"If these persons have died, that the mortal remains be identified and that they are then transferred to the families."
Russian soldiers marched into mainly Muslim Chechnya in December 1994 to crush a drive for independence, starting a conflict that destroyed the region, forced tens of thousands to flee and killed thousands more.
International groups have long urged Russia and the Chechens to track down the missing. The republic's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a 31-year-old former rebel, presents himself as a defender of human rights and has pledged to find the missing.
Observers and aid workers believe there are mass graves scattered around the republic where most of the missing will be found.
Kellenberger said Russian government officials should take the issue of those who have disappeared more seriously.
"Some of them may think that what is being done is sufficient", he said. "That is not my opinion. We need a very clear strong political signal at the highest level."
Sporadic fighting still peppers Chechnya and violence has spilled over into neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia but the intensity has dropped away and the Kremlin is now trying to present the region as stable and peaceful.
Kellenberger said the Red Cross had handed over documents to Russian authorities on 1,140 missing people in the North Caucasus on which it wanted information but other organisations had lists of up to 5,000. Individuals were still disappearing.
"The number of disappearances has clearly decreased but I do not think there is now nobody disappearing," he added.
Kellenberger said Moscow should give a single organisation oversight on the issue of the missing and allow that body to coordinate effectively to ensure that cases were followed up.
The Red Cross has reduced its North Caucasus budget this year to around $11 million as its focus shifts from handing out aid parcels to running development programmes.
The Red Cross chief also pressed Russia to allow it to resume teaching international humanitarian law to troops in the North Caucasus. Moscow had allowed this but withdrew permission last year without giving a clear or convincing reason, he said.
Kellenberger also asked Russia to support a Red Cross push to outlaw unreliable and inaccurate cluster munitions which hurt civilian populations.
Russia has not contributed financially to the International Red Cross in recent times. Kellenberger said he had raised the issue but "did not have a concrete success".
Jakob Kellenberger, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said in an interview during a visit to Moscow that Russian officials needed to do more to help the families of those who have disappeared to find out about their loved ones.
"Our concern is that the families affected, who have relatives missing ... get information on what happened", Kellenberger told Reuters.
"If these persons have died, that the mortal remains be identified and that they are then transferred to the families."
Russian soldiers marched into mainly Muslim Chechnya in December 1994 to crush a drive for independence, starting a conflict that destroyed the region, forced tens of thousands to flee and killed thousands more.
International groups have long urged Russia and the Chechens to track down the missing. The republic's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a 31-year-old former rebel, presents himself as a defender of human rights and has pledged to find the missing.
Observers and aid workers believe there are mass graves scattered around the republic where most of the missing will be found.
Kellenberger said Russian government officials should take the issue of those who have disappeared more seriously.
"Some of them may think that what is being done is sufficient", he said. "That is not my opinion. We need a very clear strong political signal at the highest level."
Sporadic fighting still peppers Chechnya and violence has spilled over into neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia but the intensity has dropped away and the Kremlin is now trying to present the region as stable and peaceful.
Kellenberger said the Red Cross had handed over documents to Russian authorities on 1,140 missing people in the North Caucasus on which it wanted information but other organisations had lists of up to 5,000. Individuals were still disappearing.
"The number of disappearances has clearly decreased but I do not think there is now nobody disappearing," he added.
Kellenberger said Moscow should give a single organisation oversight on the issue of the missing and allow that body to coordinate effectively to ensure that cases were followed up.
The Red Cross has reduced its North Caucasus budget this year to around $11 million as its focus shifts from handing out aid parcels to running development programmes.
The Red Cross chief also pressed Russia to allow it to resume teaching international humanitarian law to troops in the North Caucasus. Moscow had allowed this but withdrew permission last year without giving a clear or convincing reason, he said.
Kellenberger also asked Russia to support a Red Cross push to outlaw unreliable and inaccurate cluster munitions which hurt civilian populations.
Russia has not contributed financially to the International Red Cross in recent times. Kellenberger said he had raised the issue but "did not have a concrete success".
Friday, December 28, 2007
A very rare occurence indeed
Two Russian interior Ministry Soldiers have been stripped of their Military Rank and sentenced to 17 and 15 year jail terms (one of which was tried in absentia as his his whereabouts were unknown)
The Crime
Abduction of three Chechen constructions workers, forcing them to lie face down on the ground before being shot like animals. The bodies were then set alight.
Also reported by RIA Novosti
The Crime
Abduction of three Chechen constructions workers, forcing them to lie face down on the ground before being shot like animals. The bodies were then set alight.
Also reported by RIA Novosti
Friday, December 07, 2007
Hes not the one who is mad!
Russian Court orders the release of a journalist from psychiatric hospital
Why was he there in the first place, you ask?
Writing articles critical of the war in Chechnya
Obviously
Oh..he wasnt the only one
Why was he there in the first place, you ask?
Writing articles critical of the war in Chechnya
Obviously
Oh..he wasnt the only one
Chechnya: Kadyrov to Rule for Years
More significant is that the length of the presidential term in Chechnya has risen from four years to five and that the restriction on serving two presidential terms has been lifted. That means that the president of Russia can now nominate his candidate - currently 31-year-old Kadyrov - to be president an unlimited number of times.
Dukvakh Abdurakhmanov, speaker of the Chechen parliament and a close ally of Kadyrov, welcomed the change. “Two terms of four years - that’s just a western stereotype,” he said. “Who came up with the idea, why do we have to follow it? I think that to end all the transformations and reforms we have begun a leader needs between 22 and 27 years.
Source: Institute for War & Peace reporting
The rest here
Dukvakh Abdurakhmanov, speaker of the Chechen parliament and a close ally of Kadyrov, welcomed the change. “Two terms of four years - that’s just a western stereotype,” he said. “Who came up with the idea, why do we have to follow it? I think that to end all the transformations and reforms we have begun a leader needs between 22 and 27 years.
Source: Institute for War & Peace reporting
The rest here
Big Putin vote in Chechnya has locals puzzled
GROZNY, Russia, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Russia's volatile Chechnya, once President Vladimir Putin's biggest headache, ironically turned out to be a big success story for him in Sunday's election, according to official figures.
But the Central Election Commission's figures, showing that Chechens voted in droves for the Kremlin chief's party United Russia, had some locals scratching their heads.
The figures indicated that 99.2 percent of voters in the war-ravaged region of southern Russia had taken part in the poll and 99.3 percent of them had voted for United Russia.
This was the highest vote for Putin anywhere in Russia, where overall turnout was 62 percent and just over 64 percent of votes were cast for United Russia.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a former separatist warlord turned Kremlin ally, was one of the few people not to be surprised by the result. He had publicly promised beforehand to deliver 100 percent of his republic's vote for Putin.
"High voter turnout in the parliamentary elections shows great civic responsibility," Kadyrov said on Monday without a hint of irony.
"People understand that they have the right to choose."
But on the streets of the heavily scarred regional capital of Grozny, many residents said the results did not tally with their own experience.
"I did not vote. My friends did not vote," said one young man, Malik, who declined to give his family name.
"You can't fool me. My people and I have been through a great tragedy and (Putin's) party is to blame for it," he said.
Putin sent Russian soldiers into Chechnya in 1999 to resume a war against rebels which killed thousands, destroyed swathes of Grozny and forced even more to flee.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no reason to doubt the Chechen result.
Caucasus people had a "tradition of respect for power" he told a phone-in news conference and the result was a "reflection of this respect towards Putin, his party and local authorities". (Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Reuters
But the Central Election Commission's figures, showing that Chechens voted in droves for the Kremlin chief's party United Russia, had some locals scratching their heads.
The figures indicated that 99.2 percent of voters in the war-ravaged region of southern Russia had taken part in the poll and 99.3 percent of them had voted for United Russia.
This was the highest vote for Putin anywhere in Russia, where overall turnout was 62 percent and just over 64 percent of votes were cast for United Russia.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a former separatist warlord turned Kremlin ally, was one of the few people not to be surprised by the result. He had publicly promised beforehand to deliver 100 percent of his republic's vote for Putin.
"High voter turnout in the parliamentary elections shows great civic responsibility," Kadyrov said on Monday without a hint of irony.
"People understand that they have the right to choose."
But on the streets of the heavily scarred regional capital of Grozny, many residents said the results did not tally with their own experience.
"I did not vote. My friends did not vote," said one young man, Malik, who declined to give his family name.
"You can't fool me. My people and I have been through a great tragedy and (Putin's) party is to blame for it," he said.
Putin sent Russian soldiers into Chechnya in 1999 to resume a war against rebels which killed thousands, destroyed swathes of Grozny and forced even more to flee.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no reason to doubt the Chechen result.
Caucasus people had a "tradition of respect for power" he told a phone-in news conference and the result was a "reflection of this respect towards Putin, his party and local authorities". (Writing by James Kilner in Moscow; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Reuters
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Strasbourg Gives Real Price in Chechnya
The European Court for Human Rights has ordered Russia to pay Khanbatay Khamidov a record sum for his losses from counterterrorist activities, €172,000. Khamidov showed that the Interior Ministry forces practically destroyed his household, which included a business. The decision opens the way for a flood of similar suit, since only 350,000 rubles per family is being paid in Chechnya for the loss of housing and property.
Khamidov is a petroleum engineer by training who operated a bakery with his brother in the Nadterechny District of Chechnya. On their 1.2-hectare lot in the village of Bratskoe, they had two houses, a bakery, mill and warehouse. When local residents found out that troops were entering Nadterechny (where there had never been any military action) in 1999, many of them, including the Khamidov brother, fled into the woods. When the troops had gone and the local returned to their village, the Khamidov brother found themselves homeless because Russian special forces had taken over their property. They were forced to flee to a refugee camp with their wives and small children. His year-and-a-half-0ld nephew died of pneumonia in the camp.
Khamidov filed suit in a local court in 2001 to expel the special forces from his property. He won that suit, but he and his relatives returned to find their homes demolished and their equipment missing. He filed a complaint with the Strasbourg court that same year. The next year, Judge Lyudmila Lobova ruled in the Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow that the damage done was “not the fault of the Interior Ministry.” Khamidov appealed to the Court of Human Rights again in 2004 when he was unable to appeal that decision in Russian court.
www.kommersant.com
Khamidov is a petroleum engineer by training who operated a bakery with his brother in the Nadterechny District of Chechnya. On their 1.2-hectare lot in the village of Bratskoe, they had two houses, a bakery, mill and warehouse. When local residents found out that troops were entering Nadterechny (where there had never been any military action) in 1999, many of them, including the Khamidov brother, fled into the woods. When the troops had gone and the local returned to their village, the Khamidov brother found themselves homeless because Russian special forces had taken over their property. They were forced to flee to a refugee camp with their wives and small children. His year-and-a-half-0ld nephew died of pneumonia in the camp.
Khamidov filed suit in a local court in 2001 to expel the special forces from his property. He won that suit, but he and his relatives returned to find their homes demolished and their equipment missing. He filed a complaint with the Strasbourg court that same year. The next year, Judge Lyudmila Lobova ruled in the Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow that the damage done was “not the fault of the Interior Ministry.” Khamidov appealed to the Court of Human Rights again in 2004 when he was unable to appeal that decision in Russian court.
www.kommersant.com
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