Independent human rights organizations, first of all Memorial, which has been working in the region since 1994, have actively opposed the crimes. They have searched for kidnapped people, and struggled against impunity, torture and fabrication of criminal cases. The situation with human rights in the region seemed to be improving then.
“Unfortunately, the reduction of raptures and murders in 2007 -2008 turned out to be short-termed. In 2009 the number of crimes increased again and in some cases there are reasons to believe that law enforcement agencies are participating in raptures and extrajudicial killings.
…..Kidnapping and killing of Natalia Estimirova in July 2009 became possible only in this intolerant atmosphere, initiated by the powers of the republic. In less than a month, in August, 2009, the leader of the humanitarian NGO Save Generation Zarema Sadulaeva and her husband Alik Dzhabrailov were kidnapped and killed.
Hostile attitude of the powers and direct threat to human rights defenders’ lives made their work in the Chechen Republic very tough and the Memorial was forced to stop its activity there”, human rights activist said in their statement.
The authors of the statement underlined the fact that they are aware of a degree of danger of work in the Chechen Republic, first of all, for those human rights defenders who resides there on a continuous basis. But still, they consider that “to leave the Chechen Republic without public control means not only to admit that this region of the Russian Federation is excluded from legal framework but also to leave people whose rights are violated without any help.”
In connection with this situation the authors of the statement claim the initiative of ten Russian organizations, which organized in November, 2009 a Public Commission on the Chechen Republic to be very timely. They estimated negative reaction of the Ombudsman of the Chechen Republic towards the Commission as “strange and obscure”.
Human rights defenders underlined that the work of delegations of the Memorial was very important for human rights protection in the republic as well as work of other international human rights organizations and expressed hope that these organizations would find an opportunity to strengthen their presence in the region.
In the statement human rights activists called for solidarity and mutual efforts of the civil society and human rights organizations.
They appealed to Russian powers with demand to provide safety for human rights defenders and insisted that the murders of Natalia Estimirova, Zarema Sadulaeva and Alik Dzhabrailov should be investigated thoroughly, because” only suppress of impunity is able to protect Chechen citizens from lawlessness and prevent new crimes against citizens, huamn rights activists and journalists.”
The statement was signed by the majority of Russian human rights activists including Ludmila Alexeeva (MHG, RRSHR), Valery Borschov (Social Partnership, RRCHR), Alexander Verchovsky (SOVA), Lev Ponomarev (For Human Rights movement), Valentina Melnikova (RRCHR) and others.
