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On 4 October 2006, Viridarium – the action group against anti-Semitism and xenophobia – began a new series of meetings intended to recognize diversity, reinforce dialogue and consolidate remembrance and knowledge about others. (20-OCT-06)

“The Human Rights House Foundation submits this letter to you in order to express our deep concern for the five human rights defenders who were brutally attacked before the planned picket in Nazran, organized in memory of Anna Politkovskaya 16 October 2006”. Thus begins HRH-F’s protest letter to President Murat Magomedovich Zyazikov, the President of Ingushetia, right, after the 16 October attack in the capital Nazran. (20-OCT-06)
  

A new set of images received by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) depicts a group of Chinese police at the scene of the shooting of the young Tibetan nun on the Nangpa Pass near the border of Nepal on September 30. The images depict police and possibly officials gathered around the body the day after the nun, 17-year old Kelsang Namtso, was shot dead by People´s Armed Police while she was crossing the pass into exile in Nepal with a large group of Tibetans including children, other nuns and monks. (20-OCT-06)
 

When her nemesis Vladimir Putin’s face fades, and is forgotten, the legacy of Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (1958-2006) will remain. Aage Borchgrevink, right, adviser in the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, also mourns Politkovskaya. (19-OCT-06)
 

Authorities must launch a full investigation into Monday’s violent attacks against a group of peaceful demonstrators who gathered in Nazran, the capital of Ingushetia, to memorialize Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaia, Human Rights Watch said today. The demonstrators — a group of human rights defenders and Politkovskaia supporters — had gathered near the eternal flame in the center of Nazran for a peaceful protest when police and men in plainclothes attacked them. (18-OCT-06)
 

Last week, shortly after Politkovskaya was gunned down in the entrance to her apartment building in Moscow, Russian prosecutors invoked part of the country´s new NGO law to shut down the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, a group that opposes the ongoing conflict in the region. A few days later, on October 16, a rally in memory of the slain journalist held in the main city of Ingushetia, a region neighboring the Chechen Republic, was broken up violently by local authorities. A number of activists were detained and some were beaten. (18-OCT-06)
 

Today, the deadline ran out for several hundred international organisations wanting to continue their work in the Russian Federation. Due to new legislation, all international organisations are required to re-register annually. Out of the approximately 500 organizations affected by this law, only some 150 have managed to collect the required paperwork in time. Human Rights Watch are among those who have not.(18-OCT-06)
 

Since October 6 “New Life” Full Gospel Protestant church parishioners continue termless hunger strike in the Republic of Belarus. The reason is the Belarusian authorities’ intention to divest the church of legally acquired the lot and the premises for the church service. Today 175 is the figure of starveling people. Believers tend to take a strong stand, so do the authorities. (17-OCT-06)

9 October, Prosecutor of Nizhniy Novgorod region lodged a lawsuit demanding the closure of the Russian Chechen Friendship Society. In the notification the public prosecutor states that the organization has violated several laws. The case is linked to the verdict of the same court of February 2006 when Stanislav Dmitrievsky, right, was given a two years’ suspended sentence on politically motivated `race hate´ charges reated to articles published by his organization. (13-OCT-06)