Old Message Boards – Justice For North Caucasus

RFE/RL: BRITAIN CALLS FSB HARASSMENT OF CULTURAL STAFF ‘UNACCEPTABLE’…

July 3, 2009Administrator

From:

Eagle_wng (Original Message)

Sent: 1/17/2008 9:06 PM

BRITAIN CALLS FSB HARASSMENT OF CULTURAL STAFF ‘UNACCEPTABLE’…
Following the questioning of Russian British Council staff by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the brief detention for alleged traffic violations of Stephen Kinnock, who heads the council’s St. Petersburg branch, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in London on January 16 that “any intimidation or harassment of [council] officials is obviously completely unacceptable,” news agencies reported (see “RFE/RL Newsline,” 14, 15, and 16 January, 2008). He stressed that “we take that very seriously, indeed.” The council’s 29 Russian employees were reportedly subjected to multiple questionings on January 15-16 by officials of the FSB, the tax service, and the financial crimes unit of the Interior Ministry, Britain’s “Financial Times” reported on January 17. Some questionings took place in government offices, while others involved police officials visiting council employees in their homes. James Kennedy, who heads the council’s operations in Russia, said that the officials “are suggesting to our staff that they are working for an illegal organization, which we strongly contest, and that they are working as instruments of provocation for a foreign power, which again we contest.” These developments are part of an ongoing dispute over the right of the British Council to operate in Russia, which in turn is widely seen as part of the continuing row stemming from the 2006 London murder of former Russian security agent Aleksandr Litvinenko. The BBC noted on January 16 that Britain has few possibilities “for retaliation” against the Russian moves. The broadcaster added that London prefers to avoid further escalation of the dispute, but did not say what Britain might do if Russia took further moves against British staff. The broadcaster suggested that London is content “to keep the high moral ground” in the row. The BBC reported on January 17 that the council offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, which were closed when the Russian staff were summoned to the police for questioning, are likely to remain closed for the immediate future. “There seems to be little appetite at the U.K. Foreign Office for further retaliation,” the broadcaster noted. PM

…WHILE RUSSIA WARNS OF ‘CONSEQUENCES’
Russian Ambassador to Britain Yury Fedotov said on Russian television on January 16 that “the British side, which initiated the worsening of our relations last summer, must now think seriously about the consequences that may follow if it does not fulfill the Russian authorities’ decision to close the British Council offices.” He did not elaborate. The daily “Nezavisimaya gazeta” wrote on January 17 that “the FSB will deal with the British Council now.” The paper suggested that the imbroglio “seems to be a blind alley. The Brits are not being particularly tactful or polite. Shown the door by the host, they obstinately refuse to leave. On the other hand, Moscow’s rigid stand on the matter reminds observers of the Soviet era, when the interests of citizens were sacrificed in the name of the state without a second thought.” The daily noted that “according to the BBC, 20,000 Russians studied at the British Council’s language courses and 500,000 learned the English language with the help from teachers trained by the British Council since 1994.” The paper added that currently “2,500 young Russians study at British colleges and universities and owe their good fortune to the British Council. Last but not the least, lots of Russians will lose jobs if the British Council offices in the regions are closed for good.” PM

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2008/01/1-rus/rus-170108.asp

PRIMA-News: Authorities Strengthen Repression Of “The Other Russia”

July 3, 2009Administrator

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 11/3/2007 12:18 AM
2.11.2007 22:25 MSK
Authorities strengthen repression of “The Other Russia”
RUSSIA, Moscow. Authorities are strengthening repression against the opposition coalition “The Other Russia”
In Moscow, as the result of joint operation of the FSB, UBOP (Organized Crime Squad) and GUBDD (State Inspectorate for Road Traffic Safety) “The Other Russia” party materials were seized, including “The Other Russia” pre-election leaflets. The car transporting the materials was stopped at the 33 Kilometer point on the MKAD (Moscow Ring Road).

No reasons for the detention were given to the driver and passenger, noted the press-service of “The Other Russia” in a November 1 communication.

In Ekaterinburg, leader of the Sverdlovsk National Bolsheviks, and candidate for deputy from “The Other Russia”, Aleksey Nikifor, was sentenced to 3 months deprivation of freedom in a colony- setting, although the procuratorship had previously asked that he be sentenced only to a conditional period. Nikifor is charged with replacing the flag of Russia on a university building with the black, yellow, and white imperial flag.

In Pskov, a press conference of candidates for deputy to the State Duma from “The Other Russia” was broken up. Participants in the press conference headed by the leader of the Pskov department of “The Other Russia”, Helen Demchenkova, were detained and accused of holding an unsanctioned meeting. OMON officers participated in the detention. City Police Chief V. Petrov led the detention operation personally.

“The Other Russia” activist Natalya Donovskaya was escorted off the Moscow – Pskov train. She was carrying coalition literature with her. All these measures confirm that in the Russian system citizens are deprived of the rights and freedoms they are guaranteed by the Constitution. “The Other Russia” will not stop its election campaign, directed against the upcoming “elections without an election”, noted the communication.

Translated by OM Kenney
PRIMA-News Agency [2007-11-01-Rus-21]

http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2007/11/2/39444.html

Adygeanatpress: Guantanamo Former Prisoner Kudaev Disappeared From Nalchik!

July 3, 2009Administrator

From:

Eagle_wng (Original Message)

Sent: 1/12/2006 11:21 PM

Guantanamo former prisoner Kudaev gone from Nalchik investigatory isolator

10.1.2006

Rasul Kudaev charged of participation in Nalchik attack of the insurgents, had disappeared from the investigatory isolator in Kabardino-Balkarian capital in the end of December of the last year. About it Kudaev’s mother Fatima Tekaeva informed \”Caucasian unit\” correspondent. She learned that her son had been taken away somewhere when she tried to deliver him some medicine. The investigatory isolator’s employee told her that they had not had already Rasul in the isolator. Tekaeva till now did not manage to get from the investigatory isolator chief or the head of the medical block any answer where her son was. The investigatory isolator’s employees said to her that she should address for such information to the head of the investigatory group of the Office of Public Prosecutor of Russian Federation Alexey Sovrulin under whose instruction Rasul had been taken away. However Fatima did no manage to meet with Sovrulin or to talk to him by phone, too.

Tekaeva also told that Rasul was taken out after a meeting with the plenipotentiary of the president of Russian Federation in the SFD Dmitry Kozak and the president of Kabardino-Balkaria Arsen Kanokov whom he told about tortures over him.

Lawyer Alexander Zaharova, representing Rasul’s interests in the international court under the claim of former Guantanamo prisoners to the US government, addressed with a question to the president of Kabardino-Balkaria where Kudaev is now. The received answer said that he was still in the Nalchik investigatory isolator which mismatches reality.

Caucasian unit

http://www.adygeanatpress.net/stat_e.php?id=1250

The Other Russia: Books Blocked In Moscow

July 3, 2009Administrator

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 9/28/2007 5:59 PM
Friday, September 7th, 2007
Books Blocked in Moscow

Burning books is considered passé these days in Moscow. Preference is given to quieter methods of keeping critical tomes off the shelves of Russian bookstores, or the Moscow International Book Fair. First, the largest Russian publisher, Eksmo, announced that Other Russia leader Garry Kasparov’s new book, “How Life Imitates Chess,” would not be released in time for the Fair as planned. First they said there was a delay due to a technical issue and now a spokesperson says it is because Kasparov’s contract with Eskmo has expired. Certainly it couldn’t be that it was deemed unwise to have a big display of an opposition leader’s face with elections so near at hand? After over seven years of Putin we simply don’t believe in such coincidences.

Now the new book of political activist Ruslan Linkov has also disappeared from the shelves. An unknown buyer purchased the entire print run of 5,000 books to ensure it wouldn’t be available at the Book Fair, where it was scheduled to be launched yesterday. The book delves into the mysterious assassinations of several Kremlin critics, including Galina Starovoitova, killed in 1998 in St. Petersburg. Linkov was her assistant and was himself shot in the head during the attack. Every copy of his book, “Notes from a Survivor,” were purchased by a single buyer before they were even printed. More will now be printed, but of course the book fair launch has been missed.
http://theotherrussia.org/2007/09/07/books-blocked-in-moscow/

Jamestown Foundation: HRW DOCUMENTS TORTURE IN CHECHNYA

July 3, 2009Administrator

From:

Eagle_wng (Original Message)

Sent: 11/17/2006 1:36 AM

16, November, 2006

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DOCUMENTS TORTURE IN CHECHNYA

Human Rights Watch on November 13 published a briefing paper on torture in Chechnya that it had prepared for the 37th session of the United Nations Committee against Torture. The paper covered torture by personnel of the Second Operational Investigative Bureau (ORB-2), torture by units under the effective command of Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, torture in secret detention and continuing “disappearances.” According to Human Rights Watch, torture “in both official and secret detention facilities is widespread and systematic in Chechnya.”

One of the cases detailed in the briefing paper involved the illegal arrest and torture of two brothers, Sulim S. and Salambek S., in mid-March 2006. Sulim S., who was incarcerated in what he later found out was the ORB-2’s premises, described being suffocated by a gas mask through which the airflow was cut, subjected to electric shocks, severely beaten, threatened with rape and told his brother would be “ripped apart.” He said that when he was unable to come up with a crime to confess to, he was given a choice of three crimes to confess to – bombing of a bus, killing of two policemen or killing of one woman – but that he refused to do so. His brother was detained and taken to the ORB-2’s premises about a week later, where he was subjected to similar abuse. “Sulim said that upon transfer to the remand facility in Grozny, he was examined by a doctor who documented his injuries, including broken ribs, bruises on his legs and inner thighs, swollen hands and tongue, and burned ears,” Human Rights Watch wrote. “Most of the charges against the two brothers were dropped, and both stood trial for ‘membership in illegal armed formations.’ In August 2006, a court released both men under the applicable statute of limitations. Although the brothers told the judge that they had been tortured in detention and their medical reports were entered into the case record, the court took no action to investigate the torture allegations” (Chechnya Weekly, August 10, April 20).

Human Rights Watch also detailed several cases of alleged detention and torture by forces loyal to Ramzan Kadyrov. Magomed M., a 24-year-old resident of a village in central-eastern Chechnya, told the group he was among five young males detained by kadyrovtsy in early June 2006 and taken to one of Kadyrov’s bases on the outskirts of the village of Tsentoroi. “There were three or four personnel there – the same ones who brought us to the base,” Magomed M. said. “They kept asking about a rebel fighter from our area – they said we should know him since we are the same age. I knew nothing about the man, but they wouldn’t believe me. They kept kicking me and beating me with sticks; it lasted for five or six hours.” He was released after several days and warned that if he talked about his detention he would be taken into custody again and “disappear.” According to Human Rights Watch, after his release, Magomed M. spent more than three weeks in a hospital, where he said doctors documented his injuries, including multiple hematomas on his body, kidney damage and a concussion.

Another case documented by Human Rights Watch involved Khamid Kh., who was detained in April by kadyrovtsy who accused him of providing food and weapons to rebels. He was repeatedly subjected to electric shocks during interrogation, and while he was released the next day, he spent the following two weeks in a hospital with serious heart problems that he believed resulted from the electric shock torture. “Although Khamid Kh. said he remembered and would have recognized his torturers, he had no intention to seek justice as he was warned that only ‘keeping his mouth shut’ would guarantee his safety,” Human Rights Watch wrote.

The report further noted: “Continued enforced disappearances in Chechnya are of interest to the committee [United Nations Committee against Torture] because they place civilians outside the protection of the law, making them particularly vulnerable to torture. In a number of cases documented by Human Rights Watch during its recent missions and earlier, relatives of the ‘disappeared’ later found the bodies of their loved ones in unmarked graves or other locations. In most cases, the bodies bore marks of torture. Some of those detained by Kadyrov’s forces later ‘disappear’ without a trace. Based on extensive research, Human Rights Watch concluded in 2005 that enforced disappearances in Chechnya are so widespread and systematic that they constitute crimes against humanity.”

According to Human Rights Watch, such crimes are being carried out with virtual impunity. “One of the main factors contributing to the widespread pattern of illegal detention and torture in Chechnya is the total lack of accountability for perpetrators,” the briefing paper stated. “The perpetrators themselves – be they ORB-2 personnel or Kadyrov’s forces – try to ensure that their abuses do not come to light by threatening their victims into silence. Indeed, few victims or witnesses dare to report instances of torture to the authorities, such as the prosecutor’s office, and in many cases refuse to speak to human rights organizations…In many cases, Human Rights Watch found that the perpetrators were so confident that there would be no consequences for their abuses that they did not wear masks or otherwise attempt to conceal their identity. In fact, a number of witnesses told Human Rights Watch that they knew their tormentors by name, or at least would be able to identify them. These witnesses, however, did not dare to report this information to prosecutorial authorities, and were, in some cases, considering personal revenge against the perpetrators.”

The briefing paper added: “The climate of impunity is worsened by the persistent efforts by Chechen and Russian authorities to close Chechnya to outside scrutiny. Most unlawful places of detention run by Kadyrov’s forces are off limits to journalists or international experts visiting the region. Moreover, in several instances when outside observers were allowed to visit these facilities, such as the Tsentoroi bases, the authorities removed the detainees from the premises prior to the visit. A number of witnesses told Human Rights Watch about being moved to another base or simply driven away and kept in cars for several hours when a ‘delegation’ was expected to visit the base where they were being detained.”

On November 13, the day that Human Rights Watch released its report on torture in Chechnya, Chechen Deputy Prime Minister and Ambassador Plenipotentiary in Moscow Ziad Sabsabi told Interfax: “This information is untrue. If torture really took place, we would speak about this problem, and so would prisoners’ relatives.” He accused Human Rights Watch of assessing “the condition of prisoners” while “being far away from Chechnya.”

Kavkazky Uzel on November 14 quoted Chechnya’s chief prosecutor, Valery Kuznetsov, as admitting to Kommersant that “cases occur in which representatives of power structures use unlawful methods during questioning” and that his office has launched ten criminal cases involving torture. He insisted, however, that it is “unfair to assert that torture is purely a Chechen phenomenon,” adding, “You can find cases of police beating detainees in any region of Russia. And even in the West you can find just as many cases of torture.”

Kavkazky Uzel also quoted the deputy director of the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch, Aleksandr Petrov, as saying that Chechnya’s main problem remains, as before, unnatural death. “People perish through the inadvertence of the state, and one can say that people are murdered by the arms of the state,” he said. “Progress is not evident for this year. Every day I receive information from independent sources that soldiers or civilians are perishing. People in Chechnya with whom I have occasionally spoken to aren’t thinking about social problems or politics. They have one thought – how to survive.”
http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=416&&issue_id=3926

Interfax: Ministry Pulls Lavrov Article From U.S. Magazine Over ‘Censorship’

July 3, 2009Administrator

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 7/20/2007 1:46 AM
Jul 19 2007 2:41PM
Ministry pulls Lavrov article from U.S. magazine over ‘censorship’

MOSCOW. July 19 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced it decided against publishing an article by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the American magazine Foreign Affairs, claiming the article had been censored.

“The editors, citing internal requirements, strongly edited, if not censored, the article,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The article was offered to the Foreign Affairs editorial board in May 2007 as the Russian foreign minister’s “direct address to the readers of this reputable publication as clarification of Russian foreign policy,” the ministry said.

“But some of the edits made would have made Lavrov sign his approval of the U.S. administration’s well-known foreign-policy approaches, which we reject as going against our principles,” it said.

The editors insisted that the headline “Deterring Russia: Back to the Future?” be supplemented with a sub-headline that would speak about the prevention “of a new Cold War or a conflict between Russia and the United States.”

“The thing is, however, that the sub-headline goes radically against the key concept of the Russian foreign minister’s article,” it said.

“Moscow is guided by the assumption that there cannot be any talk about a new Cold War, to say nothing of a conflict, between our two countries,” it said

“Following tiring and tough talks with the editors, matching samples that can only be traced back in the history of diplomacy, the decision was made not to publish Lavrov’s article in the Foreign Affairs magazine. This experience was reminiscent of the worst periods of the Soviet censorship past, which some seem to be trying to revive in America,” the ministry said.

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11794007

Gulf Times: ‘Torture Rife In Chechnya’

July 3, 2009Administrator

From:

Eagle_wng (Original Message)

Sent: 3/15/2007 10:04 AM

14/03/2007

‘Torture rife in Chechnya’

Publish Date: Wednesday,14 March, 2007, at 08:46 AM Doha Time

STRASBOURG: Torture and abuse remain rife in Chechnya, the Council of Europe’s committee against torture said in a report yesterday, criticising Moscow for not heeding previous tips on how to improve the situation.
“Resort to torture and other forms of ill-treatment by members of law enforcement agencies and security forces (in Chechnya) continues, as does the related practice of unlawful detentions,” the committee said, decrying a “climate of impunity” in the war-torn Russian republic.
The committee said it felt forced to make public its findings on the continued abuses in Chechnya in light of the Russian authorities’ “failure to improve the situation” despite detailed recommendations following two visits by the committee to Chechnya last year.
The Russian authorities have “consistently” refused to engage in a meaningful way with the committee against torture, which “can only be qualified as a failure to co-operate”, the committee said.
It added that its suggestions had “received at most a token response and in many respects have quite simply been ignored”.
The committee, which is mandated to carry out unannounced inspections of prisons, police stations and psychiatric hospitals across the 46 Council of Europe member states, has resorted to publishing its concerns on Chechnya twice before in 2001 and 2003. – AFP

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=137947&version=1&template_id=38&parent_id=20