10.05.2005 Upsurge of persecution of minorities and xenophobia in Russia
On the occasion of the EU-Russia Summit held today in Moscow the Society for Threatened Peoples warned about the increase of discrimination, persecution of ethnic minorities and the upsurge in racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia in the Russian Federation. Furthermore, Sarah Reinke, head of the European desk of the Society, sharply criticized that Moscow had taken no steps whatsoever in the direction of a peaceful political resolution to the bloody war in Chechnya. Arbitrariness and impunity are still prevailing in the North Caucasus. Civilians are abducted daily by Russian security forces or pro-Russian Chechen death squadrons. At least 2.500 civilians disappeared since 1999.
Minorities like the Bashkirs in the Republic of Bashkiriya, the Mari in the autonomous Republic of Mari El and the Turk Meshkets in the Region of Krasnodar more and more frequently complain about ethnic discrimination and persecution. Members of the Mari ... >>full
The picket against war in Chechnya appointed on 17 April in St Petersburg, one in a series of such pickets held by the Antiwar Committee on Sundays at Nevskii Avenue at Malaya Koniushennaya Street, was banned by the central district administration. The official ground was that the notification about the picket lodged with the district administration did not mention the persons responsible for holding the picket and "how the organisers were going to ensure public order" during the action, AWC activist Alexander Yermakov told Caucasian Knot.
Yermakov mentioned the notification was written using a template officials had not previously found faults with. Meanwhile, the authorities expressed an oral wish that the picket should be moved up Malaya Koniushennaya Street.
This is not their first attempt to have the inconvenient picket "out of sight," Irina Flinge, director of St Petersburg's Memorial Science and Information Centre, told Caucasian Knot ... >>full
It's the problem of Moscow that Chechens are a free nation
It is obvious that Russia 's plan of suppression of Chechnya has failed. The victorious declarations about the tenth phase of the twentieth stage of "counterterrorist" operation have no effect any more even on Russia 's average citizens known for their "narrow-mindedness".
But it is not characteristic to the Russians to admit that their own incapacity and mistakes are at the bottom of their failure. Sometimes journalists and politicians, sometimes sniper women with the Afghan Mujahiddeen hampered the Russian generals in the first Russian-Chechen war. At last they agreed in opinion that "politicians had stolen their victory"!? One might think it was not them in 1996, in a state of siege, and eating dogs, asked for quarter, and it was not their commanders, in the mud up to their knees, who came to the Chechen headquarters, asking to let them leave ... >>full
The picket against war in Chechnya appointed on 17 April in St Petersburg, one in a series of such pickets held by the Antiwar Committee on Sundays at Nevskii Avenue at Malaya Koniushennaya Street, was banned by the central district administration. The official ground was that the notification about the picket lodged with the district administration did not mention the persons responsible for holding the picket and "how the organisers were going to ensure public order" during the action, AWC activist Alexander Yermakov told Caucasian Knot.
Yermakov mentioned the notification was written using a template officials had not previously found faults with. Meanwhile, the authorities expressed an oral wish that the picket should be moved up Malaya Koniushennaya Street.
This is not their first attempt to have the inconvenient picket "out of sight," Irina Flinge, director of St Petersburg's Memorial Science and Information Centre, told Caucasian Knot ... >>full
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has arrived in Moscow for two days of talks with the Kremlin leadership, Deutsche Welle reports. Her motorcade was diverted shortly after she arrived following a bomb threat made to the hotel where she was planning to stay. En route to Russia she told reporters that she was very troubled by recent anti-democratic moves by the Kremlin such as the centralization of power and the crackdown on independent media. She also said any attempts by President Vladimir Putin to change the constitution to be able to seek a third term would not be a «positive development." The Chechen Times http://www.chechentimes.org/en/news/?id=28222
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