posted by zaina19 on October, 2006 as Human Rights
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Recommend Message 1 of 1 in Discussion From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/11/2006 3:29 PM Human Rights Group Is Shut Down The Associated Press
Prosecutors have acted to close down a human rights group that has regularly exposed abuses against civilians in Chechnya, in what the group's head denounced as an attempt to silence criticism of the war.
The Nizhny Novgorod regional prosecutor's office said Wednesday that a court in the city would examine a request from prosecutors to shut down the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society on Thursday.
"The government cannot accept any criticism of its conduct in Chechnya," said the group's leader, Stanislav Dmitriyevsky, who linked the threatened closure to the weekend murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
"Whoever ordered it [the killing], it's absolutely clear that the authorities either were directly behind it or at the very least created the conditions that allowed it to happen," said Dmitriyevsky, who was one of thousands of mourners who attended Politkovskaya's funeral on Tuesday.
His nongovernmental organization, which successfully fought off an attempt to close it last year, has faced increased pressure from the government in recent months. In February, a court handed Dmitriyevsky a two-year suspended sentence after finding him guilty of inciting ethnic hatred.
The rights group has vigorously campaigned against the conflict against separatists in Chechnya and published reports alleging torture, abductions and murder of civilians by government forces.
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society said in a statement that prosecutors justified the demand for its closure under a new law that made it illegal for an NGO to be headed by a person with a criminal record.
The restrictive law, which came into effect early this year, imposed government oversight of NGO work and financing, giving the authorities scope to close down groups whose activities are perceived to contradict their stated goals or harm state interests.
"This marks the start of a general campaign against NGOs which are involved in monitoring Chechnya," warned Oleg Orlov from Memorial, the leading Russian human rights body, of the move against the Nizhny Novgorod group. "We expect to be next."
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