Egypt deported 4 Chechen students

HS 9.6.2009: 


Side comment: Mikael Storsjö is a hero

By Esa Mäkinen

The writer is a cultural journalist at Helsingin Sanomat 


Moral demands courage 


In my books Mikael Storsjö is a hero. The Finnish authorities finds him to be a crook.

     Last week the Frontier Guard announced that they suspect Storsjö for aggravated organising of illegal entry.

     He had sent 15 Chechens by flying from Istanbul to Helsinki, and they had applied for asylum. Storsjö has also earlier brought Chechens to Finland, and they have been granted refuge. 


Moral without deeds is just a collection of polite phrases. According to the law, one has the right to help endangered people, but still few people have the courage to act as Storsjö.

     He floats the authorities using his own name, according to the best traditions of civil disobedience.

     Chechens living in refugee camps or in bad circumstances, for example in Istanbul, don't dear to return to their ...

Rights Groups Highlight Continuing Abuses in the North Caucasus

Human Rights Watch, the Memorial Human Rights Center, and Russian Justice Initiative said in a joint statement on June 4 that the number of European Court of Human Rights judgments holding Russia responsible for serious violations of human rights in Chechnya has surpassed 100, but the Russian government has failed to take appropriate steps to remedy them. The New-York based human rights group and the two Russian rights organizations said that the Strasbourg-based court's judgments "condemn Russia for its refusal to investigate violations properly and failure to hold perpetrators accountable, including for such grave violations as extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture."

According to the three groups, in 102 of the 104 Chechnya judgments, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia failed to conduct an effective investigation into the violations, even though in most ...