JUNE 2007

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 6/28/2007 4:00 PM

Amnesty International Urges Bush and Putin: Do Not Leave Human Rights Off the Agenda
 
    WASHINGTON, June 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Amnesty International
today urged both U.S. president George W. Bush and Russian president
Vladimir Putin to press each other on particular human rights issues during
their summit in Kennebunkport, Maine this weekend.


    "Both Bush and Putin consider themselves defenders of human rights, yet
their track records on protecting civil liberties and the rule of law
reveal a 180 degree divergence from their words," said Larry Cox, Amnesty
International USA executive director. "These men have a tremendous
opportunity to move the human rights agenda forward, not only for Russians
and Americans, but the entire world. Let us hope that these two leaders
have the backbone to show some leadership."


    Amnesty International urged President Bush to raise the issue of
accountability in Chechnya. While commending the recent verdict in North
Caucasus district military court in ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 6/29/2007 2:44 AM

Friday, June 29, 2007

Fear Drives a Reporter Out of Nalchik
By Jim Heintz
The Associated Press

Fatima Tlisova had been beaten, harassed and, she suspects, poisoned while working as a journalist in Nalchik. But she finally decided to flee the country the day she sent her 16-year-old son on an errand last year and he did not come back.

Tlisova later tracked him down at a police station in the custody of drunken officers who said they had put the boy's name on a list of suspicious people -- a tactic often used by police in roundups of suspected Chechen sympathizers.

Sometimes, human rights advocates say, those caught up in such sweeps are savagely beaten. Sometimes, they vanish forever.

"Do you know what these lists are? These are lists of broken lives," Tlisova said. "The fact that a drunken policeman can drag an innocent young man into a ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 6/29/2007 1:36 PM
Friday, June 29, 2007

Russia Rules Out Murder In Journalist's Death

Russia -- Correspondent of the Kommersant newspaper Ivan Safronov, undated
Ivan Safronov fell out of a window of his fifth-floor apartment
(TASS)
June 29, 2007 -- The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office has reportedly ruled that a journalist who fell from a window of his Moscow apartment building was not murdered.





Ivan Safronov had been investigating arms deals shortly before he was found dead in front of his home in March.

"No crime was uncovered in this case. In the course of the investigation the 'criminal version' was fully investigated. No evidence of that was discovered," an unidentified official from the Prosecutor-General's Office told Interfax.

He added, however, that the investigation was not yet finished.

Ilya Bulavinov, the deputy editor of the "Kommersant" daily that employed Safronov, told the Reuters news agency that the official investigation was not thorough enough.

Russia ranks as ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 7/1/2007 6:11 PM
CAUCASIAN KNOT / NEWS

29/6/2007
Lokshina: Russian militiamen lose professionalism in Chechnya

Starting from the end of 2005, the Human Rights Centre "Demos" is implementing its inter-regional project "Drawing Public Attention to the Chechen Conflict from Viewpoint of Social Adaptation and Veterans' Professional Activities." On June 28, 2007, the results of almost two years of work were presented at the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

Tatiana Lokshina, head of the "Demos" Centre, disclosed the essence of the project realized by the Centre together with regional partners in her interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent:

"The project is just over. An essential book on the results of the studies is already written and will be printed right in a month <...>

It is important to add that we did not study the crimes committed by the militia workers sent to their Chechen mission. We tried to learn not what ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 7/1/2007 6:15 PM
CAUCASIAN KNOT / NEWS

29/6/2007
Ingushetia: protests against kidnappings and illegal detentions

Today, on June 29, a spontaneous meeting of Ingush residents started on the "Kavkaz" Federal Highway in the vicinity of the so-called Ekazhev Circle in the Nazran District, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

Several dozens took part in the action, mainly women - relatives of the citizens killed or kidnapped by employees of power agencies. The protesters blocked the Highway demanding to stop the practice of kidnappings, illegal detentions and murders of citizens. The people insisted also that all the investigatory actions in relations to detainees should be held in the territory of the Republic, not in the neighbouring regions.

One of the action participants informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that by 12 a.m. Musa Medov, newly approved Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, arrived to the meeting and promised that he would set proper ...
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