Sokiryanskaya reports numerous threats to "Memorial" employees in Dagestan

Threats addressed to the Dagestani branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", its leader Sirazhudin Datsiev, and the employees were expressed quite regularly, Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya Director of the Centre for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 28, Sirazhudin Datsiev was beaten near his house and taken to a hospital.

Let us remind you that on January 22, in Makhachkala, fire was set to a car of the HRC "Memorial" office. On the other day, on January 23, staff members of the Dagestani "Memorial" office got messages with threats and demands to stop their work, but the HRC "Memorial" refused to stop its activities in Dagestan.

"After the arrest of Oyub Titiev and burning down the HRC's office in Nazran, they set fire to a car in Makhachkala. Then, employees received SMS-messages with threats of murder. In particular, they read, 'Next time we'll burn you together with the office.' And then someone called Sirazhudin by phone and voiced the threats out. He managed to record this conversation," Ms Sokiryanskaya has added.

In her opinion, the attack could be organized both from Chechnya and from Dagestan.

"We can't rule out that the threats came from local opponents of the HRC 'Memorial', who, taking into account the pressure on NGOs in Chechnya, decided to benefit from the situation, believing that everyone would think that it was done by the neighbours," said Sokiryanskaya.

The attack on Sirazhudin Datsiev, the head of the Dagestani branch of the HRC "Memorial", was condemned by the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI).

Datsiev's beating "was another one in a series of disturbing attacks on individuals associated with the organization," reads the AI's statement published on March 28.

According to Denis Krivosheev, AI's Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the frequency of such attacks and the total impunity of those who commit them "point to the negligence of Russian authorities." Besides, in his opinion, these attacks suggest "a possible complicity of the authorities themselves."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.