07 November 2005, 21:15
Persecution of killed rebels' relatives must be stopped - Memorial
The Human Rights Centre Memorial has filed an address to the president of Russia, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, the Commissioner on Human Rights in the Russian Federation, and the chairman of the presidential Council for the Promotion of Civil Society Institutes and Human Rights with a demand that they should immediately take all possible steps to stop human rights violations in Kabardino-Balkaria on the part of district government officials and law enforcement and security agencies.
"In response to the rebel attack, the government in Kabardino-Balkaria has staked on mass violations of the Russian Constitution, on state terror, and on provocation of interethnic strains," a Memorial press release says.
The document indicates that the government conducted a campaign to organise meetings of community residents and members of staff of various enterprises and organisations in the Zolskoye district of Kabardino-Balkaria in the second half of October. Copies of the minutes of five such meetings have been provided to Caucasian Knot by Novaya Gazeta newspaper observer Anna Politkovskaia. The agenda of all the meetings was the same: "Discussion of the terrorist acts in Nalchik on 13 October 2005." Each of the corresponding conclusions is about deportation, according to Memorial's information: "Deport from the republic all those who have something to do with Wahhabism, together with their families" (the village of Etoko); "Once investigation activities have been completed and law enforcement agencies have summarised their operations, deport all members of the extremist, Wahhabi movement and their families resident in the village of Zalukokoazhe"; "Ask the president and government of the republic to deport supporters of Wahhabism with their families from the village" (the meeting of the staff of the Zolskoye post office).
Aside from residents of Kabardino-Balkaria, participants in the meeting also asked to deport natives of Chechnya from the region: "Address the President of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria with a request to deport Chechens from the Republic" (the village of Etoko); "Address the President of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and the Parliament with a request to prohibit registration of citizens from hotspots in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and revise the lawfulness of registration of such citizens since 1991" (the village of Zalukokoazhe).
According to Memorial, in each of the conclusions it is all about restricting the right of Russian citizens to select the place of residence, sometimes on an ethnic basis: "Ask the government of the republic to prohibit registration of citizens arriving from other republics (the village of Svetlovodskoye). "Ask the government and the president of the republic to prevent registration of persons of other ethnicities in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria" (the meeting of the staff of the Zolskoye post office).
In their address, the human rights defenders say that the government also promotes demands of restricting citizens' religious rights: "Establish a schedule for the village mosque to work once in a week for one hour to perform the Friday prayer. Prohibit all Wahhabi manifestations such as wearing clothes alien to us, wearing a beard, or performing Wahhabi rites" (the village of Zalukokoazhe).
In the opinion of the human rights defenders, these demands do not represent the will of the public, but are initiated by the government of Kabardino-Balkaria. "As a rule, the meetings of community residents were chaired by local heads of administration, while the boards included the district head of administration, the chief of the District Division of Internal Affairs, the district prosecutor, and the chief of the Federal Security Service Division for the Zolskoye district," according to Memorial's press release.
"Superiors did not only gather people, but also dictated to them what exactly they should demand," the human rights defenders emphasise in the address.
The open letter next quotes an excerpt from the speech of Khasan Z. Makhotlov, head of administration in the Zolskoye district, which he delivered in Zalukokoazhe: "...We are conducting this activity on the initiative of the administration, although you should have demanded it by yourselves by gathering in front of the district administration. ...Why don't you say that they must not be among us? Why don't you express your opinion? ...Ten people from among the killed terrorists are from our district, the ones that have presently been established. ...Eight people have currently officially been detained. Their evidence will help find other participants in the terrorist act too. I would like to hear proposals from villagers concerning whether or not we will live together with them. They have a law that their remaining family members will revenge for those killed. And they are quite a few. They work at hospital, at the elementary school, and other places. Would you like to work with them? ... Members of staff will have to decide if they will work side by side with terrorists' family members..."
After this speech, according to Memorial, the conclusion of the meeting included a demand that staffs should "decide on the work of members of the families of the terrorists who took part in the bandit attack on the city of Nalchik." Control of how it was fulfilled was entrusted to the local head of administration.
"Local heads of administration and media chiefs signed under such conclusions that do not only appeal for, but demand that officials should begin to violate the Russian law," the human rights defenders say. "And neither the district prosecutor, nor the chiefs of the internal affairs division and the district division of the Federal Security Service said a word in protest against that. They were not just participants, but organisers of this bacchanalia of lawlessness."
