Human rights activists came to Dagestan to investigate the shooting of the meeting

Today, on May 10, a delegation of human rights activists headed by Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the All-Russian Movement "For Human Rights," and Anna Politkovskaya, observer of the "Novaya Gazeta," arrived to Makhachkala to go on with the investigation of the events that had taken place in the Dokuzparinskiy District of Dagestan.

We remind you that the All-Russian Movement "For Human Rights" and the Moscow Helsinki Group have formed a Public Commission for investigating the events in the Dokuzparinskiy District of Dagestan, where as a result of shooting on April 25 by the OMON (Special Militia) of a peaceful meeting demanding dismissal of the District head one man was killed and six were hospitalized wounded, of them two died subsequently. On May 3, the Commission held a press conference in Moscow where video materials were shown on the shooting of the meeting in the Dokuzparinskiy District of Dagestan.

The film fixed several first minutes of dispersal of the demonstration. It is seen from the video that the meeting was of peaceful nature, when suddenly from three directions special militia ("spetsnaz") fighters appeared and shots were heard. Panic started in the crowd of the participants, and the film got interrupted. The video cassette was brought to Moscow by Serker Shakhbanov, a witness of the events - a native of the village of Miskindja and resident of the city of Kizlyar. This is the only survived record, which depicts the events of the day, from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. when they started the shooting. According to human rights activists, the militiamen destroyed all the video records of what happened on April 25, and they even took away all the mobile phones with cameras from the participants of events.

The participants of the press conference stated that nobody of the district administration came out to the protesters during the whole action. As to Kerimkhan Abasov, head of the Dokuzparinskiy District of Dagestan, he was outside the District. The meeting was attended by the head of the ROVD (district militia), district prosecutor Firuza Lagmetova, deputy head of Department 6 (department for fighting organized crime) of the MIA of Dagestan and Magomet Ismailov, deputy minister of interior of Dagestan.

At about 3 p.m., when the meeting was in fact over, as the video record evidences, the OMON fighters who were on the slopes on both sides of the road and right on the carriageway started to shoot - mainly into the air, but also to kill. They also used light-and-noise grenades. According to the video record, several minutes later, the participants of the action started to run away, however, in the witnesses' words chase of individual persons lasted for about an hour and a half. Lev Ponomaryov, executive director of the All-Russian Public Movement "For Human Rights," stressed in his comments to the video that no more peaceful methods to disperse the crowd were applied.

The participants of the press conference reported that currently a criminal case has been initiated on the fact of mass disorders. Three participants of the action are in custody, and a number of persons who spoke at the meeting near Miskinja have been announced into search. Meanwhile, one of the speakers to the meeting, a 70-year old former administration head of one of the villages, went to Makhachkala and met president of the Republic Mukhu Aliev, who promised him to clear out what had happened.

"We know nothing of whether any criminal cases have been opened against those who made the shooting, we know only about an oral promise to clear out. On our part, we shall do what we did in Blagoveschensk," Liudmila Alexeeva, chairperson of the Moscow Helsinki Group, member of the RF President's Board to promote development of civil society institutes and human rights. "I'm sure that if we hadn't cried out about Blagoveschensk to the whole world, mass beatings would have become a norm in our country. If we don't cry now to the whole world about the two murdered and several wounded, we'll have more shootings," she stressed.

According to Lev Ponomaryov, "The MIA of Dagestan prepared in advance to have the cruellest possible dispersal of the meeting - including shooting to kill. Certain OMON fighters had warned the relatives and friends in advance persuading them not to take part in the protest action."