Ella Pamfilova commented on disinclination of Russian human rights activists to send observers to Chechen presidential elections

On September 11 Ella Pamfilova, the Chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, called the disinclination of the country's leading human rights activists to send observers to the Chechen presidential elections a "moral defeat of the whole community of human rights defenders". On September 9 well-known Russian human rights activists promulgated a special statement "Human Rights Activists Should Not Support the Illusion of the Legality of the Elections "of the First President of the Chechen Republic" in October 2003".

The statement was signed by, amongst others, State Duma Deputy Sergey Kovalyov, the chairwoman of the organization "Civic Assistance" Svetlana Gannushkina, the leader of the Movement "For Human Rights" Lev Ponomaryov, and the chairman of the Committee "For Civil Rights" Andrey Babushkin.

As Ella Pamfilova said, she is distressed at the decision of human rights activists as she believed in a large-scale monitoring during the elections. According to her, no one has reliable, exact information on the situation in Chechnya, and the forthcoming elections would give such a chance.

In Ella Pamfilova's opinion, one should not wait for the situation stabilization in order to hold fair elections of the Chechen president.