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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Chechen leader had threatened murdered journalist |
| 2009-07-19 |
| THE human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was abducted from her Chechen home last week and murdered, had been forced to flee to Britain last year after the republic's president personally threatened her, say colleagues. Estemirova left Chechnya for four months because she no longer felt safe after a heated exchange with President Ramzan Kadyrov. He was angry that she had challenged his order that women should wear headscarves in public in the predominantly Muslim territory. According to Estemirova's colleagues, Kadyrov lashed out at her for daring to stand up to him. It is said he told her that only loose women would not wear a headscarf and reportedly stated: "You must understand there's no place for you here. Yes, my hands are covered in blood. I'm not ashamed of it. I killed and will kill bad people. We are fighting Chechnya's enemies." Estemirova, a former teacher, argued back but later felt vulnerable. Memorial, the Russian human rights organisation she had worked for since 1999, felt it was too dangerous for her to stay in Chechnya, so she moved to Britain in March 2008 but returned in the summer. "Kadyrov directly threatened her and she took it seriously," said Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial. "She agreed it was best to leave, but after a while she felt things had calmed down so she wanted to get back." Orlov blamed Kadyrov -- who for five years has ruled Chechnya with an iron fist -- for her murder, saying: "He threatened and insulted her and considered her his personal enemy. We don't know if he personally gave the order or if his people did it to please him, but either way he's responsible." Estemirova, 50, a widow with a 15-year-old daughter, was seized by four men as she left her flat for work last week. Witnesses saw her being bundled into a car and shouting: "I'm being kidnapped!" Her body was found hours later in a field in neighbouring Ingushetia, shot in the head and chest. The murder was strongly condemned by the Kremlin which vowed to bring the killers to justice, but Estemirova's colleagues are sceptical. Similar promises made after other high-profile murders have not led to any convictions. Kadyrov, 32, has been accused of abducting, torturing and executing his opponents, but vehemently denied any involvement and said he would take personal control of the case. He reportedly told Orlov in a telephone call: "Estemirova posed no threat to me and was not a problem. You'll be ashamed when your accusations turn out to be wrong." Estemirova had begun documenting a sharp rise in kidnappings and extrajudicial executions in Chechnya. "We're witnessing a crime wave," she said in an interview on the eve of her death. A week before, she had revealed that Chechen security forces had abducted a civilian named Rizvan Albekov and his son Aziz. Armed men in camouflage had paraded him in underpants in a village square. They asked him whether he had helped insurgents, then shot him when he replied "no". His son's fate remains unknown. In the fortnight before her death, Estemirova reported on other abductions, the alleged murder of a Chechen woman suspected of links to rebels and an arson campaign that razed the homes of militants' relatives. "There was no one like Natalia in Chechnya," a friend said. "That's why they killed her. Now we won't hear of such crimes any more." Ironically, in April Estemirova had told a friend: "I'm almost scared to say so, but I'm starting to think I've made it out alive." |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 TOPIX > ISLAMIST FIGHTERS ON THE SILK ROAD, agz the "soft underbelly of RUSSIA + CHINA. Russia's NORTH CAUCASUS REGIONS returning to a new historical "ancient period" of intensive instability and violence. NEW POST-SOVIET "SECOND WAVE" OF ISLAMIST ACTVITIES-VIOL SET TO BEGIN IN CHECHNYA + CAUCASUS. * SAME > IRAN CRACKS DOWN AS BALOCH REBELS STEP UP CAMPAIGN [Jundallah]; + IRAN UNRESTS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW DEMOCRACY? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-07-19 19:47 |