|
Dear
Friends,
This week, the New York Times writes
that: "Prosecutors in Austria said Tuesday that they had filed a
formal indictment against three men in connection with the killing of a Chechen
whistle-blower in Vienna last year. But the prosecutors said they did not
have enough evidence to charge Chechnya's leader, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, who
had earlier been implicated in the crime."
The report continues: "For much of the past decade, Mr. Kadyrov has
been the point man in Russia's often ruthless efforts to quash a
simmering Islamist insurgency that emerged after two wars in Chechnya.
With tacit approval from the Kremlin, human rights groups say, Mr.
Kadyrov has participated in the kidnappings, torture and murders of
suspected insurgents and outspoken critics."
Elsewhere, Reuters report that: "Many women in Russia's volatile
Chechnya region said on Friday they had been harassed and some physically
harmed by bands of men for not wearing headscarves during the Muslim
fasting month of Ramadan. Against the backdrop of a spreading Islamist
insurgency, many fear that growing interest in radical Islam could fuel
separatism in the volatile North Caucasus, where the Kremlin watches
uneasily as sharia law eclipses Russian."
Reuters also features a timeline of the "Encroachment of sharia law
in Russia's Caucasus".
Finally, the Independent covers the first concert by rock band U2 in
Russia, writing that: "In a press conference before the concert,
[Bono] played to patriotic sentiments, saying, 'We pretend that we are a
great rock group, but as long as we had not played in Russia, that is not
true'. He did, however, insert a verse of Bob Marley's 'Get Up, Stand Up'
into the rendition of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' during the concert, perhaps
an entreaty to Russians to push for more freedoms."
The story continues: "That question was made particularly acute when
five activists from Amnesty International were arrested for handing out
leaflets calling for investigations into the murders of the investigative
journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the Chechen rights activist Natalya
Estemirova. Police said they did not have permission to hand out the
fliers, and later released the activists."
[ Director's blog
]
[ visit our website ]
[ view previous CPF media analysis
bulletins ]
|
