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Dear
Friends,
This week, Radio Free Europe profiled
the Russian human rights activist Kheda Saratova, writing: "Life for
the very few Chechens brave enough to document abuses in their region was
always risky. But the kidnapping and killing of Natalya Estemirova in
Chechnya last year sent shock waves though the human rights community.
Memorial, the preeminent rights group for which she worked, shut its
Grozny office for six months."
The report continues: "Today, Saratova is one of the very few people
in Chechnya not afraid to speak as freely as she does. She says many
Chechens say they agree with her, but implore her to keep quiet. 'No one
needs my truth,' she says. 'Every night I go to sleep telling myself I'll
leave Chechnya the following morning. But every morning I get more calls
from victims, relatives of kidnapped people, and I just can't leave,' she
continues. 'I'll either end up going crazy, or something will happen to
me.'"
The Pulitzer Center report that: "Extremely brave is the first
characteristic you hear when interviewing people who had known Natalia
Estemirova as a colleague, friend, journalist and human rights advocate.
Many called her Natasha - it's a soft version of her first name. She was
a soft and quiet person, very feminine. She never raised her voice. Even
when speaking of violence and crimes her voice remained calm and very
soft. She had an easy rapport with strangers, listening to what others
had to say rather than speaking herself."
The article continues: "There are others who counted this fragile
woman as an enemy. The young president of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov (never
elected but appointed by Vladimir Putin) publicly called her a 'woman
with no morality' because she had dared to disobey the roles and orders
he established for the people of Chechnya. Most of the media in Russia
passively reported Kadyrov's claims of positive change, modernization,
and the rebuilding of peace and economy in Chechnya. Natasha told a
different story. She was the one who reported on the medieval beheading
of the president's personal enemy, and how the victim's head was then
displayed on a stake in the center of his own village as a terrifying
lesson for anyone who might ever consider standing against Kadyrov's
will. She was also the one who reported on the president's secret
personal prisons where people had been tortured and murdered."
The Caucasian Knot website writes that: "Isa, one of the brothers of
Sulim Yamadaev, ex-commander of the 'Vostok' battalion, who was killed in
Dubai, has declared today that his reconciliation with President of
Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov was a good-will gesture by Kadyrov, not based on
any preconditions."
Finally, the Georgian news site The Messenger reports: "The level of
unemployment in the Russian Federation is highest in the Northern
Caucasus region. It is twice that of the other regions of the Russian
Federation. In the North Caucasus, unemployment is 16.4 percent, while in
the rest of the country it is 7.1 percent. The highest levels of
unemployment are in Ingushetia - 51 percent and Chechnya 41.4
percent."
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