A crime against human rights

[Forkboy]

THE RECENT kidnapping and murder of the human-rights defender Natalya Estemirova illustrated a truth she sought to document in her work: that her native Chechnya is ruled by a criminal with political power.

Estemirova sought to provide the accountability that is lacking in repressive societies around the world. Fearlessly, she investigated and publicized abductions and murders in Chechnya for the human-rights group Memorial. Many of those crimes were traced to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, the former insurgent whom Vladimir Putin installed in 2007 to enforce the Kremlin’s writ in rebellious Chechnya. Kadyrov’s vicious hit squads know they will not be prosecuted for eliminating the boss’s enemies and other troublemakers.

Kadyrov had called Estemirova in for an interview last year, demanding that she bring her findings to him in the future instead of going public, and threatening her so ominously that her co-workers counseled her to flee abroad. Those threats along with the fact that Estemirova’s captors passed through government checkpoints with her - or her corpse - in their car convinced Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial, that there can be no doubt who ordered the killing.

“I am certain who is behind the murder of Natasha Estemirova,’’ Orlov said in a posting on Memorial’s website. “We all know this person. His name is Ramzan Kadyrov.’’ The director of the organization, which started out during Mikhail Gorbachev’s administration documenting Stalin’s crimes, extended the blame to Russia’s central government. “Meanwhile,’’ Orlov said, “President Dmitry Medvedev is apparently fine with having a killer as the head of a Russian region.’’

This is the kind of thing that happens when a police state is decked out in the ill-fitting garments of a free-market democracy.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/07/23/a_crime_against_human_rights/

[Blatant News]

1. kadyrov has no shame

and now Kadyrov is rubbing salt in the wounds by saying he will sue Memorial's head Oleg Orlov, and he is also taking charge of the investigation too.... the man has no shame, & neither has Moscow

Chechen President Says He Will Sue Human Rights Group 'Memorial' For Blaming Him On Estemirova's Murder

[Forkboy]

2. Thanks for adding more info.

Almost like the old days, isn't it?

Welcome to DU.