The murder of Anna Politovskaja had made noise in the world,and, for a while, was, perhaps, able to bring attention to the Chechen question. But this is not served at all. The violence continued, the repression is even stronger and who is exposed continuously die. The latest victim was a woman, again: Natalia Estemirova.She was a journalist and she was working for the Russian non-governmental organization Memorial to defending human rights. Estemirova was arrested yesterday morning in Grozny, Chechnya, while she was going out like every morning from his home. Her abduction, however, lasted a very short because he had only one purpose: to kill her.
The body of the victim was found at 17:20 Moscow time (15:20 in Italy) in a forest near the village of Gazi-Ur, around Nazran, along the highway.
According to Oleg Orlov, Head of the NGO Memorial (one of the most important human rights organizations where Estemirova was working) some witnesses had heard the journalist screaming somebody was kidnapping her. Nobody, however, was able to save her.
The absurd randomness willed that his murder happened just a few hours from a conference in Moscow, where human rights organizations have presented a document which states that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other senior officers, should be judged by an international court for crimes committed in the two wars that have devastated Chechnya over the past 15 years.
The Estemirova gathered for years on every possible material on abductions and unjustified disappearances, on the torture and many killing (often passed over in silence) started from the outbreak of the second war, initiated by Vladimir Putin in 1999. According to some of his colleagues, Natalia had recently irritated the Russian authorities because she had denounced an arbitrary execution in Chechnya. Who lived at her side has no doubts about her murderess "I know, and I am sure, the identity of the guilty of Natalia Estemirova murder, we all know who he is, his name is Ramzan Kadyrov," said in a press release yesterday evening Oleg Orlov, head of Memorial.
Thanks to her reportage in which she stated openly human rights violations committed in Chechnya since war between separatists and Russian army (following the fall of the Soviet Union), the Front Line Club in London had given to her the first edition Anna Politkovskaya award (in 2007), established for women who are honored with distinction in defense of human rights in war zones.
Collecting premium Natalya had appealed the World: "It can not and must not turn backs on the Chechen people" and on that occasion had noted that "nothing has been done to investigate the crimes committed in Chechnya since 2000".
The President Medvedev said that the murder is related to human rights that led Natalya forward. The only sure thing is that the Russian president was unable to restore order after the beginning of his mandate, as he had promised. Unless the word "order" is not synonymous with oppression.
The truth on Natalia murder will be served in a while to all of us, well built. The actual guilty will remain as always in the shadows. The question that remains is whether the West should not actually do much more about this problem. Maybe the heads of state could begin not to shake more hands smiling to Vladimir Putin. At least until the government starts to make a serious commitment to find the culprits. But because he should search them very closely, it is difficult this will happen.
Politkovskaya, the truth is lacking
Russian activist shot dead by Mansur Mirovalev from Indipendent
Chechen Rights Campaigner Is Killed by Michael Schwirtz and Elle Barry from New York Times
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