Russian Human Rights Defenders Should Not Be Branded as Terrorist Sympathizers

Alert Issued: March 30, 2005

Russian human rights advocate Oksana Chelysheva has received serious and troubling threats on her life. These threats are just the latest in a succession of efforts to intimidate and obstruct her human rights organization in the media and through application of repressive laws.

On March 14, 2005, Ms. Chelysheva, Deputy Director of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship in Niznhy Novgorod, found on her doorstep a disturbing flyer. The flyer, which had been distributed throughout her town, called her “shameful and contemptible,” a “beast,” and a “supporter of terrorists.” The flyer also included her home address and called on fellow citizens to join in a fight against her.

Oksana Chelysheva is concerned that her family is now at risk because of this threatening flyer and its invitation to violence. Ms. Chelysheva and the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship filed a complaint with the regional prosecutor, and investigations have been very slow in getting started.

Join Human Rights First in demanding a prompt and thorough investigation, and an end to persecution of human rights defenders who monitor and criticize government abuses, especially with regard to the ongoing conflict in Chechnya.

Tell me more:

Oksana Chelysheva, Deputy Director of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship (SRCF) and an editor of Pravozashchita (“Human Rights Defense”), found the following flyer at the entrance of the house where she lives:

Youth Patriotic Front (A.P. Ivanov)

Dear fellow citizens! The whole world has tired of terrorists, parents fear for their children. Our country is suffering one tragedy after another, our sons and daughters are perishing; the young generation which is the future of our country. But there are “beasts” among us that are profiting from the tragedies brought on the majority, from the enormous and unique grief any person feels who loses near ones. These people live among us, they look like regular law-abiding citizens, but support terrorist activities carried out by Chechen rebels, receive money from them and offer them all kinds of help.

One of them lives among you, “Chechen whore”
OKSANA CHELYSHEVA

(the address of Oksana Chelysheva)

She is shameful and contemptible!
We are ready to fight her

This latest threat to Ms. Chelysheva’s safety is cause for serious concern in the context of recent attempts to silence SRCF through legal action and media smear tactics.

The Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship, which recently received an award from the International Helsinki Federation in recognition of its human rights work, is currently the target of a legal and media campaign branding its members as supporters of terrorism. In February, the Russian security service (FSB) began prosecution of the organization under anti-extremism laws for publishing articles calling for peace in Chechnya in the “Human Rights Defense” newsletter. Earlier this month, government-controlled television stations and newspapers associated the group with terrorists.

On January 20, 2005, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) interrogated Ms. Chelysheva’s colleague, Stanislav Dmitrievsky about his activities as the chief editor of “Human Rights Defense,” a publication of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship and the Nizhny Novgorod Human Rights Society. Mr. Dmitrievsky is a co-chair of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship, an internationally respected human rights organization.

The FSB questioned Mr. Dmitrievsky and Ms. Chelysheva about two articles printed in 2004 by “Human Rights Defense” which called for peace in Chechnya and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of fueling conflict in the region. One of the authors wrote: “I extend a hand of peace to the Russian people over the head of your president” and asked that Russians not vote for Putin in the 2004 presidential election. The Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship is likely to be prosecuted under Criminal Code section 280 which outlaws a “public call to a forcible change of constitutional order” and its director, Stanislav Dmitrievsky, could face five years in prison.

Mr. Dmitrievsky contends that the nature of the articles published in “Human Rights Defense” sought restoration of peace and were not in violation of that law. In a press statement issued on January 24, 2005, he stated that “institution of this criminal case is an attempt to prevent work of the Information Center.” The Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship is afraid that Chechen staff, volunteers, and journalists working with the organization will be intimidated by Russian security forces in Chechnya. During questioning, FSB collected biographical data about current and past Chechen journalists working with the organization. Between 2000 and 2004, four volunteers of the Society of Russian-Chechen Friendship were killed in Chechnya, two by Russian security forces.

On February 28, agents from the Nizhny Novgorod office of the Russian Ministry of Justice initiated an unscheduled audit of the registration documents of the SRCF. An audit had taken place just six months previously. When SRCF did not comply with Ministry of Justice requests for documents it is not legally required to hand over, officials notified the Society that it was committing an offense.

Local media have tried to associate the work of the group to Chechen terrorism. On January 29 2005, the internet news agency of Nizhny Novgorod, APN, published an article on its web-site with the title “Freedom fighters or helpers of terrorists?” in which lawyers accused the SRCF of open complicity with Chechen insurgents and warned that their activities in Nizhny Novgorod are dangerous for its inhabitants. According to the article, “representatives of the SRCF work in the interest of illegal armed formations.”

On March 12, several local Nizhny Novgorod television channels, including RTR, aired a five-minute report, which claimed that the activities of the SRCF and its newspaper Pravozashchita (“Human Rights Defense”) are connected with Chechen rebels. In particular, the commentator declared that “at the beginning of the war, texts published in the newspaper Pravozashchita were not written by employees of this newspaper but by Udugov’s people.” Movladi Udugov is a prominent Chechen field commander.

In the atmosphere of heightened global concern about the threat of terrorism following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Russian Federation authorities have stepped up pressure against those who criticize its policies in Chechnya and the North Caucasus. The Russian government has sought to legitimize its use of violent measures that violate local and international law by adopting the rhetoric of counterterrorism and by pointing to the practices of other governments confronting a terrorist threat, notably those of the United States. In this climate of mounting violence and disregard of the rule of law, the work of human rights defenders has become much more difficult, and in some instances, human rights activists and organizations have been targeted for persecution.

After hundreds of people, including many children, were murdered in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in a brutal attack claimed by Chechen separatists, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to step up counterterrorism measures. These measures will further undermine legal protections for basic rights and freedoms in Russia, and will, in all probability, lead to a further deterioration in human rights conditions. Human Rights First fears that in order to dampen local and international criticism of its human rights violations in Chechnya and the North Caucasus the government will tighten its restrictions on human rights defenders seeking to report on conditions in the region. Not only will human rights defenders themselves become innocent victims of illegal repressive measures, but violence on all sides of the conflict is also likely to continue to escalate as government forces wage a lawless counter-insurgency campaign hidden from public view.

In the last few years, human rights defenders in Russia have faced ever-increasing government pressure. As U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has repeatedly reminded U.N. member states, human rights are essential tools in the war against terrorism. The Russian government appears to be disregarding this advice and in the process is undermining its own laws and constitution and flouting its obligations in international human rights law.

Instead of branding human rights defenders like Oksana Chelysheva as supporters of terrorists, and obstructing the legitimate activities of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship through prosecutions under anti-extremist laws, the Russian government should support their critical work. Under the 1998 U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, “[e]ach State shall adopt such legislative, administrative and other steps as may be necessary to ensure that the rights and freedoms referred to in this Declaration are effectively guaranteed.” The harassment and threatened prosecution against Ms. Chelysheva and the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship should be stopped, and the authorities should protect human rights defenders from counterterrorist violence.

Human Rights First is troubled by the Russian government’s use of registration requirements and loosely worded counterterrorism and anti-extremism laws to prosecute and intimidate human rights defenders who report on conditions in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, thereby impeding their ability to carry out legitimate human rights work.

Letter:

President Vladimir Putin
c/o H.E. Ambassador Yuri V. Ushakov
Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United States
2650 Wisconsin Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20007
Fax: 202-298-5735

Dear President Putin:

I am seriously troubled by recent threats against the safety of human rights defender Oksana Chelysheva, Deputy Director of the Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship in Niznhy Novgorod, adding to the ongoing legal and media campaign against the organization. Threats and insults were made against her in a flyer distributed publicly in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. I urge you to order a prompt and thorough investigation into this ugly incident, and to hold to account those responsible for it.

The Society for Russian-Chechen Friendship is an internationally respected nonviolent human rights organization. I urge that the practice of misusing the criminal law to intimidate of human rights defenders be stopped. Ms. Chelysheva and the Society for Russian-Chechen friendship should be free to carry out their legitimate activities without official threats and intimidation.

The threats against Ms. Chelysheva are but the latest in a series of attempts to silence human rights defenders working to monitor and publicize human rights abuses in Chechnya and Ingushetia. The Russian government should be promoting the work of such peaceful human rights organizations, especially in areas of political tension, not obstructing them.

According to the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, all persons have the right "freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms." The important work of human rights defenders in all parts of Russia should be recognized by the government and they should be supported rather than persecuted for their activities.
I strongly urge you to ensure that human rights defenders and the organizations with which they work are not targeted for prosecution or intimidation.

I will continue to monitor this and related cases closely. Thank you for your attention to these most serious matters.

Sincerely,