Violations of journalists' rights in Chechnya - July/August 2002Monitoring of violations of the rights of journalists and the press and other conflicts connected with media coverage of the events in the territory of the Chechen Republic in July – August 2002.
Compiled by the Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations. Translated by Prague Watchdog.
July
The Command of the Unified Military Group in the Northern Caucasus declared that the leaders of Chechen fighters take measures with the purpose to make representatives of international organizations their allies. Human rights defender and deputy to the State Duma of the Russian Federation Sergei Kovalyov called the attempts to accuse international human rights organizations of financing Chechen fighters groundless. All these statements are an attempt to renew military censorship, which is a well-tried tactics used by the federals in an information war, Kovalyov said.
17 July Information sources of Chechen separatists announced that the Russian military detained 52-year-old Chechen journalist Suleiman Yunusov during a “mopping-up” operation in the village Geldygen. Soldiers reportedly rushed into the journalist’s house and took him away in a unknown direction. In 1990-94, Yunusov worked with a newspaper published by the Vainakh Democratic Party. During Chechen presidential elections of 1997, he was the secretary of the pre-election staff of Aslan Maskhadov. The Chechen sources claim that Suleimanov has for long not cooperated with "Ichkerian power structures” and that he is not a member of the Chechen resistance movement.
26 July In Grozny at night a group of unknown armed persons wearing camouflage and masks made a raid on the house of Abdulbek Vakhayev, an employee of the press-service of the head of the Moscow-backed administration of the Chechen Republic and correspondent to Chechnya’s state television and radio company. Vakhayev said that the attackers broke into the house through windows and the door. They made the journalist lie on the floor and, without making any questions, jumbled all up in the house.
6 August Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the Moscow-backed administration of the Chechen Republic, stated that Chechen leaders had opted for the tactics of conducting a psychological warfare. That was his assessment of rumoured plans to repeat the August 6 operation “Jihhad”. Simultaneously, Kadyrov accused "some mass media" that they occassionally support the “illegal armed formations” by publishing their threats to civilians and the military. In his opinion, all these allegations only delay reconstruction work and keep the inhabitants of the republic in tension.
14 August The Command of the Unified Military Group in the Northern Caucasus warned journalists that in the Chechen Republic they can be kidnapped and held to ransom. Deputy commander of the Group Podoprigora said that the risk of abduction applies to journalists of the Russian central mass media accredited by the (Moscow-backed) Chechen government. Podoprigora said that Chechen fighters show interest in the size of the insurance of journalists covering the conflict in Chechnya. The kidnappers can be criminals dressed in the Russian military form, Podoprigora noted.
16 August Crews of state television channels ORT and TVC were stripped of their videoequipment in Chechnya. Correspondent of broadcasting company TVC Alexei Borzenko said that the incident took place in the Urus-Martan district. Both television groups conducted shooting of refugees leaving the village of Shalazhi where exchange of fire between groups of Chechen fighters and federal forces took place on the previous night. In the morning a special operation started in the village. Soldiers stripped Borzenko and his colleague from ORT Alexander Rychkov of videocameras, (paper) notebooks, microphones and an accreditation granted by the office of Sergei Yastrzhembski, the Russian President’s Aide on Chechnya. Borzenko said that the equipment and documents had been seized by servicemen of the local military commandant's office. The journalists informed about the incident the head of the Moscow-backed administration of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrov. The press service of the administration confirmed that Kadyrov met with Rychkov and Borzenko and promised them to do his utmost that they received the equipment and could continue their work. The press service added that both journalists arrived to the Urus-Martan district not accompanied by army support and on their own initiative, which is forbidden during the “anti-terrorist operation” in Chechnya. The press service confirmed the fact of the withdrawal of their equipment but assured that the equipment had been returned to them.
On the same day the international organization "Reporters Without Borders" expressed protest against violations of rights of journalists in Chechnya. The Secretary General of the organization Robert Ménard said that, obstructing the journalists who are carrying out their professional work in Chechnya, Russian authorities once again show to the whole world that they have things to hide in the republic. He condemned such cases of censorship and demanded that journalists could freely cover the war in Chechnya.
20 August Unknown persons attacked and beat Lechi Saligov, editor-in-chief of Chechen newspaper "Spravedlivost" and assistant to Russian MP Viktor Cherepkov, at the train station in Dedovsk, southwest of Moscow. Saligov suffered numerous bruises and wounds and was hospitalized at the local hospital. Saligov’s wife said that her husband was attacked 50 metres from their home. Cherepkov said that Saligov started experiencing harassment and threats after he published an article on the activities of one of the influential Chechens living in Moscow. (According to Prague Watchdog’s files, the article concerned Aslanbek Aslakhanov and his activities in Chechnya during an attempted coup d'état in the Soviet Union in August 1991).
24 August
The head of the Moscow-backed administration of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrov proposed to local journalists to carry out their own investigation of the crash of the military transport helicopter Mi-26 near Khankala, which claimed the lives of some 120 persons. In his opinion, such investigation “will enable to exclude any speculations with respect to Chechens.”
25 August According to Moscow-backed law enforcement agencies of the Chechen Republic, Chechen policemen have prevented the capture by bandits of a group of a television crew working in the territory of the republic. Having received the information on the preparation of the kidnapping of the journalists, the operatives carried out an operation on the surburbs of Grozny. As a result of the operation, three fighters were detained and their commander was killed. One of the detainees, Maksud Izrailov, said that his task was to kidnap some Russian journalist. Chechen law enforcers claim that the bandits make such plans of kidnapping of journalists with the purpose of receiving ransom.
26 August
On the Georgian-Azerbaijani border, Georgian law enforcement agencies seized some 800 copies of newspapers of anti-Russian content that were to be distributed among Chechen refugees.
27 August
A representative of the Federal Security Service’s Chechnya department said that in the settlements of Gordali, Galaiti and Zamai-Yurt in the Nozhai-Yurt district provocative materials are being distributed and information about planned assassinations of local administration staff is being disseminated. According to him, in the settlement of Khochi-Ara and Ishkhoi-Khutor leaflets with statements of the „State Defence Committee of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria“ were discovered.
28 August
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed regret that Russian television stations cast only few good programmes about the military. It would be possible to publicize that special forces of the military intelligence (GRU) act ten times more efficiently in Chechnya than other GRU’s branches. “A story about the special forces could be more interesting that Western action movies,” Putin said.
(T) RELATED ARTICLES:
· Acces to information in Chechnya (legal analysis by Boris Panteleyev)
· Russian journalists in the 2nd Chechen war (by Ilya Maksakov)
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