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Violations of journalists' rights in Chechnya - September 2002

Monitoring 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 September 2002.

Compiled by the Centre for Journalism in Extreme Situations. Translated by Prague Watchdog.

At the end of August, Chechen sources reported that Aslan Maskhadov appointed Akhmed Zakayev to the post of the head of the Information Commitee, Movladi Udugov to the post of the head of External Information Service, Mr. Bashir to the post of the head of the Internal Information Service, and Mr. Shamkhan to the post of the head of the National Radio and Television.

According to this information, Chechen President Maskhadov ordered news servers Chechenpress, Kavkaz Center and Chechen.org to spread out the „official information of the govermental structures of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In early October these sources reported that in Chechnya the radio Dzhokhar started its daily broacasts and some newspapers and magazines emerged.

September 2

The head of the press service of the Georgian Interior Ministry Paata Gomelauri said that the access to the Pankisi gorge for journalists and other civilians is extremely limited. Such measures were taken in view of the possible worsening of the situation in Pankisi, where, according to Russian officials, Chechen fighters are hiding and where Georgian forces started an anti-criminal operation. Gomelauri pointed out that the access to Pankisi for journalists is „practically excluded“ because measures to ensure security of the journalists would be comparable with a special operation requiring tens of persons - and that is impossible.

September 7

Commenting on the investigation of the attack in Shali, as a result of which seven Chechen policemen died, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov called on the media „not to succumb to provocations of Chechen fighters“. Ivanov reminded that some politicians of the Moscow-backed Chechen government made ungrounded allegations that the bomb attack was commited by members of the federal forces. He appealed on the media not to make hasty conclusions.

September 11

An attempt on the life of journalist and writer Lechi Yakhyaev was commited. Yakhyaev currently works as a press secretary of the head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov. According to the police, in the village of Gekhi in the Urus-Martan district several unknown intruders broke into Yakhyaev`s house and opened fire. Yakhyaev was shot into his shoulder. Then he was hospitalizated in a serious condition.

September 17

Russian media repored that Russian special services revealed Chechen conspiratorial offices in Tbilisi. According to these reports, a Chechen information center is located in Tbilisi on the third floor in 10 Kavtaradze street. In response, news agency Chechenpress, which reflects the position of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, questioned: „Are they going to bomb Chechenpress from unknown airplanes as well?“

September 18

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation demanded that the Georgian authorities immediately take measures to stop the anti-Russian campain which was unleashed by the Georgian media. The information and press departament of the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that fighters and international terrorist are “personae gratae” for the Georgian authorities while Russian citizens who obey the law become the victims of crimes.

September 19

Representatives of Moscow-backed Chechen law-enforcement agencies reported about the discovery in the Urus-Martanovski district of an equipment which Chechen fighters planed to use for TV broadcasting. In a non-residental building in the village of Alkhazurovo, a room was discovered under a heap of construction waste material. In the room, there was a satellite communication equipment, TV broadcasting equipment, a professional full-colour printing equipment, a printing machine, a table for photostating and a table for paper cutting.

September 19 – 21

In the village of Samashki of the Achkhoi-Martanovski district, Chechen fighters made a raid on a commercial television studio. The local military commandant’s office said that the attackers carried away all the equipment from the studio. According to some reports, the fighters managed to broadcast a statement of Aslan Maskhadov.

On September 20, the same statement was radio-broadcast in the Nadterechni district. Commenting on the incident, Chechnya’s Deputy Military Commandant Selim Suyev said that Chechen fighters have recently started using ideological means.

An unnamed official of the Moscow-backed administration of Chechnya confirmed the two cases of unplanned broadcasting. According to him, Chechen fighters distributed a statement containing threats to the heads of local administrations, law enforcement agencies and inhabitants of the district who cooperate with the federal authorities.

On September 21, the military commandants of the Achkhoi-Martanovski district Ibragim Suleimenov refuted that reports about fighters‘ broadcasting of Aslan Maskhadov’s statement. Suleimenov confirmed that in Samashki Chechen fighters made a raid on the house of an entrepreneur who runs the TV broadcasting business and seized his equipment. However, the entrepreneur did not report of any broadcasting of any statement, Suleimenov stressed. Also the head of the administration of the Nadterechny district Sultan Akhmetkhanov denied any TV or radio broadcasting by the fighters.

September 23

The managers of the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company visited the company’s Chechen subsidiary to negotiate the development perspectives of television broadcasting in Chechnya. The delegation was headed by the company’s deputy CEO, Alexandr Zdanovich. He pointed out that a number of problems relating to technical support are already being solved and that measures will be taken to improve the level of information availability to the Chechen television to match the level of broadcasting companies in other regions.

The body of a British reporter working for Frontline Television, Roderick John Scott, was found among killed fighters during clashes between Russian forces and Ruslan Gelayev’s troops near the Ingush village of Galashki. The Briton, born 1971, was carrying passport No. 500301639 with expired Georgian visa No. 364496, a note pad with notes in English, a satellite telephone, a photo film, a video camera, and a large number of tapes.

The Georgian Embassy in Great Britain said that the reporter had legally worked in Georgia and had come to the country several times. The Frontline agency stated that Scott had worked for the company in the past six years and had traveled to numerous “hot spots” – Afganistan, Kosovo, and a few times to Chechnya. Russian president’s aide, Sergei Yastrzhembski said that John Scott was dressed in a NATO military uniform which outwardly did not distinguish him from the Chechen fighters. According to Yastrzhembski, Scott was carrying two sub-machine gun magazines, and journals with various comments on the events. “We feel very sorry for the death of the British journalist but we have constantly been warning that the presence of foreign journalists on the territory of military actions in the Northern Caucasus is dangerous,” said Yastrzhembski.

On September 27, the British Foreign Office informed Scott’s family about his death in Ingushetia. It also announced that Britain would not confirm the name and other details in connection with the reporter’s death until official confirmation and positive identification is provided by the Russian authorities.

On the same day, Russian Deputy Prosecutor General, Sergei Fridinski, announced that the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office shall clear up the identity of the man that was killed during the fighting in Ingushetia who is thought to be a British TV reporter. According to Fridinski, “the corps of the killed man with a video camera and the photograph in the passport containing a name of a British journalist are not the same.” He admitted that the owner of the passport is either hiding together with the fighters, or has died.

On October 2, President of the Chechen Anti-War Congress and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Russian Euro-Asian Party, Salambek Maigov, who had been in Ingushetia at the time of the battle at Galashki, said that Roderick John Scott had actually not been killed during the armed clash. He claims that the reporter fell into a chasm in the Tarski Gorge in North Ossetia and died three days before the event. The fighters brought his corps from there to Galashki, he said.

September 30

A large group of Russian human rights defenders, writers, journalists and scientists adopted an appeal to journalists and public representatives who “acknowledge the necessity to stop the war in Chechnya and begin political peace talks”. The appeal states that not only the official press, but also many democratic publications and journalists provide informational support to the war. The authors of the document address those who describe battle clashes with the federal forces as “terrorist acts” and Chechen resistance fighters as “bandits”, “terrorists”, or, in the better case, as “rebels”. The signatories of the appeal condemn such approach as the spreading of “false official ideology” that aims to present the Chechen war as a struggle with terrorism and banditry. The document calls on the press and politicians to restrain from double standards, hidden propaganda and justification of the war. The authors express their hope that appropriate reflection of the Chechen situation in the sea of official and unofficial lies will help put an end to the long-standing bloodshed.

(T)

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