War Award competition continues(Press release of April 4, 2004)
About ten initial nominations for the War Award have been submitted, mostly from human rights defenders, anti-war activists and journalists. The Social Development Institute of Timur Aliyev will give this award to either a politician or public figure who “contributed the most” to the onset and continuation of the war in the Chechen Republic (1994-2004).
The first candidate for this "anti-prize" is Russian TV journalist Mikhail Leontyev. Yegveniy Ikhlov of the For Human Rights movement said that Leontyev was nominated because he made an emotionally touching appeal five years ago to start the second war in Chechnya; then he also emotionally insisted that the war continue "till its victorious end." Plus, he also harasses all human rights defenders who oppose the war, added Ikhlov.
Chechen human rights defender Ruslan Badalov nominated Sergei Yastrzhembsky, an aide to President Putin; and St Petersburg journalist Yelena Melnikova nominated Pres. George W. Bush.
And renowned human rights defender Yelena Bonner, widow of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, said that President Putin and Moscow-backed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov are to be blamed the most for the war.
(Translated by Prague Watchdog) (T/E) |
