Monitoring human rights in Ingushetia by Amnesty InternationalTimur Aliyev, North Caucasus – Several staff members of Amnesty International were in Ingushetia on June 12-19 researching and compiling cases of human rights violations in Ingushetia and neighbouring Chechnya.
“Our team has several important aims: first, to examine whether press freedoms are being violated in Chechnya and Ingushetia; and secondly, to speak with people who were victims of human rights violations,” explained Mariana Katsarova, an Amnesty researcher on Russia and the Former Soviet Union.
“Of course, the whole tendency of banning freedom of expression never ceases, but we are documenting cases of the persecution of human rights activists, journalists and others who, in some way, are trying to express their opinions,” she said.
Katsarova also explained that some time ago Amnesty International had already conducted similar research in Ingushetia and Chechnya. “That is why we are now updating our data about human rights violations in these republics.”
The monitoring results will be combined with a report of the human rights organizations Memorial and Human Rights Watch about the state of human rights in Chechnya and Ingushetia. “The presentation of this report will take place on June 23 in Moscow,” Katsarova said.
(U/E,T) |
