Abstract
Activists and independent journalists in the North Caucasus face intimidation, kidnapping and violence. But since 2003, one independent publication has been fighting to get the truth out.
When I travel around different regions of the North Caucasus and listen to endless stories from people whose relatives have been kidnapped, tortured and killed – the accounts are terrifyingly similar everywhere – I can’t help feeling helpless, trapped in a vicious circle. In Chechnya, leader Ramzan Kadyrov has the republic’s military under his control; in Ingushetia and Dagestan, the authorities practise their lawlessness with the helping hand of the Russian army.
Favourable ‘reporting’ can lead to generous presents from Kadyrov – money, cars or apartments
Those who have paid attention to the situation in Chechnya over the last 10 or 15 years perceive it to be the most dangerous republic in the Russian Federation. Looking at comparative analysis for free expression and human rights in the region, Chechnya actually appears to be better off than its neighbours, but when one looks closer, it’s obvious that this is not the case.
The republic has been through two murderous and destructive wars with Russia, in 1994–1996 and again in 1999. Some estimates suggest that about a quarter of its population was killed during these wars. The consequences have been disastrous for Chechens: Russia physically destroyed Chechnya’s military and its political elite, as well as almost all of the republic’s written history, culture and infrastructure. After constant aggression from the ‘big brother from the north’, Chechens’ spiritual and moral foundations have been irreparably damaged and their resolve to oppose Russia’s violent advances has been crushed.
People in Chechnya actively protested against the first war, demanding that Russian troops leave and calling for the release of local people who had been kidnapped or detained. Over the course of 10 years, Moscow has managed to secure what appears to be conciliation in the region by installing Ramzan Karymov as its leader. Directly supported by the Russian military, Karymov’s power is guaranteed and sustained through his unwavering allegiance to the Kremlin. Employing repressive tactics against the majority of Chechen society, Kadyrov’s regime has ushered in an endemic and pervasive climate of fear.
It is extremely difficult for civil society organisations and activists, as well as the independent media, to operate in such conditions. A turning point came on 15 July 2009, when human rights defender Natalya Estemirova was murdered. Following her murder, the NGO she worked for, Memorial Human Rights Centre, was forced to discontinue its activities due to safety concerns, eventually resuming its work in September 2009, but only after it scaled down its work in the republic.
ABOVE: A protester holds a photo of Chechen rights activist Natalya Estemirova, November 2009
Credit: Mikhail Metzel/AP Photo
Less than a month later, on 11 August 2009, another human rights defender, Zarema Saddulayeva, was murdered along with her husband. Earlier, in October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a famous Russian journalist who investigated human rights crimes in the Caucasus, was murdered in Moscow. These murders drew international attention to the fact that Russian authorities had regularly resorted to the physical elimination of those who reveal gross human rights violations.
The belief that Chechnya is de facto independent from Russia and that Kadyrov is independent from the Kremlin is merely a delusion. Kadyrov can only afford to do what his ‘godfather’, President Vladimir Putin, allows him to do; he is well aware of the fact that once Russian military support disappears, the thousands of people whose relatives and friends have been murdered will be waiting to take their revenge and tear Kadyrov to pieces.
Despite such a difficult situation and constant pressure and threats from the authorities, there are several active NGOs in Chechnya, providing a range of assistance to citizens who need it, from psychological help for victims of war and domestic violence to people who need urgent evacuation because of persecution by the authorities. These NGOs also work to educate the population, inform people about their rights and promote ideas of democracy and civil society.
ABOVE: Independent magazine DOSH
There are more than 20 newspapers and magazines, three TV and three radio stations in Chechnya. These media outlets are official and financed from the regional budget. Their activities have little to do with journalism. Employees earn good salaries and remain silent about Chechnya’s problems. Newspapers compete to get the biggest picture of Ramzan Kadyrov on their front pages and to be the best at praising him, and his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in 2004, and their relatives. Often newspaper reports are focused solely on the meetings, briefings and working visits attended by the head of the republic. Favourable ‘reporting’ can lead to generous presents from Kadyrov – money, cars or apartments in the Chechen capital Grozny.
Ten years ago, in spring 2003, DOSH magazine was launched as an independent publication focusing on Chechen history, culture and current events. It took only two or three issues before the magazine began to focus primarily on human rights violations in the republic, reporting on the political, social and human rights situation, from education and ecology to the state of health care.
The editorial board began to receive reports from neighbouring Caucasian republics as well, particularly from Ingushetia, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria, where the situation had destabilised and the number of bombs, terrorist attacks, kidnapping and murders surpassed Chechnya, becoming almost everyday occurrences. In 2008, DOSH became the first independent magazine in the region.
In Ingushetia, both former president General Zyazikov and current leader General Evkurov – both of whom come from Russian intelligence service backgrounds – stifle critical reporting and regularly prohibit the distribution of independent publications, including DOSH on three occasions. Most recently, in January 2013, Evkurov personally ordered the withdrawal of an issue that published the results of an opinion poll that concluded he had little support among the population, as well as information regarding the high numbers of kidnappings in Ingushetia in 2012. The ban resulted in an undesired outcome: it received so much attention that that twice as many copies of the issue were sold through private distributors.
In terms of media freedom, Dagestan boasts the healthiest climate, with several independent newspapers reporting on corruption and other sensitive issues affecting the republic. But this does not mean conditions for journalists are safer. Court appeals against, attacks on and murders of journalists have become all too frequent. After Hadjimurad Kamalov, the owner of the most well-known newspaper in Dagestan, Chernovik (Rough Copy), was murdered on 15 December 2011, self-censorship has become quite common among his colleagues (read Index on Censorship’s interview with Kamalov’s uncle and chairman of the Dagestan Journalists’ Union, Ali Kamalov, published in June 2012, http://ioc.sagepub.com/content/41/2/31.full).
Human rights defenders are harassed and intimidated in other ways. Kavkazpress.ru, a propaganda website originating in Dagestan, seems to have been set up to discredit activists. The site reports solely on violations that law enforcement officials are aware of and have knowledge about; those actually working in human rights in the region say it’s quite obvious the website is run by those in a position of authority, not actual campaigners or advocates. Activists are presented as being supporters of terrorists and criminals, leading debauched lives funded by foreign money and therefore posing a threat not only to the state but also to traditional values.
Laws in the Caucasus are violated not because people here are lawless, but because those in power who are supposed to uphold the rule of law violate it so outrageously themselves. There is an attitude – tacit, but very clear – from the Russian state: citizens of the North Caucasus republics are citizens of Russia, but of a special kind. Authorities can afford to put them through things they wouldn’t dare consider putting other citizens through. Murders of innocent people can be carried out with impunity and victims can be dubbed as terrorists based on no evidence. In Moscow and other big cities, criminal cases are fabricated against people from the Caucasus just on the basis that they belong to certain ethnic or religious groups.
When the authorities get used to violating human rights in a certain region, they want to expand these practices elsewhere. Those who are in charge – the conservative, imperial ‘conscience’ of the Russian Federation – do not want to admit it, but the recent repression of civic activists following peaceful protests in Moscow in 2013 shows that it’s true. The Caucasus remain a testing ground for that.
Despite these difficulties and challenges, the situation in the North Caucasus republics would be even worse without courageous human rights activists and journalists who work selflessly and put their lives, and the lives of their families, in danger.