"Memorial" closes up its work in Chechnya

The Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", which is leaving Chechnya, plans to finish all the cases started in the in republic. According to Oleg Orlov, the chairman, the lawyers of "Memorial" will finalize all the cases filed by them to the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) on behalf of residents of Chechnya.

Mr Orlov could not tell for how long the "Memorial" suspends its work in the Chechen Republic. He notes that his "friends and colleagues remain in the organization, and lawyers will not stop the cases they had started earlier." "I can't imagine," said Oleg Orlov, "that people, whose cases we undertook to deal with, could be left. Besides, we'll go on with the database of missing people that the 'Memorial' ran in the years of the counterterrorist operation. It will be brought to the end and made public. This work will go on. All other works are suspended. For how long? I don't know. For ever? I don't know this either."

Saying "other works", he meant reception of the population by employees and lawyers of the "Memorial"; conducting new cases in courts; everyday monitoring of the situation; visiting localities and interrogation of witnesses; writing information materials; and filing new applications to the ECtHR.

He added that only in the last few days five applications under accelerated procedure have been sent to the ECtHR. "They dealt with the kidnappings committed in a couple of recent weeks. Under two of the complaints the victims were released just one of these days," Oleg Orlov has noted.

He has added that representative offices in Nazran (Ingushetia) and North Ossetia will remain operational.

Speaking about the future of those who worked on Chechnya, Oleg Orlov has noted that people who worked for "Memorial" were not dismissed. "Nobody was fired; now they are on a forced leave and decide where and how to spend it," explained the Chairman.

Oleg Orlov has negatively reacted to statements of some figures, who, as he said, recommended him "to place his people under bullets, let them perish; he should sacrifice them." "There is such a guy," he has noted, "named Nurdi Nukhazhiev - Ombudsman in Chechnya."