Isaeva: arson in office of "Mothers of Dagestan" has to do with organization's activities

The arson in the Makhachkala-based office of the human rights organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights was caused by the work of this NGO. Svetlana Isaeva, chair of the "Mothers of Dagestan", said that this was a sort of a warning to employees that they interfere with someone.

On August 20, at about 9:30 a.m., Svetlana Isaeva received a call from the owner of the building, where the office of her organization is located, who said that the office was burned down. Ms Isaeva arrived at the place of the incident. Later, a cameraman and a correspondent of local television also came there.

The statement of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" made on this occasion says that they found the office almost completely ruined: the walls, floor and ceiling were scorched, the office equipment had melted. All the photos were lost. Only because the constituent documents and the seal of the organization were at Isaeva's home for opening a bank account, they survived.

From the very beginning, Ms Isaeva was sure of arson. Later, her version was confirmed by the worker of the Ministry for Emergencies: under the office window, in the heap of glass fragments he found newspaper remnants impregnated with gasoline; he sent them to examination.

Thanks to interference of local residents the office had not burnt out completely: they managed to take out some articles - chairs and tables. However, the employees now lack the most necessary things for their work - computers, telephones, a fax, etc.