18:00, 28 September 2009

Lokshina: residents of Chechnya fear complaining of arsons of their houses

Since this July, in Chechnya, human rights activists have registered about 30 arsons of houses of relatives of those, who were blamed as militants' helpers. It is more and more difficult to register such arsons as victims are too frightened to complain, as Tatiana Lokshina, deputy head of the Moscow bureau of the Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Let us remind you that for the period from June 2008 to March 2009 the Russian branch of the HRW possesses data about 25 cases of retaliatory arsons, presumably committed by local power agencies in seven districts of Chechnya. Human rights defenders assert that in all the cases someone of the members of the "punished" family was regarded to be a militant (usually, a son or a nephew). As a rule, before making an arson law enforcement bodies and local administration demanded to return the relative home, otherwise threatening with most serious consequences.

Author: Anastasia Kirilenko

Source: CK correspondent