09:00, 12 December 2009

Human rights defenders urge authorities to dialogue with North-Caucasian radicals

The delegates of the Fifth Reporting-Election Congress of the Public Movement "For Human Rights", which took place in Moscow on December 10-12, called authorities to dialogue with those oppositional radical forces in Northern Caucasus, which essentially reject violence in politics. Human rights activists also called to lift the ban on professing certain religious trends, including the so-called "Wahhabism".

Human rights leader Lev Pomomaryov read out the text of the resolution, which states that the republics of Northern Caucasus formed the armed underground with "a clearly radical-religious identification, which looks like 'internationalist' trend removing the existing interethnic tension."

Svetlana Isaeva, who represented the human rights organization "Mothers of Dagestan", expressed fear that war can flop from Chechnya to Dagestan. According to her story, new military units and certain power agents in cars with Chechen number plates are constantly arriving in the republic.

Human rights activists expressed fear because of possible long-term guerrilla war in the Caucasus.

Author: Anton Semikin

Source: for "Caucasian Knot"