In Moscow, film "Aldy. With No Limitation Period" shown to public

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of "zachistka" (clean-up) in the Chechen village named Novye Aldy, where 56 peaceful residents were murdered on February 5, 2000, Moscow hosted a press conference dedicated to the anniversary of those tragic events. During the event a documentary entitled "Aldy. With No Limitation Period", based on video evidences and video documents, was demonstrated.

Prior to start the press conference, Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", reminded about the massacre of peaceful residents, committed 10 years ago in the Chechen village of Novye Aldy, where 56 peaceful persons - old men, women and one child - were shot dead; however, the culprits have never been punished.

He assumed that the modern developments may quite well be "direct and logic consequences" of what happened in Chechnya 10 years ago, in particular, in Novye Aldy. "Because that clean-up was committed by law enforcers," the HRC "Memorial" leader has noted.

Tatiana Chernikova, a lawyer of the HRC "Memorial", told the press conference that the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR), where the victims' relatives had addressed, studied numerous witnesses' evidences and reports of NGOs, including the HRC "Memorial" and the Human Rights Watch (HRW), and recognized that the investigation of the massacre is held inefficiently in Russia. "However the Russian party has ignored the ECtHR's decision," Tatiana noted.

The film was made by three authors: Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, an employee of the "Memorial", Elena Vilenskaya from the organization "House of Peace and Non-Violence" and Nikolai Rybakov from the St Petersburg "Apple" branch.

The documentary is based on the video, made by Aldy residents on February 9, 2000, and interviews of eyewitnesses of the events, written down by employees of the "Memorial" under request of the film authors in January-February 2009. Human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, who was kidnapped in Chechnya and killed last summer, also contributed to the film.