23:50, 19 May 2011

In Finland, rights defenders to hold picket at Russian Embassy

A picket dedicated to signing of the peace agreement between Chechnya and Russia in 1997 will be held in Helsinki on May 27 near the Russian Embassy in Finland. It will be attended by refugees from Chechnya and Ingushetia, citizens of Finland and activists of various international human rights organizations.

"It seemed then that it was a full stop in the bloody and obviously futile war. Alas, the reality has shown the opposite. The troops were not withdrawn completely, the republic failed to gain independence; and the second Chechen war was unleashed. We want to remind people on how difficult it is to win even a hope for peace and how easy it is to lose it," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by journalist Elena Maglevannaya, who wrote about facts of torture of prisoners from Northern Caucasus in Russian prisons, and who received political asylum in Finland in late 2010.

According to her story, the picket will be attended by those natives of Northern Caucasus, who have received the refugee status, and by the applicants for such status; it is expected that Finnish media people will also come.

Author: Dmitry Florin

Source: CK correspondent