"Mothers of Kabardino-Balkaria in protection of human rights and freedoms" enlisted the support of officials and human rights activists in Moscow

Representatives of the movement "Mothers of Kabardino-Balkaria in protection of human rights and freedoms" explained their vision of the ways of settlement of the armed confrontation in KBR to Russian officials and human rights activists during their visit to Moscow.

Mariam Ahmetova, Svetlana Afashagova and Raya Shamayeva went on this trip in the beginning of February.

"We told them how to return our young people who have gone to the forest, of the torture in our investigative isolation ward and humiliation our children were undergoing. They listened to us with great attention everywhere. We handed to everyone with whom we met documents and statements connected with the present-day problems", Mariam Ahmetova said.

"No concrete results were achieved"

During the five days the women spent in Moscow they had meetings with Ombudsman of Russia Vladimir Lukin, Co-chairman of Russian Congress of the Peoples of the Caucasus (RCPC) Ruslan Kurbanov, Chairperson of the Committee "Citizen's Assistance" Svetlana Gannushkina, Head of the project of International crisis group for Northern Caucasus, member of the Council of "Memorial" Human Rights Center Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, member of the Public Chamber, Chairman of Public Council for development of civil society and human rights with the President Mikhail Fedotov, member of Public Council of Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation Maria Kannabikh.

No concrete results of these meetings were achieved, the activists of the Committee "Mothers of Kabardino-Balkaria in protection of human rights and freedoms" admit.

"But we had not really expected any exact terms or promises to be specified. The main thing was for the people to listen to us attentively, express their interest in our problem and say that they would go into the matter", Ahmetova said.

"The mothers must negotiate during special operations"

In the opinion of Svetlana Afashagova, "the mothers must have a chance to negotiate with the young guys during special operations".

"The persons against whom such operations are aimed must have a chance to surrender and be brought before the court which will estimate the extent of everyone's guilt against the law, not be killed without trial", the activist emphasized.

The representatives of the organization consider that to improve the situation in the republic it is necessary that amnesty should touch upon anyone, regardless of the extent of gravity of a crime a person committed.

"If at least one person remains in the forest there will be somebody wishing to join him, all the same", Svetlana Afashagova considers.

According to Evgenia Kugotova, there are about twenty members of the Committee "Mothers of Kabardino-Balkaria in protection of human rights and freedoms" as of today but this figure will increase.

"Nobody manipulated us, neither Federal Security service nor the police", Raya Shamayeva, activist of the movement "Mothers of Kabardino-Balkaria in protection of human rights and freedoms", who met with Russian officials and human rights activists in Moscow in February, 2012, says in her video message.

The mothers' meeting with Minister of Interior Affairs of KBR Sergey Vasiliev and President of KBR Arsen Kanokov who guaranteed that in case if their sons come to law enforcement bodies of their own free will illicit methods of investigation would not be used against them and the investigation and trial would go within legal boundaries preceded their appeal.

Some of these women's sons were killed later. In particular, Alber Kachkarov and Amir Lampezhev were found among those killed in a special operation in Baksan on September, 3, 2011.