Statement by Human Rights Center "Memorial" on terrorist act in Moscow metro

The awful outrage was committed in Moscow. The organizers of the monstrous act of terrorism deliberately chose civilians as their victims again.

We mourn the people killed and deeply feel for those suffered.

There is no and cannot be any justification for those who prepared and carried out this crime. The criminals must be found and severely punished.

The President and law-enforcement agencies are advancing with confidence the version about a "Chechen trace". No proofs of it have been presented yet. But if this version is found to be true, then the present tragedy, unfortunately, could obviously be predicted.

The unwillingness of our country's leaders to take at least some steps towards a real, but not decorative political settlement of the conflict has led to the strengthening of the positions of extremists - people who do not set themselves accountable political aims, which can be a basis for a compromise.

Over the last years, activists of human rights organizations and many public and political figures have repeatedly warned that inhuman actions of federal forces in Chechnya are dangerous to every Russian citizen.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been daily living in the atmosphere of death for many years, they are being forced out, thrown out of civilized life. Thousands of humiliated people, whose relatives and close friends have been killed, abducted, physically and morally crippled, serve for cynical and unscrupulous leaders of Russian terrorist groups as that environment from which they recruit their followers, kamikazes and terrorist act committers.

Only a resolute change in the policy of the Russian leadership can bring peace and serenity to the Russian people.

7 February 2004

Editors note: See also the article "Death toll from Moscow metro blast reaches 39".