Arson and wiring short circuit are versions of fire in rights defenders' office in Grozny

Construction workers are repairing the facade of the house in Grozny, which houses the burnt-out office of the Joint Mobile Group (JMG) of rights defenders. Local observers do not rule out that the fire in the office could be committed by people dissatisfied with their work.

The facade of No. 19 in Rosa Luxemburg Street, which houses the office of the JMG, is repaired after a fire, said an official from the administration of Grozny.

The law enforcement bodies of Chechnya report that arson is considered among the versions of the fire. The Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) does not also exclude a short circuit in the power circuit as a cause of the fire.

Residents of the house in question said that other apartments did not suffer from the fire.

According to Sultan, a resident of the house, there are no witnesses of the fire; while other tenants say that on December 14-15 policemen and "suspicious person in civilian clothes" were near the house almost all the time.

A possible connection of the fire in the rights defenders' office with the dissatisfaction with their work in the republic was confirmed by an activist of one of Chechen NGOs named Abu.

The head of a local NGO reports that currently local television channels are broadcasting programmes, in which panellists approve the principle of collective responsibility introduced for families of members of the armed underground. He believes that the work of rights defenders will now be still more difficult.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.