22:02, 15 February 2007

International conference on human rights is planned in Chechnya

The authorities of Chechnya intend to organize a major international conference in Grozny with participation of delegates from Russian and foreign human rights and non-governmental organizations.

They have asserted at the office of the president and government of Chechnya that prime-minister of the government of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov was the initiator of holding an international conference on the issues of human rights.

We remind you that human rights organizations have repeatedly accused the power agencies of Chechnya, including those under Kadyrov's direct command (the so-called "Kadyrovtsy"), of breaching human rights.

In the opinion of human rights activists, tortures, kidnappings, murders and various other infringements of human rights continue to occur in Chechnya. According to Tatiana Lokshina, head of the "Demos" Moscow Information-Analytical Centre, despite the attempts of the Kremlin to exhibit the region as the one coming back to normal life, "nothing has in fact normalized in it."

Author: Sultan Abubakarov, CK correspondent