Union of Chechen NGOs kicked out of the Print House in Grozny

The Union of Non-Governmental Organizations (UNGO) of Chechnya was forced to transfer its office from the Republic's Print House after the conflict of the head of the Information Centre of the Union with securities of the building.

The incident took place last week in the building of the Print House. The securities of the building flatly refused to let Taisa Isaeva, head of the UNGO's Information Centre, in. The reason was the absence of a headscarf. Mandatory wearing of headscarves by women and young ladies was introduced in the building of the Print House after appointment of Shamsail Saraliev, 34, former assistant of Ramzan Kadyrov, to the post of Minister of Press, Information and National Relations of Chechnya.

"In the morning on December 12 our office was visited by the director of the building and the head of the administrative division. They declared that there was an instruction of the Minister (Saraliev) to immediately oust our office. To the question on the reasons, the director of the Print House answered that the main reason was that Isaeva had refused to put on a headscarf in the building. Besides, it was stated that the Minister disliked the activity of the Information Centre, which was giving, as he said, 'negative' coverage of the events in the country," one of the employees of the UNGO's Information Centre, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to her story, the UNGO's office was sealed up soon after that.

Before December 1 this year, the office of the Information Centre of the UNGO was located in Ingushetia (in the city of Nazran). However, in the latest months the Centre began feel strong pressure exerted by power agents; therefore a decision was made to remove the correspondent's office of the UNGO to Chechnya.