Thursday, August 06, 2009

Another defender of Chechens murdered


Natalia Estemirova (photo copied from the Guardian, original source Memorial).
After Anna Politkovskaya, another brave woman campaigning for human rights and speaking out against the Chechen genocide has been murdered in Russia. Below, I am quoting her Wikipedia article:
"Natalia Khusainovna Estemirova... (28 February, 1958 – 15 July 2009) was... Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian human rights organisation Memorial. Estemirova was abducted by unknown persons on 15 July 2009 around 8:30 a.m. from her home in Grozny, Chechnya, as she was working on "extremely sensitive" cases of human rights abuses in Chechnya. Two witnesses reported they saw Estemirova being pushed into a car shouting that she was being abducted. Her remains were found with bullet wounds in the head and chest area at 4:30 p.m. in woodland... near the village of Gazi-Yurt, Ingushetia... In October 2007 she was awarded the Anna Politkovskaya Award by Reach All Women in War (RAW), a human rights organization supporting women human rights defenders in war and conflict. Estemirova worked with investigating journalist Anna Politkovskaya and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, both of whom were also murdered, in 2006 and 2009, respectively..."

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