Arson attack on Chechen human rights office in Grozny

The UN Human Rights Council must urgently deal with the increasing persecution of human rights activists in Russia. On Monday, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) addressed the President of the organization, German diplomat Joachim Rücker, with this demand – after the office of the human rights organization "Joint Mobile Group" in Grozny was destroyed in an arson attack that weekend. Some of the group's employees were forced to flee from Chechnya.

"The German government always emphasized to be willing to support human rights defenders – and had also included this aim in the coalition agreement," says the STP's letter to Rücker. "Please do everything in your power to protect the Chairman of the Joint Mobile Group, Igor Kaljapin, and his staff. Kaljapin, who is also Head of the 'Commitee against Torture', is in great danger. He should not be left to pay for his courageous commitment towards human rights with his life, as it happened to journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 and the two human rights defenders Natalya Estemirova and Zarema Sadullaeva in 2009." Many Russian and international human rights organizations are convinced that Ramzan Kadyrov, who was installed as the ruler of Chechnya by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is responsible for the murders of the three women and for other politically motivated killings.

The Joint Mobile Group is one of the few human rights groups that are still active in Chechnya. The group was established after the murder of Natalia Estemirova, when it became clear that it would no longer be possible to do open and constant human rights work in Chechnya. The members of the group document human rights violations in Chechnya and try to help the victims. "This is the reason why Kaljapin was systematically persecuted, harassed and defamed for years," said Sarah Reinke, the STP's expert on questions concerning the CIS-states. Recently, on December 5, Ramzan Kadyrov, ruler of the Chechen Republic, had accused him of being involved in the devastating terrorist attack in Grozny on December 4. At a press conference in Moscow, Kadyrov's supporters had thrown eggs at Kaljapin and threatened him.