The murder of Natalia Estemirova

Another voice is silenced while the West sleeps on Chechnya

As some members of the European Parliament used to say, Natalia Estemirova was an emblematic moral figure in the non-violent Chechen resistance. And for trying to publicise brutal human rights abuses in Chechnya, she paid with her life. But Natalia's fate have not been a one-off. Three years ago, the fierce investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was also shot dead and her killers are still at large. Now, there is a widespread concern that the people behind Natalia's death will never be brought to justice by the fact that the Kremelin turns a blind eye to violations of human rights. That is where Western governments should come in, as some political analysts defend


By LUAN GALANI
from Curitiba, BRAZIL


Madina Yunusova was a 20-year-old woman married with a suspected Chechen militant. In early July, Yunusova's husband was killed. Two days later, security forces came to her house, locked her mother, father and two sisters in a nearby shed, and used gasoline to set the house on fire. The armed men unlocked the shed as they left, and Yunusova's family managed to put out the fire. The next day, the forces returned. This time bringing Yunusova's corpse wrapped in a shroud, with instructions to bury her without any "noise". This recent example is just one of the utterly ruthless cases that Natalia Estemirova publicised as she knew that "noise" is the only weapon against the endless abuses that civilians in Chechnya endure.

On July 15th, Natalia, better known as Natasha, would give an interview to France 24. Instead, she was abducted by four men who forced her into a white car at 8:30 in Chechen capital Grozny. She managed to scream that she was being kidnapped as two witnesses on a nearby balcony heard her. The men drove across the border into the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, about 100 kilometers from Grozny. There, only 100 meters off the main highway, Estemirova's body was found eight hours later in the woods near the Ingush city of Nazran with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. She, as one of the premier human rights investigators in the entire Caucasus, was killed in exactly the manner her colleagues had long feared.

Alexander Cherkasov, who works at Memorial's Moscow head office, said her investigations into a recent public execution attracted unwanted attention from authorities. "It is known that this provoked - to put it gently - a nervous reaction from the Chechen authorities", he affirmed. She had also spoken several times with Chechnya's president, Ramzan Kadyrov, in person. The message from him was clearly always the same: "Natalia, we are not pleased with you". According to Wall Street Journal's Andrew Osborn, the Chechen president had warned her to ease off. However, fear was not part of her day to day agenda, as recalled Anna Neistat, senior researcher from Human Rights Watch.

Natasha's path

A single mother aged about 50 and a native of the southern Russian province of Saratov, Natalia embarked on a career as a history teacher until 1998. She then turned all her attention to investigating human rights abuses and became strongly involved in documenting such violations, mainly during the second Chechen War which broke out in 1999.

Then, in 2000, Natalia took up a post with Memorial, the leading Russian human rights group. Since this moment, she selflessly sought justice for war victims for almost a decade and also worked jointly with Human Rights Watch, including its recent investigations into the punitive killings and house burnings perpetrated by militias backed by the Chechen government.

Unlike many voices that rose against Russia's Chechen policies, Natalia was not enamoured of the rebels. She lived through separatists in the late 1990s and she saw they were corrupt and brutal as well. The main proofs are in the Beslan massacre, in the North Ossetia, in 2004. At that time, more than 300 people died at a school. After Beslan, Russia promised to attack terrorist bases anywhere in the world. But, analyzing the facts, is not either terrorism what Chechen leaders and Russia do to civilians? Anyway, it is indispensable to highlight that Natalia did not choose sides. Far from political passions, she was, above all, devoted to helping victims of violence.

Natalia's dedication in perilous circumstances brought her worldwide recognition. She was honoured by the Swedish Parliament as a recipient of the "Right to Life" award, and received the European Parliament's Robert Schuman medal and the Anna Politkovskaya Award. In 2008, Natalia presented the Anna Politkovskaya prize to the brave young parliamentarian from Afghanistan, Malalai Joya, with the words: "Malalai, be brave".

After all, they want justice

Natalia's death is the latest in a series of attacks and murders of human rights activists seeking justice and accountability for human rights violations, particularly in Chechnya. In January, Umar Israilov, a Chechen who alleged he had been tortured by the Chechnya's president, was shot and killed in broad daylight in Vienna, where he was living in exile.

Less than a week later, Stanislav Markelov, a prominent human rights lawyer who represented numerous victims of human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead on the street after leaving a Moscow news conference. Anastasiya Baburova, a journalist who was with him, was also killed. In addition, the worldwide known investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was murdered outside her Moscow apartment in 2006, after writing numerous articles about the human rights situation in Chechnya. But no justice has been done in none of the cases.

As The New Yorker's journalist David Remnick says, the icy indifference of the Russian government shows there is little political will to seriously investigate the murders of rights defenders. Even the own Russians can undoubtedly see it, as Mikhail Gorbachev told SPIEGEL, arguing he is not satisfied with the outcome of the investigations. "As a result, the perpetrators are getting away scot-free". And all this has a knock-on effect on the whole Russia's judiciary and its independence from political issues.

"Estemirova fought for justice all her life and the best way to honour her would be to find her killers and put them on trial", Kenneth Roth defended, as the executive director of Human Rights Watch. Natalia's investigative work in uncovering the mucky secrets of Chechnya's past put her in conflict with the Chechen government, mainly with Kremlin-backed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who rules his southern Russian republic like a modern-day Stalin, according to rights workers interviewed by Andrew Kramer from 'The New York Times'.

Her death provoked a surge of accusations directed at Mr. Kadyrov and his men, so-called Kadyroytsy. On the matter of who killed Natalia, Oleg Orlov, the Memorial's director, has been unequivocal. "I know the name of this person," he said at a news conference. "His name is Ramzan Kadyrov". Therefore, it is probable that the guilty must be sought in the circles of the Chechen leadership of the "little Saddam", as Kadyrov is nicknamed by general press.

For that, Human Rights Watch has called on president Dimitri Medvedev to ensure that there is an independent and transparent investigation into the Estemirova case. They say that impunity for such crimes is so rampant in Chechnya that there is no possibility of an effective investigation by local authorities. In order to maintain any credibility, it is absolutely essential that investigations are not conducted by local law enforcement.

The solution is closer than it is thought

Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general, claimed: "Natalia Estemirova's murder is a consequence of the impunity that has been allowed to persist". As the deputy director of HRW in Russia - Tanya Lokshina - asserts, Europe and the US have found it convenient to let Chechnya slip off the agenda in their meetings with policymakers. When it comes to Tibet or even to Darfur, for instance, the attention given is totally different.

Therefore, as Lokshina added, the Western governments should pile pressure on Russia to stop these murders. Simply due to the fact that an international pressure, besides expressing a clear frown of disapproval of the Putin's actions, would be at least a golden step forward an universal human rights' applicability as a natural born right.


(Published: 20.08.2009.)