Moscow Helsinki Group: STOP THE TERROR!

News of the deaths of our colleagues is becoming a tragic everyday occurrence. Today we learned of the murder of activists of the nongovernmental organization “Let’s Save the Generation”, Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Umar Dzhabrailov, abducted yesterday.. They had devoted their lives to helping the victims of the undeclared war, including children maimed by mines. This murder is the latest confirmation of the inability of the authorities to provide basic security for their citizens and yet another reminder how high a price can be paid for the striving for justice.

We consider this killing to be an extrajudicial execution.

We demand an end to the terror unfurled in the Northern Caucuses against civic activities and civilians. The circumstances of the abductions and killings which have become more frequent over recent times, and the fact that they go unpunished, justify us in stating that the federal and regional authorities are showing a criminal degree of inaction.

We call on the authorities to take efforts to put an end to the terror, to find and punish the criminals.

On our part we would state that we will not cease our struggle for human dignity and rights in every part of the country, including the Northern Caucuses.

Sooner or later the killers of the civic activists and those behind them will receive their just and lawful deserts. We will do all in our power to ensure this.

11 August 2009

Ludmila Alexeeva, Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG)

Lev Ponomarev, member of MHG, Executive Director of “For Human Rights”

Gleb Yakunin, member of MHG, the Public Committee in Defence of Freedom of Conscience

The MHG State has been endorsed by:

Yury Samodurov, Curator of Exhibition Programmes

Ernst Cherny, Public Committee for the Defence of Scientists

Lyubov Bashinova, journalist and human rights defender

Yevgeny Ikhlov, journalist and human rights defender

Andrei Nelenov, Committee against Military Action