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Comprehensive protective measures for human rights activists in Russia are called for by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) at two vigils to commemorate the murdered Natalya Estemirova on Sunday in Berlin and Munich. „We appeal urgently with this appeal to the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Foreign Secretary, Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, not to wait until the next murder before reacting. Please think of the courageous human rights activists in Russia and Chechnya and call for the clearing-up from the Russian side of even the smallest incident“, said Sarah Reinke, GfbV consultant for the states of the Russian Federation in Berlin. The threats against human rights activists in Russia are unbearable. The fears of people working for the Russian human rights organisation MEMORIAL, who are clearly being shadowed, because cars with darkened windows are parked in front of their houses and follow them everywhere, must be taken seriously.
The vigils have been organised by MEMORIAL Germany together with the GfbV, Reporters without Frontiers (Reporter ohne Grenzen RoG), Amnesty International (ai) and the Russo-German exchange (Deutsch-Russischer
Austausch).
„Murder is the last step in a long chain of harassments against defenders of human rights and civil rights activists in the Russian Federation“, said Reinke. Court proceedings are taken against organisations like the Verband für russisch-tschetschenische Freundschaft (Nizhny Novgorod) (the Society
for Russo-Chechenyan Friendship) to bring their work to a halt. Human rights
activists are being attacked like the head of the organisation „For Human
Rights“, Lev Ponomaryov, who was beaten up by unknown persons on 1st April 2009. Or activists are being sent to psychiatric institutions like in the worst times of the Soviet regime. This fate was shared for example by Vadim Charushev (St. Petersburg) or Larisa Arap (Murmansk).
„Only when these harassments which raise less attention are condemned by our politicians will appeals of the German government like after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, Natalya Estemirova or Sarema Sadulayeva be taken seriously“, emphasised Reinke.
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