12/16/2011
Federal Government must demand fast and independent investigations on the murder!
Journalist killed in Dagestan:
The founder of the newspaper "Chernovik", Gadschimurad Kamalov, was shot on Thursday night in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. When the journalist left his editorial department, a killer shot at him 14 times. Kamalov died on the way to hospital. According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the editors of the newspaper "Chernovik" were doing research on corruption and state arbitrariness. Since 2003, they are regularly persecuted. In May 2011, legal proceedings were started to shut down the newspaper, but ended with a complete acquittal of the all accused Journalists.
According to the STP, Kamalov's name was found on a so-called death list which circled in Makhachkala since September 2, 2009. Speculations about who could have written the list, showed that it could only have been somebody who knows Dagestan very well, said Kamalov.
"Kalamov's death is a severe blow to independent Journalism in a region which is known to be dangerous and difficult to be an active journalist in," said the STP's expert on the CIS States, Sarah Reinke. Since Putin came to power in 2000, 19 journalists were murdered in the Russian Federation. Most cases could not be clarified. "That is not to happen again in the Kamalov murder case", the STP demands in a letter to the German Federal Government, asking for an independent and rapid clarification of the bloody deed. The murderer and his backers must be held accountable for the crime.
According to research by the Society for Threatened Peoples, the Republic of North Caucasus has the most attacks of Islamic fundamentalists against members of the security structures, on businesses that sell alcohol and cigarettes and also on civilians. The state mostly reacts with counter-violence. According to a recent survey, about twelve percent of the Republic's young people sympathize with the Islamist's armed struggle. Poverty, corruption, state tyranny and hopelessness are the reasons for this radicalization of society.
