Rights Group Blames Russia, Kadyrov for Journalist Attack
MOSCOW – The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has laid blame squarely on the shoulders of Russian authorities for a violent attack Wednesday that injured a group of foreign journalists and local aid workers.
The group – which included Swedish and Norwegian nationals – was on a trip arranged by a local NGO known as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture.
Just prior to crossing the administrative border separating Russia’s volatile North Caucasus regions of Ingushetia and Chechnya, a band of up to 20 uniformed Chechen men attacked and set fire to the minivan they were travelling in.
The attackers then dragged the journalists from the burning vehicle and proceeded to beat them, leaving six seriously injured.
The victims were later told by local police that they were lucky to have been attacked on the Ingush side of the border as a similar incident in Chechnya, perpetrated by government connected gangs, would simply be disregarded.
The committee accused Russian and Chechen authorities of consciously ignoring the safety concerns of the group in the face of growing hostility towards members of the media in the region.
“The attack on 9 March was enabled by the (Russian) government's gross inaction in the face of overt hostility to the press. The incident follows a burst of menacing comments on social media and in the press by government officials both in and out of Chechnya," the CPJ’s official statement said.
Chechnya’s autocratic ruler, Ramzan Kadyrov, has repeatedly and publicly castigated the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, accusing the NGO of being Western spies.
A former rebel fighter and the son of Chechnya’s late Grand Mufti-turned pro-Russian proxy, Akhmad Kadyrov, the younger Kadyrov has ruled the restive republic for more than a decade through a mix of fear and intimidation.
With Moscow’s blessing and a nod from Russia’s authoritarian President Vladimir Putin – with whom he has forged a close personal relationship – Kadyrov often blatantly disregards Russian law in his pursuit to keep order after two bloody independence wars were fought against Russia in the 1990s that killed or displaced half of Chechnya’s two million residents.
Throughout the period of his rule, Kadyrov has been accused by dozens of international organizations and prominent journalists of committing gross human rights violations, including the forced disappearance of thousands of Chechens accused of having aided insurgent groups operating in the region.
AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov