Human rights campaigner Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped and murdered this week in Chechnya, and a human rights group blames Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov for her death. Estemirova was seized from her home in Grozny, and her body was found Wednesday in the neighboring region of Ingushetia.
UPDATE: Read Natalia.
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Natalia has a great post about this and it offers a lot of insight into Russian culture for those that are unfamiliar with it.
Geez, Jill….I am have a way tougher time picking out one moment as “the most offensive..” :)
Sorry….my post was meant for a different thread, this story is tragic and heartbreaking.
Civil society has just been sent a disturbing reminder how ruthless dictators both deal with their critics and show blatant disregard to how we deem them!!. Ms Estemirova’s murder is yet another chilling reminder of the perils faced by some journalists and Human Rights activists working in conflict zones around the world. By bringing hard hitting facts to the public arena they irrefutably place themselves in the sniper scope of their enemies. Tragically, this despicable crime against both Human Rights and Press Freedom is becoming an increasingly all too common occurrence across the globe. Nevertheless, many journalists remain undaunted in the face of such adversity and continue to run this gauntlet of reprisal in the pursuit of bringing crimes perpetrated against innocents to world attention.
The perpetrators of this grotesque act of murder against the world of human rights must be brought to justice. By allowing these murders to go unpunished is setting a dangerous precedent for other dictatorships to follow!
For whatever reason, the assassination of this type make me feel even more helpless and angry than some other tragedies. Maybe because this sort of thing probably works on some levels to meet the goals of the assassins, both shutting down one more voice and letting all the others worry about their turn. Whatever happened to good old illegal imprisonment? At then they’re kept alive.