Background:
On October 16, 2006, vigils and meetings in honor of Anna Politkovskaya took place all over the world, including in many cities in Russia. While most went without any disturbances, a picket planned for Nazran, Ingushetia, was forcibly dispersed. The organizers of the picket had informed authorities as required by law, but when they arrived at the agreed location they were nevertheless met by local police, who harshly ordered them to leave. Participants were also insulted and harassed by local young men in plain clothes, who were clearly acting in coordination with the authorities. One of these young men hit a representative of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, in the face; she suffered an open fracture of her nose and a concussion and had to be taken to the hospital. Seven participants, including representatives of Memorial, the local NGO "Mashr" and a reporter, were detained, despite the fact that the rally was legal. They were threatened, denied access to a lawyer, and some of them were not released until the next day. They were also fined by a specially summoned judge, but not handed a copy of the verdict.
Read Memorial's account of the incident

Call to action:
CAN considers these incidents deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable. Ekaterina Sokirianskaia ("Katya") has been our first partner from the region, starting an ongoing cooperation soon after CAN was founded. Katya is a frequent guest at human rights panels and meetings in the US and Europe and repeatedly volunteered her time to speak at events organized by CAN. She is also a talented scholar whose published sociological and political research has won her recognition in international academia. Instead of pursuing her academic career abroad, Katya has been teaching students at local universities in addition to her work as a human rights advocate. Many of us have met Katya and are outraged that a grown man would hit this slight, soft-spoken and unfailingly polite young woman in the face - in broad daylight and in the middle of town, with police all around. We are also very concerned about the illegal arrest of several of Katya's colleagues and the fines imposed on them.

Following a request by Memorial, we ask all of you to send faxes to the offices of the President and Prosecutor of Ingushetia. Katya herself has repeatedly assured us that the authorities in this small republic take international attention and criticism very seriously and that fax campaigns are the most effective way to make an impression on them.

Fax your letter to Ingushetia:
Please download the Russian version of the letter, fill in your name, location and date, print it out and sign it. You should then fax it to:

The President of Ingushetia, M. Zyazikov:
011 7 495 334 2039 (from the US) or 00 7 495 334 2039 (from Europe)

and the Prosecutor of Ingushetia, M. Kalimatov:
011 7 8732 22 15 76 (from the US) or 00 7 8732 22 15 76 (from Europe)
011 7 8732 22 52 01 (from the US) or 00 7 8732 22 52 01 (from Europe)
011 7 8732 22 17 24 (from the US) or 00 7 8732 22 17 24 (from Europe)

To read the English version of the letter, download it here. We would like to keep track of how many faxes we can generate with your help, so please let us know at can@chechnyaadvocacy.org once you have faxed your letters!