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Es ist eine Schande!
Vor mehr als zwei Jahren wurde die russische Journalistin Anna Politkovskaja - mutig über Justizskandale und Kriegsverbrechen aus Putins Rußland berichtend - ermordet (da hatte sie schon einige, bis heute allesamt unaufgeklärte Einschüchterungs- und Mordversuche hinter sich).
Am Montag wurde nun ihr ehemaliger Rechtsbeistand, der Menschenrechtsanwalt Stanislaw Markelow auf offener Strasse erschossen - zusammen mit der Nowaja Gaseta-Reporterin Anastasja Baburowa.
Es ist bezeichnend für Rußland, dass im Umfeld von zwei wichtigen Justizentscheidungen (seit November läuft der Politkovskaja-Prozess und die vorzeitige Haftentlassung eines Kriegsverbrechers) mutige Fürsprecher der Opfer und unerschrockene Berichterstatter sterben müssen - weil sie fürsprechen und Bericht erstatten.
Es ist mindestens genauso bezeichnend, dass just in dieser Zeit der sächsische Ministerpräsident Stanislaw Tillich den "Sächsischen Dankorden" verleiht. Jedes Wort über diesen Feigling ist eigentlich zu viel - sich ohne Rückgrat und Gewissen zum Anputzer machen zu lassen.......
Nicht vergessen darf man dagegen den kleinen Mut der kleinen Leute. Als der Dachdecker Yevgeny Kolesov im Radio hörte, das Gericht habe angeblich auf die Bitte der Geschworenen hin beschlossen, den Politkovskaja-Prozess unter Ausschluss der Presse zu führen, da platzte dem Geschworenen der Kragen. Er schreibt eine SMS an den Radiosender Echo Moskvy - einem der wenigen unabhängig berichtenden - und gibt ein Interview über all das, was im Prozessverlauf falsch lief: dass die Geschworenen instrumentalisiert wurden, dass gegen den Willen der Mehrheit die Presse ausgeschlossen wurde!
Daraufhin wird er zwar aus der Gruppe der Geschworenen geworfen, der Prozess aber für die Presse geöffnet - außer für Journalisten von Reuters und Echo Moskvy.
Ein kleiner Erfolg wenigstens durch großen Mut!
Rasch2000pro says:
Doris und Alex says:
mesipluspro says:
Als ich von der Verleihung in der Zeitung las, konnte ich auch nur mit Kopf schütteln.
Aber wen interessiert das schon?
Doris und Alex replies:
We are not afraid
The killers have no fear because they know they will not be punished. But neither are their victims afraid, because when you defend others you cease to fear.
On 19 January in the centre of Moscow Anastasia Baburova, a journalist with Novaya gazeta, and the lawyer Stanislav Markelov were shot dead. The killer stood behind them and aimed at the back of the head. He had no reason to fear. Not one such public political assassination has yet led to a trial or conviction.
Stanislav Markelov was an exceptional lawyer.
He took on hopeless and dangerous cases. A Moscow attorney, he was constantly in Chechnya, representing the interests of the victims of extra-judicial punishment and torture. He also dealt with cases elsewhere of those who had been attacked by Russia’s fascist groups.
Stanislav defended those who were killed or humiliated by the State. He was a friend to our newspaper and its legal advisor. He was responsible for the civil cases of Anna Politkovskaya, defending those she wrote about. He represented our journalists in court. Stanislav was attorney for the family of Igor Domnikov, an editor with Novaya gazeta who was murdered in 2000, and tried to force the authorities to open criminal proceedings against those who were behind that killing and who remain, to this day, at liberty.
Anastasia Baburova only joined Novaya gazeta in October 2008.
She very much wanted to work for the newspaper and decided to investigate crimes committed by Russia’s Nazi groups. She had very little time to do her job.
In essence, Stanislav and Anastasia were simply decent people who could not tolerate what the majority in our country has accepted. That was enough for the lords and masters of Russia to issue their verdict, for those who are allowed to kill in our country.
These were the latest killings of those who did not fit within the present system. A 34-year-old lawyer who defended Chechens against Russia’s military, and defended Russia’s soldiers from their corrupt commanders. He spoke out against the neo-Nazis who are supported by the regime and defended Russia’s anti-fascists whom the regime sends to prison. Markelov defended journalists and rights activists and was himself a defender of human rights. As a consequence in the elite milieu of the capital’s attorneys he was regarded as an outsider.
25-year-old Nastya Baburova was also a romantic rebel, an anarchist who took part in the anti-fascist movement and the Dissenters’ marches.
It was no accident that she found herself in such company: she quite consciously chose that path in life. In the eyes of the regime and ordinary people, who only want to keep out of trouble and quietly survive the present regime, Nastya’s choice also made her an outsider. Therefore few people in our country could die as she did, struggling to apprehend the assassin. In the office in front of which Stas and Nastya were shot people heard gunfire and even understood immediately what had happened. They were afraid to go out, however, or even to glance through the window.
The motive behind Markelov’s murder could be found in almost any of his cases. These include that of Budanov. Stanislav Markelov was demanding that new charges be brought against ex-colonel Budanov, just released on parole, for the rape of Elza Kungayeva. The chances of success were quite high since the details of the rape that preceded her 2000 murder by Budanov are recorded in the case materials.
It could well be that the former superiors and accomplices of “Cadet”, the policeman Lapin from the remote Khanti-Mansiysk region, were behind Monday’s killing. Lapin was eventually sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for the abduction, torture and murder of a Chechen lad Zelimkhan Murdalov. (Stanislav Markelov represented his parents in court.) Lapin’s superiors also took part in such abductions and torture sessions. Warrants were issued for their arrest several years ago but, supposedly, no one knows where they are.
The order to kill the lawyer could have come from Chechnya. Markelov with provocative bravery took on cases concerning the secret prisons built in the Kadyrov family’s native village of Tsentoria, where Chechens are tortured and killed.
After the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, with whom Stanislav Markelov was closely linked through North Caucasian affairs, we realised that more of our people ─ the newspaper’s journalists, lawyers and rights activists ─ could be next. After Anna was killed many people waited for the regime to speak clearly and take decisive action. What we actually heard would have better not been said. On Monday the list of our losses was continued by Markelov and Baburova. It’s no surprise. We are not the only ones to pick up the message being sent out by the regime: all the country’s fascist trash also understand it very clearly.
It was not by chance that Stanislav and Nastya had been friends for many years (she was only 25!) They were people who had an absolutely clear understanding of good and evil. Such abstractions acquire meaning when people act.
The killers have no fear because they know they will not be punished. But neither are their victims afraid, because when you defend others you cease to fear. Those today who are fearful are the people who keep out of trouble, trying to survive these bad times, when the bad times (for some reason) never seem to end.
Elena Milashina
21.01.2009
Doris und Alex says:
Nastya Baburova rang me sometime in mid-October last year. “Can I come to the paper to work?” “Of course. What’s up? Did they sack you?” “No, it’s just I want to be somewhere you can write normally ...”
It was then that we began to hear about the new Tesak case and the trial of the Ryno-Skachevsky band, which targeted foreigners and migrant workers, was just beginning [on 2 December they were found guilty of 20 murders]. So Nastya’s appearance was heaven-sent. She already knew the subject perfectly. Without exaggeration I can say that there are few people in all Russia who knew as much about our neo-Nazis, our anti-fascist movement and youth organisations, as she did. It was not, perhaps, so much a matter of knowledge and skills either. The majority of Russia’s professional journalists would have reacted dismissively: fascists, anti-fascists – don’t we have enough crazy people already? But Nastya realised that we must discuss and cover such themes.
Anastasia Baburova was in the year ahead of me at the Moscow University faculty of journalism. Nastya was also older than her classmates, however. She had come to Moscow from Sebastopol in the Crimea and first got a place at the prestigious Moscow Institute for International Relations. Soon she decided, however, that her future did not lie in diplomacy and transferred to us. Nastya studied for four and a half years at the university’s journalism faculty. And that speaks well of our teachers.
I won’t describe how we felt on Monday: students, journalists and all of us. “It can’t be true”, “it’s impossible” were words repeated again and again in half-hearted conversations. Probably this is the most terrible event I can recall. Because there’s no one to answer the questions ─ Why? What for? We are the ones who must find the answers.
Our last conversation was shortly before the New Year. Novaya gazeta had already closed for the vacation period and everyone was getting ready for the holidays (New Year, Christmas) ...
“Hi. I’ve got an article here. It’s very short.”
“Nastya, nobody’s at work now. It’s vacation time.”
“I understand that but someone must read it. It can’t wait.”
Ilia Donskykh
23.01.2009