Anna Politkovskaya- A letter of Protest to President Putin
international |
crime and justice |
other press 
Wednesday October 11, 2006 20:48
by Chris Murray - The Unmanageables
IWMF- Text of Letter to Putin.
Anna Politkovskya was founded murdered in her Apartment on October the 7th
2006. She had been shot. She had covered the Chechynan War and exposed Russian and
Chechnyan crimes. She had been poisoned and had vowed to continue her writing.
Today the International Women In Media Foundation which had awarded her a
Courage in Journalism award sent a letter of Protest to Russian President Vladimir
Putin.
The IWMF today sent a letter to Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, on behalf of Russian
Journalist Anna Politskyaya, Politskaya , a 2002 recipient of of the IWMF 'Courage in Journalism'
award was found murdered in her building on October7th.
"The need to risk is part of the Profession here" she wrote in her 'Courage Award'
acceptance speech, "If you are tired and cannot take the risk anymore , you have to leave.
As for me, I am not tired Yet"
The full text of the protest letter to Vladimir Putin is available at:
http://www.iwmf.org/press/9499
RIP Anna Politkovskaya.
Comments (28 of 28)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28Children Of Chechen Spetzoperations:- http://www.tjetjenien.dk/baggrund/politkovskaya.html
There is Wiki on Anna too and a photograph:- http://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiAnna_Politkovskaya
(Reuters covered the Assassination on the 7th of October- I cannot find the link, apologies)
Brave, principled, and noble. It's worth writing to Putin to let him know that people are watching. I do hope that your letter is only being diplomatic in asking him to search for her murders, as, in all likelihood, he knows exactly who they are, and knew about her killing in advance.
The Murder of one of the few Journalists to go into the Chechen area to report
has left a vast silence on coverage of Russian foreign policy in that region.
Putin 'vowed' to track down her killers.
The link to the 'Western Silence' on the violent death of a woman journalist
who put the search for truth above her own safety is here:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,,1892226,00.html
When a woman journalist was mudered in Ireland there was a public outcry,
The Irish Government has not commented on the murder of Anna Politkovskaya.
I saw on the news that Anna Politkovskya had been murdered and it reminded me of Martin O'Hagan a journalist in Northern Ireland murdered by drug dealers associated with Loyalist paramilitaries. Martin's murder, although much the same as Veronica Guerin's has not been investigated remotely as thoroughly and stinks of RUC collusion/cover up to protect the assissins. Spare a thought for his family and friends who will never recover from their loss.
RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?idarticle=18329
(Ching Cheong.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk
(Leigh Holmwood on the asassination of John Lloyd by US Marines)
RSF: Reporteurs Sans Frontieres.
IWMF: International Women In Media Foundation.
Sign the Ching Cheong petition, he is being tried behind closed doors and faces execution.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3104,56095....html
http://www.guardian.co.uk
Reports that the last article by Anna Politkovskya's was printed
yesterday in a Russian Newspaper, detailing tortures by pro-moscow Chechen
militia.
also it is reported that the European Court of Human Rights ruled
that Russia was responsible for the killing of five Chechen during a cleansing
operation in Grozny in 2000.
Feduciary reparations apparently.
On the same page, the result of the coroner's inquest in to the killing of Terry Lloyd.
It is odd that in the over 200 murders of people who worked in the media in what was the old Soviet Union since 1990 only certain ones make the headlines in the West. Invariably these are the tiny percentage of reporters who have been opposing the Russian state and never the majority who were murdered for exposing the brazen robbery of national assets and resources often at the instigation of outside financial interests.
The article on the murder of Anna Politkovskyaya comprises a letter of protest by the
IWMF, which has 4, 000 women and men journalists globally. That is the context
in which it was written.
The murder of a woman who went into Chechyna when a lot of her male colleagues
sat behind desks is different , and to all intents and purposes was ignored politically.
The people who were muderered in the regime from 1990-to present deserve another thread
which you might write.
Putin came to power as the architect of the Chechen repression. It may have escaped many
peoples attention but at the time of publication of her final article Moscow in the form of the
Balkan's contact group has been driving anti-secession campaigns against not alone
Chechyna, but Kosovo and Georgia.
In reply to Sean Ryan, on Martin O Hagan, you were correct that is another thread.
Contextual meaning escapes many people on these threads.
It was not alone a report of the letter of protest to Putin but an honarium to someone who
bravely put the needs of a people before the machinations of a growing empire.
It deserves therefore to be read and understood in the context in which it was written.
If it provokes discussion, well and good. If it provokes another piece on another thread
well and good.
The Kosovo Cantact Group info is at
http://wwww.guardian.co.uk/kosovo
Anna Politkovskyaya is survived by two children. RIP.
Who funds the IWMF?
is like indymedia, voluntary. creating voice- how nice of you to ask.
I believe that Anna was asassinated on Putin's Birthday, a great coincidence.
Though apparently he condemned the assassination because it is politically bad.(for him)
The word amongst the reporters and activists is that the killing was a contract,
by mercenaries. Anna Politkovskyaya was in her own words - a pariah.
Her last article was published in the review section of today's Guardian.
It's beautifully written.
The issue of the Moscow suppression of secession in Kosovo was a story,not
covered by Politkovskya but highlighted by her death.,because the Kosovo Contact
Group which has intimate dealings with preventing secession in Kosovo is Moscow- led
and may give Georgia and Chechnya ideas.
The IWMF set the letter of protest for immeadiate release because of the implications
of a writer being shot. The direct repurcssion of which has been to cast a light on
the secession issue and the province of Chechyna.
The link is: http://www.iwmf.org
http://www.guardian.co.uk
The review section has the article detailing how the local police dealt with a be-heading
crime scene reported by Anna Politkovskya. Eye witness accounts of the be-heading,
mobile phone photos and the removal of the body to have the head sticthed back on
followed by the'investigation' by the local police of the 'renewed 'scene' is the last
piece of journalism by that woman. The accompanying piece is also good.
"Politkovskyaya wrote Trofimov was an 'izgoy', in Putin's Russia,
telling the truth is a flaw incompatible with the status of a journalist"
Izgoy- A Russian term for someone who is rendered an outsider by a
flaw which makes them inadequate for their social position.
The IWMF has on their site a copy of the letter of protest for signing,
or a field wherin you can submit your own letter of protest which will
be forwarded to Mr Putin.
http://www.iwmf.org
We come from a country where two of our journalists were murdered
for what they have written, Veronica Guerin and Martin O Hagan.
We know that these deaths cause changes in society and provoke discussion.
If anyone wants to send a personal letter of protest or look at the vigil
preparations please do.
(it's called solidarity or empathy).
From : Observor, and Index against Censorship:
Five years after O Hagan Murder: no charges and Paul Goggin's( - NI Minister )did
not afford him protections, the Article is at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/story/0,,194....html
http://www.indexonline.org @Impunity for Journalist Killers, a Worldwide Problem.
Worldwide Campaign for Justice for Politkovskaya: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article19163
am including Brad Will here too, because he did the same job without a mainstream media
card- indeed the Media- apart from the Guardian and RSF ignored both the murder of the
filmaker/activist and the Ruiz/Fox put-down of the APPO and the disappearance of
two editors and an online editor in the Mexican region in the last 11 months:
http://www.friendsofbradwill.org
There are currentl many journalists imprisoned in Iraq , In China, In Cuba.
It does not matter what card they carry but that they are protected as writers.
Coming up: Google financing Republicans in Long-term US campaign:
Their interest :Freedom Of Speech on the internet.
Mc Dowell's Privacy and Defamation Laws. (in which he criminalises Journalists
for certain types of News-Gathering and creates a tighter relationship between the
State and the Press).
I tried the guardian link three times and it's not working, can anyone help)?????
Isn't it a bit ironic for the US and its allies to condemn this journalist's murder when they themselves killed 16 people in a deliberate attack on a television station during their war against Yugoslavia.
Nobody in Russia believes that Putin had anything to do with Anna's murder, by the way. Plenty of journalists have been killed by gangsters before as well as since Putin came to power and while Anna was widely regarded by the West (for obvious reasons) she really wasn't considered very important in her own country. Her death is a tragedy of course but nothing particularly sinister about it.
Its quite clear that no-one believes that Putin was responsible, its abundantly clear
throughout the comments and links that it has cast a negative light on the operations
of the Moscow based Kosovo contacts group which is opposed to independence in many
former allies/satellites of Russia.
The death of Politkovskaya brought that work and its operations in Georgia and Chechyna
into public scrutiny, the link is in the comments.
There was also a differentiation made between advocate groups for manistream media
groups and those who advocate for writers who do not posess a media /journalism
card.
If you took the time to read NYC indymedia and RSF it would be clear that the only
groups which advocates for all writers and shares condemnations of murders
all over is rsf- which includes a petition on press freedom in Cuba.
other groups which have condemned journalist murder and imprisonment are
International Women in Media Foundation- these groups do represent writers
around the world and people join up from different countries.
At the moment there are women and men journalists imprisoned in Iraq, Cuba
Afghanistan, all these imprisoned are being advocated by international organisations,
RSF have been relaying information on the secretive trial of Ching Cheong in China.
There are links and articles on the Brad Will storyies and above in the comments.
The google problem in China and its extension into the US political System is
covered in the Guardian and the problems of privacy and defamation bill is in two
articles on this site. Will provide links later, this was an update comment with links.
Keep up the good work, Chris; we need to be informed of how dissent is stiffled and put down. No comparison is possible, but perhaps readers might like to read the put-down to my comment under 'Israel's Operation Autumn Cloud'. No Lefty wrote this; this was done by someone with the clear intent of personalising the idea that I suggested, someone with a simple bog-level schoolboy grudge, too egotistical to keep his or herself out of the fray. Probably also envious because they do not possess the personal freedom themselves to write letters or protest publicly. Anyway, it's a disgrace.
Have to agree with 'Lefty' on this one.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1998834.ece
claims that he had info on Politkovskyas death on the day of the poisoning?
He was linked to the Chechen Movement for independence-
Would that be the same as the Chechen movement for terrorism?
.
I'm glad you agree
It is just six months since Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow.
The pictures show her diary cover and the newly minted president of Chechnya,
Who is a Putin Loyalist . There are few images of the ceremony, but they were rather
startling with Kadyrov on a black horse or on a podium surrounded by loyalists
who carried unsheathed swords throughout the ceremony.
The info is on;-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramzan_Kadyrov
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/05/europe/web0405-c...h.php
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/articles2...4.ece
Putin graces the front of the Guardian today and in recent times was offered an
opinion piece within the analysis section of the Guardian where he waxed lyrical
on the future challenges of democracy- (the sabre rattling is for the international
political community which includes the UN (Putin supports Serbia; and of course
the weapons conflict with GW Bush)-
The second comment above containsa link to Politkovskaya's Chechen diary
which delineates the effect of continous war on the Children of the Chechen region,
in which the attempt to breathe and enjoy childhood has been stolen from
at leastone generation who daily witness the forward thinking policies of outlaw
regimes where beheading and public hanging is a not unknown occurence.
Other reading includes ;- 'Putin's Russia' which has a chronicle of;
The Beslan siege.
The Nord-est siege.
The problems with press freedom in an Oligarchy.
Diary od Politkovskaya
Accession of Kadryov
You are right that Guardian story is very interesting. It dominates the frontpage with two full inside pages having a go at Putin, and this with very little happening really that would cause them to highlight Russia so much? Don't get me wrong I like Politskaya as well, and Litvinenko, but I think definitely somebody somewhere has it in for the Russian government in a way that could turn violent this year. I say this year because if this is propoganda against Putin then it would only be usefull before he leaves office next Spring. A colour revolution maybe? or?.......anyways just speculating but I bet I'm right! lol..... .
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/80791
The relations between Putin's Russia and the globe are not simple, there are numerous
conflicting territorial interests which are played out in kosovo/Chechyna and to a
quieter extent Georgia.
The above link has further links to the geo-political issues that are involved in
the Kosovo Independence movement which is being guided by the UN
under the chairmanship of Martii Athassari (ex-Finnish premier)
In that situation Putin ,through the agency of the Kosovo contacts group is
opposed to the secession and independence of Kosovo and is wholly
in support of the Serbian territorial issue. The Muscovite Kosovo contacts
group are Putin loyalists and there is a headache down the line for both
Russia and the UN in terms of future friendships in Kosovo- be it
allied to the EU or to ex-members of the soviet block.
Meantime there is a missile crisis brewing between Putin and the US
and Putin has accused the US of aggression. (will add in link when I find it)
The Chechen issue is again about loyalty (gas and Oil) and not about
secession or self-determination and Putin is implicated in facilitating
the accession of Kadyrov who has come to power after a vicious campaign
which has seen many murders and civil rights abuses.
The links to those stories are largely in the Politkovskaya archives (google)
as very few Western or Muscovite journalists went into Chechnya during the
last few years. Politkovskaya had developed links and trusted contacts
to get her in and out and though she faced violence in Chechnya, she was murdered
in her apartment in Moscow.
The Ukraine Gas issue is huge for Europe politically and it seems that
business must be done with Putin or his successor.
The G8 looks interesting politically this year, because most of the
leaders are at cross purposes over their interests in the far east also.
Putin and Bush are have problems.(missiles)
Putin and the EU are having problems.(Kosovo)
The US and the EU have problems over food production and trade.(they are attempting to hammer
out a trade agreement in food production which will take us to 2015.
It is almost eleven months since the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, mainstream globalised
outlets (largely based in America) are reporting this morning the arrests of 10 people
as part of the ongoing investigation of the murder.
Fox and Forbes are leading the reportage.
At the time of writing the above piece with links to the Reporters without Borders site and the
International Women in Media Federation the main thrust of campaigns for truth in the
reporter's death were to protest at the treatment of journalists who criticised the Putin regime.
Anna Politkovskaya was not alone a journalist regularly travelling to Chechyna ,
but a woman writer who recounted the evidence of her eyes in a discomiting manner, that was both
honest and direct, she was also one of the Negotiators in the Nord-Est theatre siege
and a witness to the Beslan Massacre.
The first link in the piece above entitled, 'Children of Special Operations', which described
the effect of war on the young in Chechyna is an example of her writing, along with the
book :- Putin's Russia (updated after her death to include her diary and journalese on
the Beslan siege), are worth reading again. Putin probably gave her the best accolade
as a writer, in denying knowledge of her death by delineating her 'handle with care' role,
he stated that she was more trouble dead than alive and he was correct in his estimation,
the murder highlighted not alone the seccession murky politics of the Kosovo Contacts
Group but the bravery of someone who went into Chechyna and photoed the bodies
of beheading victims ,and then went back in the headscarf of the Chechen women to
crime scenes to find the bodies returned to the crime scene with heads carefully stiched
back on and invvestigations beginning at that point.
Anna Politkovskaya trod a fine line between her critical honesty and the poltical
environment which surrounded her, justice for Anna Politkovskaya involves her
family getting answers to the crime and not necessarily the globalised press
using the murder as a convenience to highlight the vagaries of the Putin Regime,
which lessens the impact of her achievement to a tool to further the ongoing
foreign policy rows between the US and Russia evinced in the missile shield
debacle (which the US has hoped to site within the EU borders of Poland)
http://www.rsf.org
http://www.iwmf.org
Included here is a you tube link to an interview with Litvinenko, who accused Putin of
the murder. The broadsheets are going with the assassination ordered from abroad to
discredit the Kremlin angle and the Novaya Gazeta (she worked for them) are giving
a guarded welcome.The film rights to the story are bought too, so the issue of
Chechyna and international misdoings shall have a new Gloss. Best thing to do is read
the woman's writing. The links are in the first comment attached to the original article.
Guardian:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2157067,00
Litvienenko (RIP) :- http://youtube.com/watch?v=YB8-4WRpLE8
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...67914
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...67914\2696
http://www.novayagazeta.ru
(cant preview this with photo, so will re-add the youtube link, if it doesn't work)
Politkovskaya
Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the murder of Journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The article
above was based on a letter of protest by a women's media federation who had written to
Vladimir Putin to protest the danger that she had lived in and to exhort him to protect
journalists in Russia. There have been ten arrests in the last two months, Novaya Gazeta
has queried the figure and asked if the murder investigation has stooped at ten, but there
has been little international coverage on the state of the investigation for a while.
Since the murder investigation 8 women in particular have faced specific dangers and
threats and these are summarised in bio on the IWMF site:-
Lydia Cacho [Mexico]
Serkhalem Fasil [Ethiopa, arrested and beaten whilst pregnant]
[Iraq]
Hada Ahmed
Shata al Awsy
Sahir Issa
Alaa Majeed
Zanieb Obeid
Banadil Sarhan
The state of safety for journalists is treated of in:- http://www.rsf.org
http://www.iwmf.org
Anna Politkovskaya is on Wiki/Google and in book form [Putin's Russia has been extended to
include the Nord-Est Siege and the Beslan massacre]
The Children of Chechnya;- http://www.tjetjenien.dk/baggrund/politkovskaya.html
" Anna was known for her fearless coverage of the conflict and human rights situation in Chechnya, and had thus
been detained, threatened and even poisoned previously on a number of occasions. She was a journalist for the
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and had written extensively on abuses such as violence in the army, corruption
in state structures, and police brutality."
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/anna-politkovska...bars/
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.