Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire Calls For Justice For Natasha Estemirova

international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Saturday July 18, 2009 23:50 by Mairead Maguire - Peace People

Bring to justice the killers of Natasha and Anna Politkovskaya

Natasha Estemirova was killed on Wednesday last in Chechnya for telling the truth about Russia's dirty war there

I am deeply saddened to hear of the killing of Natasha Estemirova in Chechnya last Wednesday 15th July, 2009.

I had the pleasure of meeting Natasha when in 2007 I presented her, on behalf of the organization ‘Reach All women in War,’ the first annual Anna Politkovskaya Award for her outstanding courage and bravery, in seeking and telling the truth about the torture, disappearances and murder of civilians in the war in Chechnya.

Natasha was a quiet, gentle and compassionate woman, but when she spoke about her work for human rights and about her passion for justice for those who were suffering in Chechnya, she showed her deep and firm commitment to speaking truth to power without timidity or fear. She was indeed a true human rights defender who gave hope to many in Chechnya and in other parts of the world where often those with a voice to speak do not speak. Natasha had a voice to speak and she raised it loudly, but for this she paid a high price.

She was a dear friend and close worker with Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian Journalist who, like Natasha, was killed because she too described and reported the truth about the ‘dirty war’ in Chechnya.

I join my voice to many others, in calling upon the Russian Government to bring justice, both to those who killed Natasha Estemirova and those who have ordered her murder. I also join with many others, in calling upon the Russian Government to bring to justice the killers of Anna Politkovskaya,for whose murder three years on, justice has not been done.

I also call upon world leaders, as well as demanding justice for Natasha and Anna, to do everything they can to protect journalists and human rights defenders who work in areas of war and conflict, and who speak out on behalf of the victims and without whose work of truthtelling the world would be a more dangerous and unjustice place for us all.

Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Laureate) www.peacepeope.com

44(o)28 90 663465