Translated material
Going instead
Human rights activists will morally support the Grozny-Moscow peace march
Chechen refugees, demanding an investigation into the abuses of the federal forces in Chechnya and the start of peace negotiations with Aslan Maskhadov, intend to move from a hunger strike to a more active form of protest. On August 1, several dozen peace supporters in the republic set off on a peace march. The action, announced as the “Grozny-Moscow Peace March,” will actually begin in Ingushetia, in one of the camps on the Chechen border. Delegates from Grozny intend to reach there from Chechnya without posters and slogans - so as not to tease the military. Moscow human rights activists will also support the march participants, most of whom, as it became clear during yesterday's press conference, do not intend to join the marchers.“We don’t know how many people will come,” says the chairman of the march’s organizing committee, human rights activist Alexander Lyuboslavsky, who voluntarily joined the protest hunger strike on July 3. - It is likely that 150-200 people. Even 12-year-old children are planning to go.” Lately, attempts have been made to convict Chechens participating in organized protests of having connections with separatists, who allegedly even finance their events. But in this case, the organizers specifically stipulate that no one pays the march participants anything.
Ideally, the participants intend to reach Moscow in order to hold a rally on Vasilievsky Spusk with the support of local human rights activists. Residents of Chechnya want to be received by Putin. But there is little hope for this, as well as for the fact that everyone will be able to reach the capital. “Exhausted people will go, absolutely unprepared, many after a hunger strike,” says Lyudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group. “Besides, we are afraid of provocations along the way.” Human rights activists hardly count on the support of the local population and doubt the loyalty of the police. “It is unknown whether any kind of sanction is required to simply walk along the road from one settlement to another,” say the organizers. So far, they have turned to Ombudsman Oleg Mironov for support, who has already written a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov with a request to at least not interfere with those walking.