Daily Journal: Coming Back

The Memorial human rights center, which suspended its work in Chechnya after the murder of Natalya Estemirova on July 15, announced its return to the republic. This happened during the ceremony of presenting the Andrei Sakharov Prize to Russian human rights activists in Strasbourg. The head of the Memorial Human Rights Center Oleg Orlov said that now experts from the Moscow Helsinki Group, as well as human rights activists from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, will now monitor the situation in Chechnya and provide assistance to people who have applied, together with the center’s staff. Four Memorial offices in Chechnya, where 27 permanent employees worked, are reopening. According to Memorial representatives, this decision was influenced by the attention to the situation of other human rights organizations, including international ones, as well as the appeal to Memorial in November by more than 80 Russian non-profit organizations with a call to return to Chechnya. Several of these organizations have already united to create a monitoring mission in the republic to assist the LC.