Kadyrov accuses "Memorial" of exaggerating the number of kidnappings in Chechnya

The annual number of kidnappings in Chechnya, cited by the Human Rights Center "Memorial", does not correspond to reality, states Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, but promises to check the information of the human rights activists if they provide him with a list of victims of kidnappings.

During a meeting of Kadyrov with foreign journalists, they, referring to the "Memorial", have cited the data to the effect that 91 persons disappeared in Chechnya last year. In response, the Chechen president has stated that "Memorial" is an organization financed from the West, which "does everything requested by those who pay".

He has also stated the "Memorial" gives an absolutely wrong information", since, according to Kadyrov, "the prosecutor's office simply transferred to the MoI all unresolved cases from the times of Ichkeria and the latter has, naturally, registered all these multiyear cases of disappearances", reports the IA "Novy Region".

"There have been cases when a person, having committed a crime in Chechnya, went abroad. His relatives filed applications about his disappearance in order to prevent his prosecution, but then he proves to be somewhere in Austria, Poland or Turkey", explains Kadyrov adding that, if provided with the family names of the kidnapped persons, "we shall visit their relatives and ask them, when and under what circumstances their relative disappeared". We have no such figure of kidnappings during the last year. These are old cases, from the past years", adds Kadyrov.

The human rights activists have refuted the Kadyrov's critics with perplexity. "This is ridiculous", Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Committee "Civil Assistance" and member of the board of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" and the Council on Human Rights under the RF President, has stated today.

"It is a complete ignorance about how the system of grants and the system of agreements with international organizations works. Nobody requests us anything. In particular, my project at the "Memorial" is funded by the bureau of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees. I receive no money, other than UN money. If Kadyrov considers this organization criminal let him state what offences it is involved in", says Gannushkina and adds that the civil society is not at fault if the Russian sponsors do not want to finance the human rights activity.

She connects the Kadyrov's statement with the fact that the Chechen authorities "do not like independent information coming from the republic's territory". "As regards the disappearances, we have lists of names. We do not obtain them from the MoI. We have applications from their relatives", says Gannushkina as cited by the "Interfax".