In Berlin, human rights defenders from three NCFD regions speak of problems of extremism and cronyism

Berlin hosted the discussion "Life in Northern Caucasus", which brought together human rights activists from the three regions of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) Dagestan, Chechnya, and Kabardino-Balkaria. The human rights activists described the problems of extremism, cronyism, fabrication of criminal cases and actions of officials. This was reported by Elena Denisenko, the staff member of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the discussion was organized by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. The organizers of the event hoped to get more detailed information about current events in the republics of Northern Caucasus and to know what the work of civil society activists includes.

According to Elena Denisenko, in total, the discussion, held on September 11, was attended by more than 80 persons. The number of participants included representatives of the Heinrich Boell Foundation, journalists, residents of Berlin, and a lot of students from the Russian Federation, studying in Germany.

"They were interested to know what is happening in Northern Caucasus. In particularly, they were interested to know about the situation in Chechnya. Many persons have never heard of Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. When I spoke of Dagestan, the audience began to ask me questions, for example, how residents of the republic treat Russian people, whether the leaders of the region gave any instructions concerning the appearance of schoolgirls, and how Georgia is relevant to the situation in Northern Caucasus," the staff member of the HRC "Memorial" said.

According to Elena Denisenko, she briefly described the situation in Dagestan. "In my speech, I focused on several moments. I told the audience that we have immigrants from Georgia, in particular, from the village of Chantliskur. The immigrants have no citizenship for many reasons. Some of them till present have no birth certificates. Passports of some of them were issued illegally. Besides, I have told the audience that there are facts of kidnappings in the republic and there are facts of fabrication of criminal cases. There are many cases where lawyers are not allowed to visit their clients," the human rights activist stated.

Participants of the discussion from Kabardino-Balkaria and Chechnya raised a number of questions. Azret-Ali Afov, a Kabardino-Balkaria human rights defender, a representative of the "Red Cross", described the problem of cronyism. He has also noted that extremism in the region is becoming more common.

Elena Denisenko has emphasized that the discussions raised the issue on the activities of human rights defenders themselves. "All the participants have stressed that the human rights activities in Northern Caucasus represent a number of risks. Majority of human rights defenders is being suspected of treason and espionage for the West. It has been noted that in most cases, a person comes to human rights defenders only after he or she visited a number of state law enforcement agencies without any positive result," Elena Denisenko said.

Azret-Ali Afov, the staff member of the "Red Cross", who took part in the discussion, and Fatima Gudieva, the representative of the Chechen organization "Denal", were unavailable for comments.