27 February 2007, 22:34
CE Commissioner did not meet human rights activists in Chechnya and Ingushetia
Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner of the Council of Europe (CE) for Human Rights, who is for the second day touring North Caucasus, had no meetings with human rights defenders. Representatives of the leading NGOs of Chechnya and Ingushetia have informed the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot" about it.
"We need no special meeting with the European Commissioner. If we needed such, we would have asked to organize it," Madina Magomadova, chair of the "Chechnya Mothers" Public Organization and member of the Public Chamber of the Chechen Republic, has stated.
Human rights activists have explained that no Commissioner's representatives ever tried to contact them; they got no invitations to the meeting with Mr. Hammarberg and have no idea whether the meeting will ever take place.
In the words of Madina Magomadova, most probably, representatives of Chechen NGOs will meet Thomas Hammarberg at the international conference "Respect of Human Rights in the Chechen Republic: First Outcomes of Ombudsman's Work and Prospects for the Future."
Author: Vyacheslav Feraposhkin, CK correspondent
