OSCE/PERMANENT COUNCIL: STATEMENT ON MURDER OF

UNCLAS STATE 111457

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OSCE PGOV PHUM PREL RU
SUBJECT: OSCE/PERMANENT COUNCIL: STATEMENT ON MURDER OF
INGUSHETIAN OPPOSITION/HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST, MAKSHARIP
AUSHEV


1. Post is authorized to make the following statement at the
October 27 meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council:

Begin text:

Thank you, Madam Chair

The United States was shocked and profoundly saddened by the
brutal murder of Ingushetian opposition and member of a
government human rights council Maksharip Aushev, who was
killed and whose companion was wounded when they were shot
with automatic weapons fire from a passing vehicle in the
neighboring republic of Kabardino-Balkaria October 25. We
extend our deepest sympathies to his family.

This murder comes just more than a year after Mr. Aushev's
friend and colleague, reporter Majomed Yevloyev, was killed
while in police custody in Ingushetia and is the latest in an
escalation of violence and intimidation directed at human
rights and opposition activists and others in Russia. Mr.
Aushev is at least the fourth human rights figure killed in
the North Caucasus within the last four months. In July,
Natalya Estemirova, who documented abductions and killings in
Chechnya, was forced into a car and found dead on the
roadside hours later. In August, Zarema Sadulayeva, and her
husband, who together ran a children's charity, were found
dead in the truck of their car after being seized in her
office. Also in August, journalist Abdulmalik Akhmedilov, a
journalist at the Dagenstani publication Khakikat, "The
Truth" was killed in his car.

We urge the Russian government to conduct immediate,
thorough, and transparent investigations in order to find,
prosecute, and bring to justice all those responsible for
these heinous murders. We note that both Ingush President
Yevkurov and Russia's Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika have
proclaimed that they would personally oversee the
investigation. We hope to hear more from them as this
investigation continues. We likewise call on the Russian
Federation to publicly condemn all violence perpetrated
against human rights defenders and journalists. As Secretary
Clinton said in Moscow this month, "a society cannot be truly
open when those who stand up and speak out are murdered and
people cannot trust the rule of law when killers act with
impunity."

Thank you.


End text.
CLINTON