Human rights groups to present observations on Chechen presidential election

On September 1, 2004, at 13.00, in the Independent Press Center (Moscow, Tverskoi Boulevard 20) the International Helsinki Federation, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the "Caucasian Knot" Media shall hold a press-conference "Presidential Election in Chechnya 2004 – New and Improved" based on the results of their joint mission to Chechnya and Ingushetia.

In the fall of the previous year, the International Helsinki Federation, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and the "Caucasian Knot" all closely monitored the situation around the election of the President of the Chechen Republic (see relevant volume: Chechnya 2003: Political Process through the Looking Glass). While we realized from the very start that the October 5 presidential election could not be legitimate – conducting elections in the course of an armed conflict goes against the international standards on free and fair elections – for a certain very limited time period we did hope that the election would be at least somewhat competitive. However, those hopes were doomed to fail. All the alternative candidates were effectively eliminated by the Kremlin, and Akhmad-Khadji Kadyrov was "elected" President –elected by the Kremlin and not by the Chechen people. At the time, we stated that the appointee-President's power would not be viewed as legitimate by the Chechens, and his dubitable election could not bring any stability to the region torn by the conflict, could not assist to the resolution of the Chechen crisis. President Kadyrov lived less than one year after his inauguration – on May 9 2004 he was killed in a terrorist attack in the capital of Chechnya, Grozny. After his death, the federal center could have declared an emergency situation in the republic, thus finally bringing into the legal framework the emergency that had been in place de-facto for over four years. Instead, the federal authorities continued insisting that the situation in the republic was normal, and that the "return to peaceful life" was continuing. New presidential election was scheduled for August 29, 2004. And Moscow immediately identified its new favorite – Alu Alkhanov, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Republic, loyal to the Kadyrovs clan. His victory was certain already long before the voting day.

The participants of the press-conference Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation), Tanya Lokshina (Programs Director of the Moscow Helsinki Group), and Grogory Shvedov (head of the "Caucasian Knot") shall share their observations and views on how Alu Alkhanov's "election" is different from that of Akhmad Khadji Kadyrov, how the situation in Chechnya has been developing during the period between the two presidential elections, and what the current perspectives for the resolution of the conflict are.