19:01, 28 September 2004

Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center registered

The Department of the Russian Ministry of Justice in Kabardino-Balkaria has given a registration certificate to the Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center today, the head of the center, Valery Khatazhukov, said to the Caucasian Knot correspondent. Earlier the Department denied the human rights center the registration twice under various pretexts. The denials were appealed in court, but were declared legal.

In the words of Mr Khatazhukov, the Department of Justice has to register the center this time since documents for the registration were submitted by Lev Ponomarev, head of the All-Russian Movement for Human Rights, to the Department of the Russian Ministry of Justice in Moscow. The Kabardino-Balkarian Human Rights Center is a branch of this movement. "This even isn't ordinary under conditions of our political regime. It can be even called a phenomenon. No public movement acting as an opponent to the authorities at least in some questions remain in the republic. They all have been smashed or closed through the obedient judicial system," Mr Khatazhukov said.

Author: Lyudmila Maratova, CK correspondent

Source: Caucasian Knot