Human rights activists held a picket in Chechnya against kidnapping of Chilaev

On May 25, members of the "Civil Assistance" committee on assistance to refugees and of the  "Memorial" human rights centre held a picket in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, protesting against the kidnapping of Bulat Chilaev, employee of the "Civil Assistance" medical program.

The picket was held from 2 to 3 p.m. in the centre of the city near the monument to Akhmad Kadyrov. About forty people took part in the picket. The picketers were holding 21 portraits of Bulat Chilaev and the following posters: "Thousands of people have disappeared in Chechnya. Where are they?" and "Stop kidnappings!," "We demand investigation of every kidnapping!," "People in masks, who are they?"

May 25 is day of graduates, and a lot of young people were on the square at the time. Local and foreign mass media journalists were also present. The ChR state TV channel did not sent its team although a notification on the planned event had been sent there in advance. The militiamen present on the square did not interfere with the picketers.

The reason for holding the picket was kidnapping of Bulat Chilaev and Aslan Israilov who had been detained and taken to an unknown place by officers of unidentified power authorities on April 9, 2006 at the exit from the village of Sernovodsk. Nothing is known about their location so far.

A more general aim of the picket was to attract attention of the authorities and the public towards continuing kidnappings on the territory of Chechnya, towards lack of investigation of such crimes, and towards the atmosphere of impunity reigning in the republic, runs the message of the "Memorial" HRC obtained by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.