Chechen organisation banned by Russia wants to register in Finland

Group reports on human rights violations of Chechen war

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An officially recognised position in Finland would be a great help for the activities of a civic organisation banned by Russia, says Oksana Chelysheva, a journalist who has focused on helping the victims of the war in Chechnya.
      The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society was banned in Russia, because courts found that its chairman, Stanislav Dmitriyevski had supported extremists.
     
The process of registering the friendship society, which was launched in December last year, is moving forward in Finland. The executive of the society includes the one resident of Finland, required for registration. She is Chelysheva's friend Iida Siimes. The society's address is currently on Bulevardi in Helsinki.
      Chelysheva, who was on a brief visit to Finland on Tuesday, is the head of Nizhni Novgorod Foundation for the Support of Tolerance, which was set up to replace the banned friendship society. Chelysheva says that the foundation has recently also come under pressure from Russian officials.
      According to Chelysheva, the problems stem from the civic initiative collecting information with the aim of making comparisons between the human rights violations that have taken place during the war in Chechnya and, for example, war crimes committed in the wars of the former Yugoslavia.
     
Chelysheva believes that she and Dmitriyevski will have to face criminal charges relating to the use of computer software copied without a licence. Officials conducted a raid in August, and took away computers that belonged to Dmitriyevski.
      Chelysheva fears that the investigation could have serious consequences for Dmitriyevski.
      The suspended sentence that was handed down for supporting extremism could turn into a real prison sentence after the new trial, which could send Dmitriyevski to a prison camp for four years, Chelysheva says.
      The Friendship Society, which primarily reported on victims of the fighting in Chechnya and human rights violations there, was not a large group. Chelysheva says that the new Tolerance Foundation has 11 members.
     
Russia itself put the small organisation into international headlines last Friday when Russian delegates walked out of a meeting organised in Warsaw by the Organisation on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
      The Russians were protesting the fact that Chelysheva was allowed to speak at the meeting held by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). She said that as they left, the Russian delegates even took the sign on their table indicating that they were from Russia with them.
      Speaking to the delegates from the OSCE countries and to representatives of many organisations, Chelysheva said in Warsaw that Russian officials are using the threat of terrorism and anti-terror legislation against civic society.
     
The representative of Portugal, which holds the EU Presidency, expressed regret over the Russian walkout. Portugal also noted that when the Friendship Society was banned in Russia, the EU praised the society as "one of the few remaining organisations in Russia that report on the human rights situations in Chechnya and the North Caucasus".
      Russia also reacted angrily when Finnish IT entrepreneur Mikael Storsjö opened a Chechen rebel website kavkazcenter.com on a Finnish server. The pages were shut down after discussions with Finnish officials.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Journalists complain of blow to Finnish freedom of expression; Chechen website back online (15.11.2004)
  Web operator: Chechen web pages were not illegal (20.10.2004)
  Russian call to Finland to block Chechen rebel web pages comes after proprietor has already shut down (12.10.2004)

Links:
  Kavkazcenter website

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