Natalya Estemirova
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Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova (russian: Наталья Хусаиновна Эстемирова; 28 February 1958 – 15 July 2009) was a Russian
human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing cam ...
and board member of the Russian
human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
organization Memorial. Estemirova was abducted by unknown persons on 15 July 2009 around 8:30 a.m. from her home in
Grozny Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a po ...
, Chechnya, as she was working on "extremely sensitive" cases of human rights abuses in Chechnya."Russian activist Natalya Estemirova found dead"
''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'', 15 July 2009 Two witnesses reported they saw Estemirova being pushed into a car shouting that she was being abducted. Her remains were found with bullet wounds in the head and chest area at 4:30 p.m. in woodland away from the federal road "Kavkaz" near the village of Gazi-Yurt, Ingushetia.Kremlin tribute to dead activist
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, 16 July 2009


Biography

Born in
Kamyshlov Kamyshlov (russian: Камышло́в) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Pyshma River ( Ob's basin) at its confluence with the Kamyshlovka River. Population: History It was founded in 1668 Kamyshevsky ...
, Sverdlovsk Oblast to Russian and Chechen parents, Estemirova graduated with a history degree from Grozny University and taught history in a local high school until 1998. In 1991, she worked as a correspondent for the local newspapers ''The Voice'' and ''The Worker of Grozny''. While working on TV in Grozny, she filmed thirteen short documentaries about victims of the Russian punitive practices.Natalya Estemirova bio at Moscow-based Human Rights Online
/ref> She participated in the Organization of Filtration Camps Inmates as a press secretary. The widow of a Chechen policeman, she gathered evidence on
human rights violations Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
since the beginning of the
Second Chechen war The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 ...
in 1999, leaving her daughter in
Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...
with relatives. In 2000, she became a representative for the Memorial Human Rights Centre in her native Grozny.Estemirova biography
''Caucasian Knot'', Memorial
computer translation
/ref> She visited many hospitals in Chechnya and Ingushetia, taking hundreds of photographs of child victims of the war. Estemirova was a frequent contributor to the independent Moscow newspaper '' Novaya Gazeta'' and the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
news website Kavkazsky Uzel. Estemirova received the Right Livelihood Award as a representative of ''Memorial'' at a ceremony in the Swedish parliament building in 2004. Along with
Sergey Kovalyov Sergei Adamovich Kovalyov (also spelled Sergey Kovalev; russian: link=no, Сергей Адамович Ковалёв; 2 March 1930 – 9 August 2021) was a Russian human rights activist and politician. During the Soviet period he was a diss ...
, chairman of Memorial, she was awarded the Robert Schuman Medal by the
Group of the European People's Party The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of Member of the European Parliament, deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes ...
in 2005.Robert Schuman Medal awarded to Estemirova and Sergey Kovalev
,
Group of the European People's Party The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of Member of the European Parliament, deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes ...
,
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
, Strasbourg, 13 January 2005. In October 2007, she was awarded the firs
Anna Politkovskaya Award
honouring brave women human rights defenders from war and conflict, who speak up for the victims, often at great personal risk. The Anna Politkovskaya Award is presented annually to honour the memory of Russian investigative journalist
Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
on the anniversary of her murder on 7 October 2006, b
Reach All Women in War (RAW)
an international human rights organization supporting women human rights defenders in war and conflict zones. Estemirova worked together with investigative journalist
Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...
and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, both of whom were also murdered, in 2006 and 2009, respectively.


Assassination

Estemirova was abducted on 15 July 2009 from her home in Grozny, Chechnya. According to
Tanya Lokshina Tanya Lokshina (russian: Таня Локшина; born 17 June 1973) is a human rights researcher, journalist, and writer from Russia. She is director of the Russia program at Human Rights Watch (associate director for Human Rights Watch's Europ ...
of the Moscow bureau of
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, unknown individuals abducted Estemirova near her house in Grozny at around 8:30 a.m. Her colleagues raised an alert when she did not come to a planned meeting and went to her home, found witnesses and questioned them."Russian activist found murdered"
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, 15 July 2009. Two witnesses reportedly saw Estemirova being pushed into a car shouting that she was being abducted. Lokshina said Estemirova was abducted as she was working on "extremely sensitive" cases of human rights abuses in Chechnya. Lokshina said that she had been targeted for her professional activities. Human Rights Watch had demanded to
the Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of the kremlins (Ru ...
and
Ramzan Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov ce, КъадаргӀеран Ахьмат-кӏант Рамзан, translit= (born 5 October 1976) is a Russian politician who currently serves as the Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated to the ...
that Estemirova be returned home safely.Human rights worker abducted in Chechnya
reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman and Aydar Buribayev, editing by Robin Pomeroy,
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...
, 15 July 2009 Vladimir Markin, press secretary for the investigative committee of the
Prosecutor General of Russia The Prosecutor General of Russia (also Attorney General of Russia, russian: Генеральный прокурор Российской Федерации, Generalʹnyy prokuror Rossiyskoy Federatsii) heads the system of official prosecution i ...
, said a body of a woman with bullet wounds in the head and chest was found at 4:30 p.m. in woodland 100 m away from the federal road "Kavkaz" near the village of Gazi-Yurt, Ingushetia. Investigators found items belonging to Estemirova in the purse of the woman. These items were a passport, an ID of the Chechnya expert for the Human Rights Commissioner of Russia and the mandate of the penitentiary supervision public committee.


Funeral

Estemirova was "buried in line with Islamic tradition before sunset on Thursday, in a cemetery in her ancestral village, Koshkeldy, in Chechnya's
Gudermes Gudermes (russian: Гудерме́с; ce, Гуьмсе, ''Gümse'' or , ''Guthermajas'') is a town in the Chechen Republic, Russia, located on the Sunzha River east of Grozny, the republic's capital. Population: 32,000 (1970). History Gud ...
district." About 150 people attended a
vigil A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' ( Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become gener ...
that was held in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
's
Pushkin Square Pushkinskaya Square or Pushkin Square () is a pedestrian open space in the Tverskoy District in central Moscow. Historically, it was known as ''Strastnaya Square'' before being renamed for Alexander Pushkin in 1937. It is located at the juncti ...
about nine days after the murder, following
Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
tradition. After all but twenty people had left, police arrested the organizer of the event, Viktor Sotirko of Memorial. He was held for two hours and charged with disturbing the peace. Police said only 30 people had been sanctioned to attend the event, but far more had shown up.


Response

The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes Rupert Anthony Wingfield-Hayes (born 1967) is a British journalist and currently the BBC's Asia Correspondent based in Taipei. He was previously the BBC's Tokyo correspondent for ten years after postings as correspondent in Beijing, Moscow and ...
, stationed in Moscow, reported that Estemirova was engaged in "very important and dangerous work", investigating hundreds of cases of alleged kidnappings, torture and extrajudicial killings by Russian government troops or paramilitaries in Chechnya.
Russian President The president of the Russian Federation ( rus, Президент Российской Федерации, Prezident Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the head of state of the Russian Federation. The president leads the executive branch of the federal ...
Dmitri Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev ( rus, links=no, Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪdˈvʲedʲɪf; born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been serving as the dep ...
expressed "outrage" at the murder and ordered a top-level investigation. Speaking in Germany at the time of her funeral, he paid tribute to her and again pledged a thorough investigation. He said it was "obvious" to him that her murder was linked to her professional work. Memorial claimed that "state terror" was to blame, calling the killing an "
extrajudicial execution An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution or extralegal killing) is the deliberate killing of a person without the lawful authority granted by a judicial proceeding. It typically refers to government authorities, whether ...
" by government-backed death squads. Memorial's chairman Oleg Orlov said that
Ramzan Kadyrov Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov ce, КъадаргӀеран Ахьмат-кӏант Рамзан, translit= (born 5 October 1976) is a Russian politician who currently serves as the Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated to the ...
threatened Natalya and that Russian president Medvedev was content with Kadyrov being a murderer. Orlov said in a statement: "I know, I am sure who is guilty of Natalya Estemirova's murder, we all know him. His name is Ramzan Kadyrov."The Memorial society on the murder of Natalia Estemirova
, 15 July 2009

/ref> According to Orlov, shortly before the murder Kadyrov made an open threat to her by saying: "Yes, my hands are up to the elbows in blood. And I am not ashamed of that. I killed and will kill bad people". Kadyrov denied any involvement and promised to investigate the killing personally. He condemned the killers, saying they "must be punished as the cruelest of criminals". It was later reported that in response to Orlov's accusation, Kadyrov would be suing the rights group for defamation, and would target Orlov personally in the complaint. Nurdi Nukhazhiyev, Chechen human rights ombudsman, called Orlov's accusation "groundless and ludicrous"."Russia Rights Group Blames 'State Terror' for Killing"
Retrieved 16 July 2009. In January 2010, Ramzan Kadyrov, in an interview to ''
Russia Today RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels ...
'' accused Boris Berezovsky of murdering Estemirova. Despite expressing confidence that the crime will be solved, he acknowledged that as of that date it had not: Medvedev responded to the accusation, saying the timing of the crime, a day before his trip to Germany for talks with Chancellor
Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...
, was a provocation intended to give rise to "the most primitive theories and those most disagreeable to the state". Merkel said she expressed her "outrage" over the killing in her talks with Medvedev "and made clear that everything must be done to solve this crime".
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
Ban Ki-Moon said he was "appalled and saddened" by Estemirova's murder. UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe stated that Ban "urges the Russian authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation in order to bring the perpetrators of this heinous killing to justice, and by doing so, to send a strong and unambiguous message that the targeting of human rights activists will not be tolerated". The chairman of the
EPP Group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent ME ...
in the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
,
Joseph Daul Joseph Alexander Daul (born 13 April 1947) is a French politician who served as President of the European People's Party (EPP) from 2013 to 2019. He previously served as Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament from 2007 to 2014 and a ...
, condemned the perpetrators and called for an investigation and bringing the perpetrators to trial. The Sweden-based human rights organization
Civil Rights Defenders Civil Rights Defenders (Formerly the Swedish Helsinki Committee) is an international non-governmental organisation based in Stockholm, Sweden that does human rights work with a focus on civil and political rights. They primarily work to support ...
named the Natalia Project after Estemirova. The Natalia Project is an alarm and positioning system for human rights defenders at risk.


Investigation

In February 2010, an anonymous source in the Russian law enforcement bodies claimed that investigators knew Estemirova's murderer. Yet, the murderer wasn't caught, nor was the organizer of the crime identified.Investigator Says Killer of Rights Worker Identified
by Ellen Barry, the NYT Journalists of '' Novaya Gazeta'' together with the human rights society Memorial and the International Federation for Human Rights are conducting their own investigation, they also monitor the official investigation. According to them, the main version of the official investigators is that Estemirova was murdered by rebel Alkhazur Bashayev, a member of a jamaat in the Chechen village of Shalazhy (Шалажи). On 15 January 2010, during a search in the house of Alkhazur Bashayev, the investigators found a large stockpile of weapons, including the handgun that was used to murder Estemirova and a counterfeit police id with a photograph of Bashayev. On 7 February 2010, they found an abandoned
VAZ-2107 In contemporary history, the third millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar is the current millennium spanning the years 2001 to 3000 (21st to 30th centuries). Ongoing futures studies seek to understand what is li ...
car that was identified as the car bought by Bashayev. In the car, they found a
suppressor A silencer, also known as a sound suppressor, suppressor, or sound moderator, is a muzzle device that reduces the acoustic intensity of the muzzle report (sound of a gunshot) and muzzle rise when a gun (firearm or air gun) is discharged, b ...
made of the same material as the fragment found on the crime scene. The plant fragments found on the suspension on the car were similar to the plants found at the crime scene. According to the official investigators, Bashayev was trying to smear Kadyrov and the leadership of the Chechen Republic, and he might also have been upset by publications by Estemirova where she had alleged that Bashayev had been recruiting for the rebel group without any opposition of the officials and suggested that he might be an agent for
Kadyrovtsy ) , patron = , motto = Akhmad is strong!(russian: Ахмат — сила!) , colors = A-TACS , colors_label = , march = , mas ...
. According to the official information, on 13 November 2009, Bashayev was killed by an air strike during a special operation led by
Adam Delimkhanov Adam Sultanovich Delimkhanov (russian: Адам Султанович Делимханов; born 25 September 1969) is a Russian politician of Chechen ethnicity, who has been member of the Russian State Duma since 2007. He is a member of the Uni ...
. ''Novaya Gazeta'' journalists and human rights activists disagree with the conclusions of the investigators and suspect a massive cover-up: *The DNA analysis of materials found on the crime scene is not matched to Alkhazur Bashayev or his relatives. *The relations between Bashayev and official Kadyrovtsy are very dubious. *The killing of Bashayev is not proven. Quite possible that he is alive and the information of his deaths were cover-up. *It is probable that the handgun was put into Bashayev's house after Bashayev's death.


See also

*
List of journalists killed in Russia The Media freedom in Russia#Assaults on journalists, dangers to journalists in Russia have been known since the early 1990s but concern over the number of unsolved killings soared after Anna Politkovskaya's murder in Moscow on 7 October 2006. Whi ...
*
Freedom of the press in Russia Media freedom in Russia concerns both the ability of directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies and the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outside pressure. Media of Russia incl ...
*
Media freedom in Russia Media freedom in Russia concerns both the ability of directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies and the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outside pressure. Media of Russia inclu ...
* Russian mafia * List of newspapers in Russia *
List of Russian-language television channels This is a list of television channels broadcasting regularly programmes in Russian language. State-owned TV channels General original movies and shows State-funded Private Russia Other countries See also *Lists of televisi ...


References


External links


Natalya Estemirova' biography
on the occasion of receiving the Robert Schuman Medal, EPP Group, 2005
Natalya Estemirova
s statement on the killing of Zura Bitieva and her family, September 2003

Robert Amsterdam's blog
Natalya Estemirova
and the ''Anna Politkovskaya Award''


Articles

*
Chechnya Stricken by ТВ
',
Institute for War and Peace Reporting The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is an independent nonprofit organization that claims to train and provide publishing opportunities for professional and citizen journalists. History IWPR was founded in 1991 under the name Yugofax. ...
: Caucasus Reporting Service 180, 22 May 2003 *
Chechnya: Amnesty Fails to Inspire
', Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Caucasus Reporting Service 191, 14 August 2003 *with Aslambek Badilayev:
Grozny Returnees Remain Penniless
', Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Caucasus Reporting Service 237, 9 June 2004 *with Musa Musayev:
Chechnya: Fleeing Villagers Protest
', Institute for War and Peace Reporting: Caucasus Reporting Service 293, 30 June 2005 *

Video by ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''; produced by Emily B. Hager {{DEFAULTSORT:Estemirova, Natalya 1958 births 2009 deaths Assassinated Russian journalists Chechen journalists Deaths by firearm in Russia 2009 murders in Russia People from Grozny People from Saratov People murdered in Russia Russian human rights activists Russian people of Chechen descent Violence against women in Russia Chechen people Memorial (society) Chechen human rights activists Women human rights activists Women in the Chechen wars Novaya Gazeta