By Alexandra Sandacz
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
MOSCOW, Russia –Tanya Lokshina, a researcher in the Human Rights Watch’s office in Moscow, received anonymous life-threatening texts last week. The texts not only threatened her life, but also focused on her pregnancy. Lokshina believes the latest threats are related to her work in the North Caucasus region, calling it an example of pressure against rights and civic groups in Russia.
Kenneth Roth, HRW executive director, said, “These threats demonstrate that the sender clearly was following Tanya’s every move. They knew where she lived, what she was doing. They made explicit reference to the fact of her pregnancy. They threatened harm to herself and to her unborn baby. They were clearly made with the intent of scaring Tanya and Human Rights Watch to stop our monitoring and reporting on human rights in Russia.”
Furthermore, Roth states, “Human Rights Watch worked in the Soviet Union in the darkest days. We certainly are not going to allow a cheap set of vile and depraved threats of the sort that were sent to Tanya to stand in the way of our continued work today.”
The threats consisted of confidential information, such as her due date, her unregistered home address and her relatives’ travel plans. Lokshina and a small group of friends would be the only individuals to know this information.
According to Human Rights Watch, this suggests that the information was acquired through surveillance, with potential involvement of law enforcement and security officials.
Lokshina’s recent death threats are not the first of threats activists and independent journalists received.
In 2006, Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, critical of Kremlin and its policy of Chechnya, was gunned down in the elevator of her apartment building. In 2009, Natalya Estemirova, who collected evidence of rights abuses by security forces in Chechnya, was abducted and found dead the same day. Last December, Khadzhimurad Kamalov, founder of a newspaper that was critical of authorities in Dagestan and that reported on police abuses was gunned down outside his office.
Lokshina is a leading expert on human rights abuses in the North Caucasus area. Unaffected by the recent threats, she vows to continue her work. Moreover, Lokshina attributes her recent threats to the new atmosphere that the new Kremlin-controlled parliament restrictions on non-government organizations’ activities created in Russia.
For further information, please see:
The Huffington Post — Russian activist blames officials for threats – 4 October 2012
The New York Times — Rights Group Says Its Researcher in Moscow Threatened – 4 October 2012
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — HRW Says Dangerous For Rights Workers In Russia – 4 October 2012
The Washington Post — Pregnant Russian rights activist blames security officials for anonymous text threats – 4 October 2012
