By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter

PARIS, France – Media watchdog group “Reporters Without Borders” released an updated list of the top forty enemies of the press on Monday, May 3, 2010, to mark the UN-backed World Press Freedom Day. The group named Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a top “predator” in their annual compilation of global leaders who suppress freedom of press. Also on the list were Chechnya’s pro-Kremlin President Ramzan Kadyrov, and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Russia was the only country with two politicians on the list.

The report states that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has promoted: “a climate of pumped-up national pride that encourages the persecution of dissidents and freethinkers and fosters a level of impunity that is steadily undermining the rule of law.” As evidence of the growing level of impunity, the report cited the killing of five journalists in 2009, which brought the total figure of journalists killed in Russia since 2000 to twenty two.

The report also stated that after the chaotic post-Soviet years under former President Boris Yeltsin, Putin’s leadership effectively consolidated “control” over national media outlets.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, known as “Putin’s guard dog,” has been linked to the deaths of a number of journalists and activists, including reporter Anna Politkovskaya [killed in Moscow in October of 2006], and human rights activist Natalia Estemirova [gunned down in Chechnya in July of 2009].  Those journalists who do continue to operate in Chechnya, continue by abstaining from publishing criticism of either Kadyrov or the Russian state.

Kadyrov was quoted as saying: “The press must be in the service of the Chechen people’s unity.”

According to the report, under the leadership of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, free press has effectively been eradicated in Belarus, and the state has obtained a monopoly on printing and distribution facilities. Independent journalists in Belarus, forced underground, have returned to the clandestine methods of publication and distribution used during the Soviet era. The report also notes that the Lukashenko government has determined “to put an end to online anarchy,” and regularly monitors online activity.

Elsewhere in Europe, the report states that the Basque separatist group in Spain, Eta, and criminal gangs in Italy have threatened and intimidated journalists.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Media watchdog group names freedom “predators” – 3 May 2010

Radio Free Europe – ‘Predators of the Press’ List Released – 3 May 2010

Reporters Sans Frontières Report – Predators 2010 – 3 May 2010

The Moscow Times – Kadyrov, Putin Called “Predators” of Media – 3 May 2010

By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian President Dimitry Medvedev has pledged to fully investigate the most recent death of a prisoner being held while awaiting trial in a Moscow jail.

Prisoner Vera Trifonova, 53, died on Friday at the Matrosskaya Tishina prison near Moscow while being held on fraud charges.  At the time of her death, Trifonova was being held in the same prison that Sergei Magnitsky was in when he died last year due to an untreated medical condition.

Medvedev’s quick response to reports of the death off Russian prisoner comes after the intense national and international scrutiny that Russia and its prison system faced last year following the death of prominent lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.  The Russian Investigative Committee stated a comprehensive investigation would be made into the facts surrounding Trifonova’s death.

In the aftermath of Magnitsky’s death, twenty leading officials in the Russian prison system were fired.  It was determined that Magnitsky had developed pancreatitis while in prison but did not receive the proper medical attention.

Prior to her death, Trifonova had been suffering kidney failure and diabetes.

Trifnova’s defense attorneys stated that they had petitioned for her release prior to trial because of her fragile medical condition.  “However, the pre-detention center’s administration, investigators and court officials decided that [Trifnova was] able to withstand the conditions of the ward.  Perhaps the story with Magnitsky did not teach anyone a lesson.”

Vladimir Zherebyonkov, a member of Trifnova’s defense team, also alleged that the chief investigator in Trifnova’s case had offered to release her from prison if she confessed to the charges against her.  “They have actually led her to death.  Knowing that she needed special medical care, like hemodialysis, they still put her in prison, where she could not have received such aid, of which the prison administration chief said at the very state.”

For more information, please see:

AP – Another prison death at Moscow jail being probed – 1 May, 2010

RIANOVOSTI – Russia’s Medvedev orders full investigation into prison death – 1 May, 2010

TAIWAN NEWS – Russia investigates another prison death – 1 May, 2010

INTERFAX – Woman who died in prison Friday was offered freedom in exchange for confession – 30 April, 2010

RIANOVOSTI – Russian prosecutors probe death of seriously ill woman in pre-detention center – 30 April, 2010

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

ATHENS, Greece – Annual May Day marches in Athens erupted into violent clashes between leftist demonstrators and Greek police.  Tens of thousands of workers took to the streets to protest proposed austerity measures as disproportionately harmful to the nation’s workers and poor.

According to AFP, one demonstrator described the government cutbacks as “the biggest attack on workers for centuries.”  He added: “They want to return us to the 19th Century – this is not going to be a battle but a war that will last for months and even years.”

Greek riot police used tear gas to disperse the rioters in Athens as rioters threw bottles, rocks and petrol bombs at police and television vans. Rioters in Athens and Thessaloniki also vandalized banks and government buildings.

Yannis Papangopoulos, head of the Confederation of Greek Workers, said:  “These policies are totally unfair.  They place all the burden on the have-nots to pay the price of this crisis and not the plutocracy . . . There will be a social explosion once they begin to bite.”

The measures that the ruling Pasok Party hopes to implement include an injection of roughly 120 billion euros into the Greek economy over the next three years, as well as stringent reforms and tax increases.  This involves a reduction of collective bargaining rights, abolition of additional wages paid to supplement low public sector salaries, and the overhaul of the pension and health systems.  Effectively, the measures will eradicate nearly every right acquired by Greek workers and unions over the past thirty years.

Spiros Papaspirou, head of Greece’s Adedy civil servants union, said: “The bill should go to those who looted this country for decades, not to the workers . . . This is the most savage, unjust and unprovoked attack workers have ever faced.”

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has said that the measures are necessary in order to prevent complete economic collapse and to assure the nation’s survival.

For more information, please see:

BBC INTERNATIONAL – Greece police tear gas anti-austerity protesters – 1 May 2010

GUARDIAN – Greece erupts in violent protest as citizens face a future of harsh austerity – 1 May 2010

LOS ANGELES TIMES – Violent May Day Protests in Athens – 1 May 2010

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium – This week one of Belgium’s two legislative bodies passed a bill that would ban burqas within the country.

The lower house of Belgium’s Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, voted on Thursday April 29 to ban certain types of veils worn by Muslim women, most notably including burqas.  According to various media accounts, the vote was nearly unanimous (136 to 2) and enjoyed clear majorities from both major Belgian political parties.

Although the bill must still be passed by Belgium’s upper house, the Senate, Belgium is the closest of any European country to passing a ban on the Muslim headwear.  The Senate is expected to overwhelmingly approve the legislation in the coming weeks.  Media outlets predict the bill will be signed into law before the summer.

Other European lawmakers, most notably the French, have also considered a similar ban.  President Sarkozy has indicated France’s ban will come into effect before the fall.

Additionally, several countries, including the Netherlands, Denmark and Poland, have recently had elections that have included overwhelming victories for anti-Islamic parties and candidates.  No country in the European Union has yet, however, had such legislation signed into law.

Logistically, the Belgian legislation would ban any and all clothing or headwear that covers the face in part or in whole.

The penalty for women who wear the veil could range from 150 to 15,000 euros.  Any person who forces a women to wear a burqa can face up to a year in prison.  As in the case of France’s consideration of a burqa ban, criticism of the Belgian legislation has been swift and harsh.

Critics claim that on its face the ban would violates basic tenets of freedom of religion and expression.  They also allege that the law illegally targets only Muslims.

Amnesty International’s John Dalhuisen says that the law “violat[es] of a great many of Belgium’s international obligations”, including “the U.N. convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.”

For more information, please see:

AL JAZEERA – Anger at Belgian face veil ban – 30 April 2010

EUR ACTIV NETWORK – Belgian lawmakers first in EU to outlaw burqa – 30 April 2010

EXPATICA – Content of the Belgian bill banning the burqa – 30 April 2010

VOICE OF AMERICA – Belgium’s Parliament Votes to Ban Veils – 29 April 2010

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MOSCOW, Russia – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the online publication of the once-secret files pertaining the 1940 massacre of roughly 22,0o0 members of the Polish elite by Soviet forces.  The files, labeled “Packet No. 1”, had previously only been available to researchers.  The move is part of a campaign by Moscow to warm relations with Poland, and is seen as another step towards Russian acknowledgment of Soviet-era atrocities.

Medvedev told reporters in Copenhagen: “I think this is our duty . . . Let everyone see what was done, who made the decisions . . . all the signatures are there.”

The April 1940 killings, which transpired largely in the Katyn forests near Smolensk, Russia, were carried out by Soviet secret police acting upon Stalin’s orders.  Those killed in the massacre included members of the Polish elite, such as officers, politicians and artists.  The men were shot in the back of the head and dumped into mass graves.  Along with the remains of the Polish prisoners of war are mingled the remains of roughly 10,000 Soviet citizens shot in the Stalinist purges of the 1930s.

The Soviets had blamed the massacre on Nazi Germany for decades before acknowledging responsibility in 1990.  Documents confirming the Soviet’s role were declassified by former Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1992.

Despite Russian acknowledgment that the the Soviet Union was behind the massacre, there remained lingering speculation that the massacre was, in fact, an act of the Nazis.  According to the WSJ, a poll taken in March revealed that more Russians blamed the massacre on the Germans than the Soviets.

Since historians have already had access to the files for nearly twenty years, the decision to publish the documents on the state archive website is seen largely as a symbolic gesture.

In response to the online publication of the documents, Polish ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski told the BBC: “It’s yet another symbolic step testifying to the fact that we are witnessing an obvious change in the Russian attitude and handling of the Katyn issue.”

There has been an ease in tension between Poland and Russia recently, and early this month leaders from both states marked the seventieth anniversary of the massacre together in a joint ceremony attended by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Former Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, was killed in a plane crash on the way to another event marking the massacre.  The way in which Russian officials handled the aftermath of the crash has been well received in Poland.

Russian state archive chief, Andrei Artyzov, said: “We on the Russian side are showing absolute openness in telling what happened in Katyn and other places with Polish prisoners of war. . . All the basic documents about these events have been published.”

The Russian state, however, still possesses confidential files regarding a Russian investigation into the massacre which began in the 1990s. Russian human rights activists have pressed the government to make these files public as well.

Atyzov also stated that Russian and Polish investigators should work jointly to research the victims to “restore truth to every last surname and to find all those who were shot and killed at Katyn and other places.”

One of the documents that will be published online is a letter addressed to Stalin and dated March 5, 1940 from the then-head of the Soviet secret police, [known as the NKVD], Lavrenty Beria. In the letter, Beria recommends the execution of the Polish prisoners of war and the concealment of their remains.  Beria described the prisoners as “steadfast, incorrigible enemies of Soviet Power” and stated that “each of them is just waiting for liberation so as to actively join the struggle against Soviet Power.”

The letter also shows Stalin’s signature in blue pencil, with the comment: “In favor.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – Russia publishes Katyn massacre archives – 28 April 2010

RIA Novosti – Russia to reveal Katyn documents to end speculation – 28 April 2010

Times Online – Russia releases secret papers on Katyn massacre signed by Stalin – 28 April 2010

Wall Street Journal – Moscow Releases Katyn Documents – 28 February 2010