The West must not forget the people of Chechnya, who remain victims of killings, torture and disappearances despite the winding down of more than 10 years of war in their homeland, a Chechen activist has said.
Natalya Estemirova, a journalist from the Chechen capital Grozny, who is in London to collect the first annual Anna Politkovskaya Award for women defenders of human rights in war, said she hoped the award would raise awareness.
"I hope that the fact of this award will help. I say: Chechnya is part of Europe. You cannot simply forget us," she said in an interview.
A group called Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR) is launching the prize that is backed by at least six Nobel Peace Prize winners, in honour of Politkovskaya, a journalist and critic of President Vladimir Putin gunned down in Moscow last year.
Irish Nobel Peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire will present the award in London on Friday to Estemirova, a member of the Russian rights group Memorial which has four offices in Chechnya documenting abuses and providing legal aid to victims.
Chechnya's pro-independence forces have been mostly defeated after two wars since 1994 that left Grozny in ruins. The mountainous, mainly Muslim province on Russia's southern border is now controlled by a pro-Moscow president, Ramzan Kadyrov.
Rebel leaders have been killed and many former rebels have gone onto Kadyrov's payroll, joining an array of paramilitary police and security forces loyal to the 31-year-old leader.
CONTINUED VIOLENCE
