In celebration of Natalia Estemirova

By Kathryn White

It was reported yesterday afternoon across worldwide media that Natalia Estemirova, the foremost human rights campaigner chronicling alleged abuses in the Chechnya region, has been found shot dead in the North Caucasus. I was shocked and moved to watch an interview with her former Human Rights Watch colleagues on the BBC News, who were visibly shaken with the immediacy of grief but also with raw outrage at Natalia’s murder and the organisation(s) that may carry responsibility for it.

This morning, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed similar “outrage” at Natalia’s murder. Yet Natalia’s work focused primarily on alleged abuses perpetrated by or on behalf of government-backed militias in Chechnya, and many among her closest colleagues appear to suspect that the Chechnyan government – led by pro-Moscow President Ramzan Kadyrov – was involved in her abduction and killing. At the time of her abduction, it is reported that she was working on behalf of Memorial, Russia’s most established human rights organisation, to document the ongoing campaign of house-burnings by government-supported militias in the region.

Human Rights Watch has called on Russian authorities to conduct an independent investigation into Natalia’s murder. But the killing of prominent human rights activist and journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in 2006 in her apartment building in central Moscow, remains ‘unsolved’ following a protracted criminal trial which concluded without convictions earlier this year. Meanwhile on 19th January this year Anna Politkovskaya’s lawyer, Stanislav Markelov, was assassinated in Moscow. Nobody has been charged. These circumstances suggest that the chances of the authorities having either the inclination or the ability to prosecute a successful investigation into Natalia’s death are slim indeed.

By her actions, Natalia proved herself to be extraordinarily brave – far braver than perhaps she would have recognised herself. I hope her death, and its significance to political and civilian freedom in Chechnya, is recognised by our Parliamentarians in the UK. I would welcome a strongly worded statement from the British Government regarding the ongoing serious concerns at the apparently continuing human rights abuses in the Chechnyan region. And, along with Natalia’s numerous colleagues and still more numerous admirers, I will continue to hope that those responsible are brought to some form of account.