[LINK] one way to deal with it

[Jan Whitaker]

http://www.theage.com.au/world/russian-police-kill-antigovernment-website-owner-20080901-46gx.html

Russian police kill anti-government website owner

     * September 1, 2008 - 7:24AM

The owner of an independent website critical of authorities was shot 
and killed by police today in a volatile province in southern Russia, 
his colleague said.

The killing of Ingushetiya.ru owner Magomed Yevloyev could incite 
tensions in the province of Ingushetia west of Chechnya, which has 
been the site of frequent attacks on police and other officials.

Police arrested Yevloyev today, taking him off a plane that had just 
landed in Ingushetia province near Chechnya, said the site's deputy 
editor, Ruslan Khautiyev.

Police whisked Yevloyev away in a car and later dumped him on the 
road with a gunshot wound in the head, Khautiyev said. He said 
Yevloyev died in a hospital shortly afterward.

In Moscow, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said in 
a statement that Yevloyev was detained by police and died in an 
"incident" while being taken to police headquarters for an 
interrogation. Markin did not elaborate, saying a check to clarify 
the circumstances of Yevloyev's death had begun. The committee is 
under the Prosecutor-General's office.

Yevloyev has angered regional authorities with bold criticism of 
police treatment of civilians in the region. [I guess he was right!] 
A court in June ordered him to shut his site on charges of spreading 
"extremist" statements, but it reappeared under a different name.

Khautiyev said Yevloyev arrived in Ingushetia from Moscow on the same 
plane with regional president Murat Zyazikov. Police blocked the jet 
on the runway after it landed in Ingushetia's provincial capital, 
Magas, entered the plane and took Yevloyev out.

Yevloyev's death is likely to further stir up passions in Ingushetia, 
which has been plagued by frequent raids and ambushes against federal 
forces and local authorities. Government critics attribute the 
attacks to anger fuelled by abductions, beatings, unlawful arrests 
and killings of suspects by government forces and local allied paramilitaries.

In June, Human Rights Watch accused Russian security forces of 
widespread human rights abuses in Ingushetia, saying it has 
documented dozens of summary and arbitrary detentions, acts of 
torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions. It 
said officials in Ingushetia persecuted peaceful Muslims and 
government critics, marginalised opposition groups and stifled 
independent media.

The New York-based rights group warned that the "dirty war" tactics 
against insurgents would likely further destabilise the situation in 
Ingushetia and beyond in the North Caucasus.

Many in Ingushetia are intensely unhappy with Zyazikov, a former KGB 
officer and a close ally of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. An 
anti-government rally in Ingushetia in January drew hundreds of 
people who clashed with police.

Immediately after Yevloyev's detention, his website urged 
Ingushetia's residents to gather outside the headquarters of a 
leading opposition group.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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