By Aydar Buribayev and Amie Ferris-Rotman , Reuters, July 15, 2009
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A human rights group blamed Chechnya’s president for the kidnap and murder of a prominent activist, the latest in a series of slayings of establishment critics in Russia.
Natalia Estemirova, a close friend of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, worked for the human rights organization Memorial in the Chechen capital Grozny and documented abuses by law enforcement agencies.
She was abducted on Wednesday in Chechnya and her body was found later in woodland in neighboring Ingushetia.
Peace and Justice Post 
From beyond the grave: A searing indictment of Putin’s protegé
July 17, 2009A report by Natalya Estemirova, the Russian activist murdered in Chechnya as she investigated human rights abuses
The Independent/UK, July 17, 2009
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President Ramzan Kadyrov displaying his shooting skills
The abductions in Chechnya started nearly a decade ago. In 2000, Russian forces took control of practically the entire territory of the republic, and started extensive mop-up operations in villages.
Thousands of murders and abductions took place; these operations were declared to be an efficient method in the fight against rebels. In reality, however, the troops and police were looting the houses of unprotected civilians, at times taking away everything from them, from cars and furniture to shampoos and female underwear.
Most horrifically of all, women were raped in front of their male relatives, and all the men were detained, from teenagers to old men: they were either cruelly beaten, or released for ransom, or else they disappeared forever.
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Tags:abductions, beatings, Chechen refugees, Chechnya, civilians killed, dtensions, Grozny, human rights abuses, Kremlin, Natalya Estemirova, President Ramzan Kadyrov, Russian forces, state terror, women raped
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