Reuters AlertNet Lite - Russian police break up Politkovskaya protest-group

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Russian police break up Politkovskaya protest-group

16 Oct 2006 18:19:55 GMT
Source: Reuters

MOSCOW, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Russian police on Monday broke up a protest by dozens of activists demanding the authorities find the killers of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a rights group said.

Police in the capital of the southern Ingushetia region, Nazran, detained several protesters and trampled photographs of Politkovskaya, who was shot dead on Oct. 7 at her apartment block in central Moscow, activists said.

"In Nazran the meeting was broken up with brute force and five people were detained by the police," Oleg Orlov of the Memorial human rights group told Reuters.

"A young activist had her nose broken by a policeman who hit her in the face," Orlov said. "The police threw our pictures of Politkovskaya onto the ground and stamped on them."

Local authorities gave a different version of events.

One official was quoted as saying the activists did not have permission to hold the meeting and that police only intervened after they started fighting among themselves.

"There was an attempt to hold an unsanctioned meeting. For some reason there was disagreement between the members of the meeting which turned into a fight," Beslan Khamkhoev, the head of the local interior ministry, told Interfax news agency.

"To preserve order and safety policemen were forced to intervene," he said.

Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, won fame and prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by President Vladimir Putin's government, especially in the war-torn region of Chechnya, where activists also held a protest on Monday.

Her murder, condemned by Putin and world leaders, underlined the risks to reporters in Russia who dare to delve into the viperous world where crime and politics overlap.

About 50 people protested on Monday in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny over the murder of Politkovskaya, who devoted much of her reporting to rights abuses in Chechnya.

The protesters, many of them from non-governmental organisations, gathered in Grozny's central square and held up photographs of the reporter, some of them torn from newspapers.

The authorities gave permission for the protest and police did not intervene.

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Last updated:Mon Oct 16 18:21:49 2006