Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches (32 page)

Apart from providing the finance, Amnesty International also organised a world-wide petition demanding a fair trial. Thousands of letters came in addressed to Putin and were subsequently included among the case materials. Judge Mezhidov simply could not ignore them and himself referred to them in court. The letters also strengthened his position and, to be fair, he too behaved heroically. For the duration of the trial he was treading a knife edge, because he was walking around Grozny.

Will the efforts of so many prove fruitless, or will the federals finally be forced to recognise that they cannot abduct and kill in Chechnya
with impunity? And will people in Chechnya recognise that they too must not allow themselves to be intimidated, but must stand up to the war criminals, as the Murdalov family managed to? God give them strength. As of now, there is no other way of reducing the number of extra-judicial executions and massacres in Chechnya.

WARRANTS FOR THE ARREST OF TWO MORE “KHANTIES”: THE CADET’S ACCOMPLICES ARE ON THE RUN

February 9, 2006

Information has now come to light about the exact role played by The Cadet’s superiors in the crime he committed. On November 18 last year the Chechen Prosecutor’s Office instigated a new criminal case against Alexander Prilepin (alias Alex) and V. Minin under Articles 286 and 111 of the Russian Criminal Code.

Initial attempts to question The Cadet’s superiors, who may be able to explain what happened to The Cadet’s victim, Zelimkhan Murdalov, ran into strong opposition from their colleagues in the Khanty-Mansiysk and Nizhnevartovsk Interior Affairs Directorates. Prilepin and Minin categorically refused to meet the investigators.

Both have now had federal warrants issued for their arrest by the Chechen Prosecutor’s Office.
^*

^*
Stanislav Markelov was gunned down in central Moscow on January 19, 2009, together with Anastasia Baburova, a freelance journalist working for
Novaya gazeta
. He was leaving a press conference protesting at the early release of rapist and murderer ex-Colonel Yuriy Budanov. Anna Politkovskaya had been instrumental in securing the conviction of Budanov. Neither President Medvedev nor Prime Minister Putin commented on these murders.

^*
In autumn 2006, Investigators of the Prosecutor-General’s Office who went to Khanty-Mansiysk to examine one line of inquiry into the murder of Anna Politkovskaya discovered that Prilepin and Minin had been living at their home addresses all this time, going to work, and nobody had been looking for them.

4.
Nord-Ost

On October 23, 2002 the hostage-taking in Moscow by Chechen terrorists of the audience of a musical, Nord-Ost, made worldwide headlines. Anna, who attempted to negotiate inside the theatre with the terrorists, was ultimately able to show with a high degree of certainty, with information provided by the FSB whistle-blower Alexander Litvinenko, since murdered, that this event and its disastrous outcome had been another production of the Russian regime
.

ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA FACES DIFFICULTIES RETURNING TO MOSCOW TO ASSIST IN NEGOTIATING WITH THE TERRORISTS

October 24, 2002
^*

From the Editors of
Novaya gazeta:

12:30 p.m
.

Novaya gazeta
’s columnist Anna Politkovskaya is prepared to enter negotiations with those who have seized hostages in Moscow. She is sympathetic to their demands for an end to the Chechen War, but disapproves of their methods. Civilians should not suffer because of mistakes made by the state authorities.

Anna Politkovskaya is currently in Washington, DC where she was engaged in discussions with senior State Department and White House officials about finding a peaceful solution to the Chechen issue. Others taking part in these discussions included Ilias Akhmadov, a politician respected by the Chechens; Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; and Lord Judd, who has several times visited Chechnya on behalf of the Council of Europe. Thus Anna Politkovskaya, although far from Russia, was
effectively engaged in fulfilling the demands of the hostage-takers in Moscow.

As soon as she returns to Moscow, which can be no sooner than 13 hours from now since the first plane to Moscow leaves Washington in four and a half hours’ time, she will immediately go to the scene of the events and contact the hostage-takers. Unfortunately, representatives of the US Embassy are asking us to wait until 9:00 a.m. local time (it is currently 5:00 a.m. in Washington, DC) to seek official assistance. It seems to us that we are asking for a very small favor of getting someone on the first flight from Washington to Moscow. Lives – including those of American citizens among the hostages – depend on this favor. Anna Politkovskaya is the only person in whom the hostage-takers have expressed confidence and whom they have requested as a mediator in the negotiations.

We urge the Americans to help Anna Politkovskaya return to Moscow as soon as possible.

1:30 p.m
.

As of now the issue of facilitating an emergency flight from Washington, DC to Moscow for
Novaya gazeta
’s columnist, Anna Politkovskaya, remains unresolved. The hostage-takers in Moscow have expressed a wish to negotiate with her.

As Anna is presently in America, we appealed to the US Embassy for help and received a reply from Mr Paul Carter of the Embassy’s Legal Department. He said they were prepared to assist, but required confirmation from the Russian Foreign Ministry that this was a government initiative, and that the state was prepared to negotiate rather than to resolve the problem by force.

We rang the North American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, who confirmed that Paul Carter had phoned them but said that, “since this matter was not within their jurisdiction,” they could not take any decision and would not involve themselves in facilitating Anna Politkovskaya’s urgent return to Russia. They advised us to phone the operational information section of the Foreign
Ministry, whose Director, Vladimir Oshurkov, said he had “no information for the mass media.” We asked whether they would in fact ask the Americans to help, to which Mr Oshurkov replied, “What has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got to do with this anyway? Why should the Ministry bother itself with getting Anna Politkovskaya to Russia? That’s what the security ministries have staff for. If they consider it necessary for Anna Politkovskaya to return to negotiate with the terrorists, she will fly. It is nothing to do with the Foreign Ministry.”

In order to re-register her ticket, Anna Politkovskaya requires more than 1,000 US dollars. If our Foreign Ministry (which represents the Russian Government) does not wish to address the problem, jeopardising negotiations with the hostage-takers and thereby putting at risk the lives of the hostages, we shall find the money ourselves.

2:30 p.m
.

The latest information is that Anna Politkovskaya is returning to Russia on the first available flight.

NORD-OST:
THE PRICE OF TALKS

October 28, 2002

My personal involvement in this crisis began at about 2:00 p.m. on October 25. At 11:30 a.m. I had spoken on my mobile phone to the hostage-takers for the first time and they agreed to a meeting. At 1:30 p.m. I arrived at the headquarters of the security operation. Another half-hour was spent getting everything co-ordinated: some unknown person was resolving matters behind doors which kept slamming.

Finally, I was led up to a protective cordon of trucks, someone said, “Give it a go. Perhaps you can do it,” and Dr Leonid Roshal [Head of the Disaster Medical Center] and I made our way to the entrance. It was very frightening.

We went into the building. We shouted, “Hello! Anybody there?”

There was no response. It felt as if the building was completely deserted.

I shouted, “It’s me, Politkovskaya! It’s Politkovskaya!” I slowly started climbing up the right-hand staircase. The doctor said he knew the way. In the first-floor foyer there was again silence, darkness, and it was cold. Not a soul. I shouted again, “It’s Politkovskaya!” Finally, a man appeared from behind what had been the counter of the bar.

His black mask wasn’t on properly and I could see his features clearly. He was not aggressive towards me, but hostile towards the doctor. Why? I don’t know, but I did my best to calm a situation which was becoming heated. “What are you up to, doctor, helping your career along?” the man in the mask taunted. Dr Roshal is 70 years old, an Academic, and has already achieved so much that he really doesn’t need to worry about his career.

I said as much, a bit of an argument started, and it was time to lower the temperature again since otherwise … Otherwise it was obvious what could happen.

The man with the ill-fitting mask went off into the depths of the darkened foyer, still muttering, “Why do you say you treat Chechen children too, doctor?” There was some further fairly incoherent nastiness which amounted to suggesting that mentioning that he also treated Chechen children showed he didn’t think they were the equal of other children, perhaps even that Chechens are not human beings.

It was a familiar tune and I interrupted it, not because that was a particularly clever thing to do but simply because I had had enough. I said, “All people are the same. They have the same skin, the same bones, the same blood.” This less than original thought unexpectedly had a conciliatory effect. I asked permission to sit on the only chair in the middle of the foyer, 5 metres or so from the bar, because my legs had turned to jelly.

Permission was immediately granted. My shoes slipped on some disgusting red mess trampled into the carpet. I looked down cautiously at this ghastliness, anxious not to seem to be taking too much of an
interest, but even more anxious not to put my feet in congealed blood. Thank God, it was only some kind of dead dessert, possibly fruit and ice-cream. I trembled a little less.

We waited 20 minutes or so while the leader was sent for. While we waited there, heads in masks appeared over the balcony occasionally. Some of the masks covered their faces properly, others only did half the job.

“Was it you who helped the people in Khotuni against the paratroop regiment?” the heads ask.

“Yes.”

The heads are satisfied. Khotuni, a village in the Vedeno District, turns out to be my safe-conduct pass. If I have been there I am worth talking to.

“Where are you from?” I ask the man from the bar counter.

“Tovzeni,” he replies. “Many of us are from Tovzeni, and from Vedeno District generally.”

There follows a lot of confused coming and going by men in masks, the sign of a tragedy in the making. Time just passing by, disappearing into nowhere, fills me with idiotic foreboding. The leader still hasn’t appeared. Perhaps they are going to shoot us here and now.

Finally, a person in combat fatigues comes out, his face completely covered. He is stocky, and with exactly the deportment of Russian special operations officers who give serious attention to their physical fitness. He says, “Follow me.” My legs again turn to jelly, but I wobble after him. This is The Leader.

We end up in a dirty service room by a ransacked buffet, behind which is a water tap. Somebody walks behind me and I turn. I realize this looks nervous, but what can I do? I haven’t had much experience of talking to terrorists under conditions as tense as these. The leader brings me back to cold logic.

“Don’t look behind you! You are talking to me, so look at me.”

“Who are you? What should I call you?” I ask, not really expecting a reply.

“Bakar. Abubakar.”

By now he has pushed the mask up to his forehead. He has an
open face with high cheekbones, also very typical of our military. He has a rifle on his knees which he puts behind him only at the very end of our talk, when he even apologizes. “I’ve got so used to it I no longer feel it there. I sleep with it, eat with it. It is always with me.” Even without this explanation I already understand everything.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“Have you been fighting in both wars?”

“Yes.”

“Did you sit it out in Georgia?”

“No. I never left Chechnya.”

Bakar belongs to a new generation of Chechens who for the past 10 years have known nothing but a rifle and the forests. He left school, and life in the forests became his only option. A destiny devoid of choice.

“Shall we get down to business?” I suggest.

“OK.”

“First, the older children still in there. You need to let them go. They are only children.” Sergey Yastrzhembsky, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation, had asked me to raise this with them as my main priority.

“Children? There are no children in there. In security sweeps you take ours from 12 years old. We will hold on to yours.”

“In retaliation?”

“So that you know how it feels.”

I return to the subject of the children many times, asking for them to be allowed at least some relief, for me to bring food, for instance, but the answer is a categorical no.

“Do you let ours eat in the security sweeps? Yours can do without too.”

I have four other requests on my list: food for the hostages, items of personal hygiene for the women, water, blankets. To anticipate, I get agreement only to bring water and juice. I will be allowed to bring them, shout from downstairs, and then I will be let in.

“Can I come several times? I can’t carry much in one go. There are
so many hostages. Perhaps you will allow me to bring one of the men.”

“OK.”

“Do you mind if that’s another of our journalists?”

“No. And also somebody from the Red Cross.”

“Thank you.”

I start asking what it is that they want, but politically Bakar is all at sea. He’s a simple soldier and no more. He explains what this is all about, at considerable length but not at all clearly, and from what he says I identify four points. The first is that Putin must “give the word” – declare an end to the war. The second is that within 24 hours he must demonstrate that these are not empty words, for example by withdrawing troops from one of the districts.