Week 6: Investigator Says Killer of Rights Worker Identified

Summary:The article, "Investigator Says Killer of Rights Worker Identified" was published on February 25th in the New York Times by Ellen Barry. This article closely correlates to the article that I spoke about last week about four civilians being killed in the Chechnya region of Russia. This article is also a human rights violation. Last July, Natalya Estemirova (a human rights worker), was also abducted and murdered in the Chechnya region of Russia. Estemirova was one of the most known and well respected human rights workers in all of Russia. If this is the case, than why did it take the investigative committee of the Southern Federal District prosecutor’s office 7 months to start attempting to find her killer? Simple. Once again Russian authorities are attempting to cover up severe corruption within the Russian's political system. Natalya Estemirova had spent decades documenting kidnappings and killings that she linked to the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, who was appointed by the Kremlin and has used brutal methods to bring separatists under control. Ms. Lokshina, a colleague of Natalya's has suspected that Kadyrov was involved: “There are good grounds to believe that people in high official positions could be involved.” Ms. Lokshina has also said that she and other fellow colleagues have long sensed that investigators know who shot her, but are adamant about identifying the person who ordered the killing. Also, the investigative committee is wary of all evidence due to the fact that "heaps of evidence" at the crime scene were reported destroyed. Currently, nobody has yet to been brought to justice. Most immediately laid blame for Natalya's murder on Mr. Kadyrov. He responded by suing for libel, though this month he withdrew several of those suits.

Correlation: This correlates to what we have learned in comparative government in regards to transparency, legitimacy, and corruption. This article is yet another example of these three concepts directly and inversely related. It seems that Russian Authorities are aware that the Chechen president Ramzan A. Kadyrov is responsible for the killing of Natalya but they continue to dispute it in order to save the government's legitimacy. They aren't being transparent and don't want to expose the truth to the public for fear if they do that the public will stop seeing the government as legitimate. Also, this article correlates strongly to corruption. The fact that a president of a region of Russia is suspected of murdering a civilian is atrocious. The fact that the Russian authorities won't investigate the case deeply nor admit to any faults also signifies corruption within the government. If a country's people can't trust their police force to investigate a case and can't trust their judicial system to press charges how can they possibly feel safe?

Grade This Post.

Photo Credit