CONVOCATION 22 JULY 2009: IN MEMORIUM NATALIA ESTEMIROVA

Women in Black
invite you
to a vigil in black and in silence
Wednesday, 22 July 2009, 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.
at PRECIADOS, corner of FNAC (Madrid, metro Callao)
IN MEMORIUM
NATALIA ESTEMIROVA,
activist and defender of human rights
WOMEN IN BLACK AGAINST WAR - MADRID
Denounce the assassination of Natalia Estemirova for her activism in defense of human rights.
We wish to accompany her daughter, her family, and the men and women who are activists for peace in Chechnya and Russia.
We demand that the crime not remain in impunity.
We demand that the governments of Spain and the European Union align their relations with the governments of Russia and Chechnya to the end that they respect human rights.

Let us expel war and violence
from history
and from our lives

C/ San Cosme y San Damián, Nº 24, 2º
28012 - Madrid

***(The last Sunday of July Mujeres de Negro will not be at the Plaza Mayor.)
................................................................................

IN MEMORIUM
NATALIA ESTEMIROVA,
activist and defender of human rights

Natalia Estemirova, activist and defender of human rights, was kidnapped on 15 July in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Hours later, her body appeared in the Republic of Ingushetia.
Deeply moved by the loss of our friend and companion Natalia Estemirova, Women in Black Against War (of Madrid) want to express our profound grief over her death, and in these moments, we wish to accompany her daughter, her family and the peace activists in Chechnya and Russia, sending them our solidarity and support as they face a situation that is so difficult to bear.
It is our obligation to denounce the terrible assassination of Estemirova, who was affiliated with the organization named Memorial of Grozny, and who up to the last day has been the main voice against the violence suffered by the people of Chechnya: intimidations, assassinations, tortures, kidnappings and disappearances. We suspect that her active work for human rights is the reason for her assassination. Natalia denounced the government of Chechnya and the protection that it received from the government of Russia, even though she knew it could cost her her life.
For all the people of Chechnya and for those who knew her, Natasha was an individual of principles who loved people and felt the need to help all those (both make and female) whose rights had been assailed.
We demand an immediate, rigorous and transparent investigation of the facts.
We demand that the crime not remain in impunity.
We demand that the international community follow and keep watch over the case, to ensure compliance with the necessary guarantees in the process until justice is achieved.
We demand that the governments of Spain and the European Union align their relations with the governments of Russia and Chechnya to the end that they respect human rights and the defenders thereof. We feel that upon putting economic considerations above human rights, our officials are complicit in allowing impunity to prevail.
The men and women who work for human rights in the region of the Caucasus need international civil protection.
We encourage our civil society to not forget this crime nor the many others. Those who killed Natalia and those who ordered the assassination count on remaining unpunished because of the indifference and fear of the civil population. Our protests and our voices requesting justice are always necessary and useful.

Mujeres de Negro de Madrid

Pictures

Translation: Trisha Novak, USA