In Mari political dissidents are beaten with iron pipes

10.03.05

Police do not believe they will ever find attackers

By Mika Parkkonen

      The oppression of the Mari people is not limited to the removal of teachers and civil servants. During the time in office of President Leonid Markelov, numerous opposition members, as well as journalists who have been critical of Markelov�s policies, have been beaten. Three of the victims have died. No charges have been brought for these murders, or for the other crimes of violence.

"The beating technique is always the same. A group of two or three professionals approaches from behind, hitting the person in the head with an iron pipe, and hitting the unconscious victim a few more times for good measure", explains Vladimir Malchev, editor of the newspaper Dobryi Sosedi, or "Good Neighbours". He underwent a beating three years ago.
      Malchev sustained bruises and broken bones, but his deputy editor Aleksandr Babaikin was killed in a similar attack in November 2001. In the same month two others were beaten to death: Leonid Plotnikov, manager of the warehouse of the Periodika printing house, and Aleksei Bahtin, a local newspaper journalist.
      Although deaths appear to have been averted since the dark November, beatings with iron pipes have continued. Viktor Nikolayev, former director of the Mari National Theatre, has been beaten on several occasions. Also getting the same treatment were human rights activist Vyacheslav Paidoverov and former banker Sergei Malankin, who fell out with the President over business issues.
      After campaigning for three years, presidential candidate General Ivan Teterin was injured in a suspicious car accident in August 2004. Teterin, who had been the favourite in the contest, lay unconscious in hospital for three days. He suffered permanent injuries and gave up his candidacy. In September, journalist Vitaly Igitov was beaten. He was seen by Markelov as the man who has caused him the greatest harm politically.
      In the past three months a leader of the Mari Jewish Association, Mark Aron, who is the editor of the critical journal Vo, as well as Yelena Rogacheva, editor-in-chief of the radio station Svoboda, have both been given beatings. Rogacheva was the only one to have been hit only with fists.
      The most recent assault victim is Vladimir Koslov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kudo+Kodu and leader of Mer Kangash, the Mari people's movement in Russia as a whole. 

"Government officials came to every newspaper office and television station to make sure that nobody said anything about the fate of Kozlov. Only four days later on the television news in Mari one journalist described the beating in a live broadcast. The woman nearly lost her job", Malchev says, with a grim laugh.
      Vladimir Kozlov has worked with the Mari opposition for a long time. Last autumn he sent many appeals to President Vladimir Putin and complained that Markelov was seriously harassing the electoral work of the opposition.
      When the result of the election came out, Kozlov could not understand how the incumbent President could have received more than half of all the votes cast already in the first round, considering how strong anti-Markelov sentiments had been in the first round in the entire Republic.

To protest the election result, the opposition held a demonstration in front of the government building on December 21st. Two days later there was another mass meeting, and on Markelov�s inauguration day, January 15th, there was a third. Kozlov led them all.
      "On the eve of the most recent demonstration, officials of the Ministry of the Interior and the press section of the Republic tried to persuade me not to embarrass the President on the day of his coronation. We held a mass rally even though we did not get permission for it", Kozlov says.
      The demonstration concluded in mass arrests, and the beatings of two people. Meanwhile, in his inaugural address Markelov promised that he would respect the human rights of the Mari people.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat International Edition,
First published in print 1.3.2005