(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 27 August, 23 August, 16 August, 24 June, 20 April, 31 March and 30 March 1999** 18 October 1999 Caucasus: Seventeen journalists kidnapped in two year period Two Russian journalists, Dmitri Balbourov and Said Issayev, have been missing in the Caucasus region […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 27 August, 23 August, 16 August, 24 June, 20 April,
31 March and 30 March 1999**
18 October 1999
Caucasus: Seventeen journalists kidnapped in two year period
Two Russian journalists, Dmitri Balbourov and Said Issayev, have been
missing in the Caucasus region since mid-October. All the facts in the case
lead us to believe that they were kidnapped by one of the armed gangs active
in the region. If confirmed, their kidnapping would bring to four –
including one release in late March – the number of journalists kidnapped
this year in the Russian Caucasus. At least thirteen of their colleagues
have been kidnapped in the region since 1 January 1997. A number of them are
still detained.
Said Issayev, a correspondent of the Itar-Tass Russian press agency in
Grozny, is missing since 15 October. According to his agency, he was
allegedly kidnapped by an armed Chechen gang. The journalist was previously
kidnapped on 28 March and held for more than three months before finally
being released in late June in circumstances which remain unclear. Dmitri
Balbourov, a correspondent of the Moscow weekly Moskovskie Novosti, is
missing since 3 October. His last contact with his editorial office was on
that date. The journalist was in Nazran at the time, in Ingushia republic,
which neighbours Chechnya. The photographer, Vladimir Yatsin, who left
Moscow on 20 July, was kidnapped and taken to Chechnya shortly after his
arrival in the Nazran region. On 23 August, his kidnappers demanded his
family pay a two million dollar ransom. According to the eyewitness account
of a Russian army colonel who was recently released after having been
detained with the journalist, his health has seriously deteriorated. He has
allegedly lost the use of his legs. Anton Marianov, a journalist of the
daily Natcheku in the Volga region, held since the beginning of the year,
was released in late March.
Reporters sans frontières (RSF) fears that the intensifying of fighting in
the region may lead to an increase in the kidnapping of journalists. The
organisation recalls that since the numerous killings and kidnappings of
journalists (some ten reporters were killed between 1994 and 1996 while
covering the Russo-Chechen conflict), the Russian Caucasus has become one of
the most dangerous regions in the world for press workers. RSF demands that
local authorities, and also Russian authorities who are suspected of
displaying an accomodating attitude towards the kidnappers, commit
themselves to seeing to it that the kidnapping of journalists cease and take
all necessary measures to ensure that those responsible for these acts be
found and tried. Reporters sans frontières asks media organisations to send
only experienced journalists to the region, who are fully employed with
them, and to commit themselves to taking all necassary action to obtain
their release should they be kidnapped.
