(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, RSF strongly protested the aggression by Russian federal armed forces against Rouslan Mussayev, a Chechen cameraman working for the Associated Press. “We call once again on the Russian armed forces to respect the Geneva Convention which stipulates that ‘journalists must be considered to be non-belligerents […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, RSF strongly protested the aggression by Russian federal armed forces against Rouslan Mussayev, a Chechen cameraman working for the Associated Press. “We call once again on the Russian armed forces to respect the Geneva Convention which stipulates that ‘journalists must be considered to be non-belligerents and protected as such during times of conflict’. We ask you to take all necessary measures to ensure that the officers and soldiers responsible for this attack are identified and punished,” stated Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general.
According to information obtained by RSF, Mussayev was arrested on 5 September 2000 during an inspection on the grounds that he was not registered as a resident of Grozny, taken to the Khankala military base, violently hit by Russian soldiers, and kept all night at the bottom of a well located near the Khankala military base with four other Chechen prisoners. The next day he was taken in a military vehicle back to the border with Ingushetia where he was released.
The military governor of Khankala, Colonel Gueorgui Seropian, stated that no person by the name of Mussayev had been detained at the Khankala base. “These denials are not enough to clear the names of the soldiers coming under his authority, and they show once again the little importance given by Russian military officials to the fate of journalists in Chechnya,” said RSF’s secretary-general.
