Human rights activists urge Lithuanian authorities to allow Gatayevs, Chechen residents, communication with their adopted children

An international group of human rights activists has addressed an open letter to the Lithuanian authorities in protest against their refusal to permit further free communication for Khadizhat and Malik Gatayevs with their adopted children from Chechnya. The letter has been sent to Daliya Gribauskaite, president of Lithuania, chair of the committee on human rights in the Lithuanian parliament and the Lithuanian commissioner on the rights of children.

For reference, the asylum administration prohibit Khadizhat and Malik Gatayevs, who are now in Finland, to communicate with children residing in Lithuania by telephone or Internet in the Chechen language. Dainius Mietsus, director of the social asylum, explained the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent earlier that he was prepared to allow Malik Gatayev to talk with his adopted children on the condition that the conversation would be conducted through loudspeakers in Russian.

"We, the group of human rights activists, journalists and artists from different countries, should like to draw your attention to the fact of human rights violations in Lithuania, in particular, to the persecution of Malik and Khadizhat Gatayevs, a Chechen family. On March 23, the Lithuanian Supreme Court in its ruling already pointed out numerous violations of the law in the course of preliminary investigation and the trial. It issued an instruction to eliminate the violations and to conduct a comprehensive and unbiased retrial of the Gatayevs' case", declare the authors of the address to the Lithuanian authorities.

They note that such concerns are shared by Leonidas Donskis, one of the Lithuanian representatives in the European parliament, who has recently expressed his opinion on an alarming tendency in the behavior of Lithuanian functionaries who take part in the Gatayevs' case.

The human rights activists request unhindered communication for Khadizhat and Malik Gatayevs and their six adopted children who were placed for temporary care in a social asylum of Vilnius, and consider the barriers created by the asylum administration in the communication between the children in the asylum and their adoptive parents as unjustified.

The address also runs that Zaur, Gatayev's brother, and his wife Julia had to overcome numerous barriers in order to place the three natural children of Khadizhat and Malik Gatayevs under their temporary care, although there were no legal grounds for refusal. "The relatives of the arrested spouses have complied with all legal requirements. They have submitted the documents on permanent full-time employment and their Lithuanian citizenship. However, the request that the children should be granted a possibility to live with their aunt and uncle has been ignored", the letter notes.

The document also claims that an official confirmation has been received from the Vilnius psychiatric hospital to the effect that one of the Gatayevs' sons was subjected to a serious psychiatric treatment.

"The 11-year-old boy showed symptoms of a profound stress due to separation from the family. However, instead of placing him under the care of his relatives and thus mitigating his sufferings, the asylum administration has sent him to the hospital for mental patients. Julia Gatayeva and her three nephews were allowed to meet with the adopted children of Khadizhat and Malik in the presence of the guards only once during the year. This has become possible thanks to a wide public support of the Gatayevs' family by citizens of Finland, Lithuania, Russia, Latvia, USA and the United Kingdom", report the human rights activists.

The address prompts that all these children are citizens of the Russian Federation. "While talking with the children after our visit to the asylum we have been shocked to know that the six under-aged children have almost forgotten both Chechen and Russian because they were requested to communicate only in the Lithuanian language. We have been shocked to find out that the asylum administration is desperately striving to create conditions under which the children may forget their adoptive parents and other family members", note the human rights activists.

Oksana Chelysheva, human rights activist, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the address to the Lithuanian authorities was sent on April 24. No response has been given so far.