24 December 2003, 22:23
Authorities try to prevent preparation of Extraordinary Congress of the People of Kalmykia
On December 18, 2003, a meeting was held at the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kalmykia between the representative of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Adamov, head of the Federal Security Service department in the Republic of Kalmykia Gryaznov, prosecutor of the republic Khlopushin and members of the Organizational Committee making arrangements for the Extraordinary Congress of the People of Kalmykia. The action is being prepared by regional branches of different Russian political parties and republican NGOs that are in opposition to Ilyumzhinov's regime. The authorities in Kalmykia are making titanic efforts not to let the Congress take place.
At the meeting, the heads of law-enforcement agencies demanded that the members of the Organizational Committee cancel the Congress. Their demand had the nature of an ultimatum as they threatened they would institute criminal proceedings against all the organizers if they disobeyed. They named calls for active disobedience to legal demands of authorities and calls for mass riots as a possible ground for the actions against the organizers of the Congress. The high-ranking officials were not embarrassed by their opponent's argument that, according to Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, citizens of Russia have a right to assemble peacefully, without arms, to hold meetings, to stage demonstrations and pickets.
Having seen that people were not going to resign the idea of holding the Congress, the officials started demanding that they put off the Congress till April 2004, that is to say, the period following the election of the Russian president. Thus they showed the cause of the law-enforcement agencies' illegal interference in the activity of NGOs. Mr. Putin does not need extra trouble.
Source: Kalmyk Human Rights Center (Elista)
