ACPC Exclusive: Adam Delimkhanov threatens human rights workers on Grozny TV
Chechnya is becoming a death zone for human rights workers as demonstrated by the latest heinous murders of the married couple - Alik Dzhabrailov and Zarema Sadulayeva, the head of the charity Save the Generation which provides aid and psychological support to disabled children, orphans, and victims of the military conflict in Chechnya. The couple was kidnapped from their Grozny office and later found in the trunk of a car with bullet wounds to the chest and head. The murder comes less than a month after a prominent activist, Natalya Estemirova, was similarly kidnapped outside her Grozny apartment and later shot to death.
Human rights organizations have accused Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s Kremlin-appointed president and ex-rebel and members of his private militia, of Estemirova’s murder, citing an atmosphere of impunity and persecution of anyone critical of Kadyrov’s brutal regime. Kadyrov vehemently denied any involvement in Estemirova’s death, while calling the activist a woman “that no one needs” who lacked “any honor or sense of shame.”
Kadyrov similarly denounced the slayings of Dhzhabrailov and Sadulayeva calling the murders “an attempt to intimidate the people of Chechnya.” However, video footage broadcast on Grozny TV just days before the murder of Estemirova questions the earnestness of Kadyrov’s assertions by showing Adam Delimkhanov, Kadryov’s closest associate, representative to the Russian State Duma, and de facto commander of Kadyrov’s powerful militia, openly threatening human rights workers in Chechnya.
Below is the video footage and transcript:
“There are certain people who call themselves ‘human rights defenders,’ who actually help these militant scum [sic], these criminal-militants, who work for them and do their dirty work, promote their politics,… they carry on various dialogues…, [sic]
But I know the mood among the security services, the society; I know what the simple folk are saying. They’re saying that the claims made by these people [human rights workers], and a certain Aushev and others, in other words, what they’re saying and doing, their evil deeds are no better than those of the militants hiding out in the forest.
These people [human rights activists] are confusing the people with their rhetoric, are deceiving them. But they won’t fool the people. They won’t succeed in this. Truth and justice will always prevail… Our soldiers here, commanders, our guys are always asking me, ‘what do these people (activists) want?’ and I tell them that they’re not worth a penny to me. [sic]
God willing, all those that support evil, we will hold responsible. Each one of them, be they Chechen or Ingush or whom have you, should know, that they will pay for their words…”
Translated by The American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus