Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [205]
There is no doubt that this was a political martyrdom. Anna simply could not take no interest, although she surely knew better than anybody that there would be no pity for her either. She did not retreat, she rushed to try to save the children of Beslan, and would have saved many if she had not been poisoned. In Beslan they were afraid of her fearlessness.
She took part in the investigation of the tragedy in Beslan, in Nord-Ost, exposed the crimes in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. The authorities of every stripe feared these exposures, because it was simply impossible to silence Anna.
Who has dared to commit this dreadful, infamous act?
One way or another, the murder of Anna Politkovskaya is a consequence of the lawlessness of the government authorities and their immoral policies, which increasingly betray their true nature. It is a matter of honor for the law enforcement institutions to investigate this villainy thoroughly and to name the names of the murderers.
But if this crime is not solved, if the crime is not investigated properly and the murderers are not put in the dock, it will be clear in whose interests the murder was committed. Behind the invariable failure to investigate and solve such major crimes stand the authorities, whose limitless irresponsibility gives birth to them.
Voice of Beslan offers its condolences to the family and friends of Anna Politkovskaya, to all who knew her and worked with her, including the Novaya gazeta team.
Anna always was and will remain for us an example of amazing purity and courage.
Lech Walesa, Founder of Solidarity, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 1983, President of Poland, 1992–5
I did not know Anna Politkovskaya personally, but heard about her work, the work of a journalist who tirelessly defended the rights of those deprived of freedom, and who stood as a sentinel for truth and freedom of speech. She knew she risked paying the highest price for her activity. Her murder is a dreadful crime and a violation of free speech. It is a stain on the honor of the representatives of the free world, and also on my own.
When talking to the Russian government authorities, people in the free world should not talk only about oil, gas, or the conquest of space. We should speak also about the problems of guaranteeing freedom, tolerance and respect for the views of others. This needs to be done if only to prevent a repetition of such crimes in the future.
For my part, I pray for Anna Politkovskaya in the words of an old Polish prayer, “Send her Thy eternal peace, O Lord.” Some day we will meet in another, better world.
Grigoriy Yavlinsky, Leader of the Yabloko Political Party
The Yabloko Party considers the murder of Anna Politkovskaya to be political. Direct political responsibility for her murder is borne by those in charge of the country who condone the physical extermination of their political opponents. Her journalism was a profession not of the word, but of deeds, action. For the publication of facts and evidence of crimes committed by the government authorities and in their name, she was hated by people who did not trouble to conceal their hatred. Her striving to be in the most difficult situations in order to intervene, to help, to tell the truth, elicited active counter-measures. She was prevented from reaching Beslan in September 2004. What she has been kept away from now she can no longer tell us. She was a very well-known, internationally renowned political journalist. For a murder of this kind the President bears personal responsibility. For the murder of a well-known, outstanding political journalist who was systematic in her opposition, the state authorities bear full responsibility. Russia, having lost a journalist of this calibre, has been diminished by another major figure.
Yegor Yeremeyev,