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KLMNO THE WORLD Recalling a journalist and an era


Four years after slaying, Russian activists mourn dreams of democracy


BY KATHY LALLY


moscow — Perhaps 200 people, more elderly than not, gathered Thursday in the late afternoon sunlight near a busy Moscow metro station to challenge the authorities and to remember a dead journalist. The authorities were watch-


ing. They had dispatched three busloads of young men — and a few young women — special po- lice in black leather jackets and black berets.Anambulance stood by.


Four years ago Thursday, at


4:03 p.m., Anna Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old reporter, was fatally shot in the elevator of her Mos- cow apartment building. She is one of 52 journalists killed in Russia since 1992. Her death has not been solved, though the in- vestigation continues. Her reporting about thewar in


Chechnya had angered the au- thorities as she traveledfearlessly in the war zone, investigating Chechen complaints of abuse at the hands ofRussian soldiers and describing widespread destruc- tion. She was critical of authority as other journalists grew silent, and was admired by the political opposition, which is carefully monitored here. Using sections of fence painted


red and green, the police had cordoned off the officially permit- ted space in front of a statue of Alexander Griboyedov, a 19th- century writer. Two metal detec- tors were set up, as the rules require, and plugged into a gen- eratorwith a long extension cord. The small crowd passed


through the detectors and stood before a lowplatform. Some pass- ersby stopped to listen; though they did not go through security, theywere just asmuch part of the crowd. Writers, actors, a gulag survi-


vor and others castigated the government, and especially Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, demanding to know why Politk- ovskaya and so many others had died, why the killers are so rarely found and why officials remain unresponsive. “Four years have passed and


nothing has changed,” said Garry Kasparov, the chess grandmaster who has formed an anti-Putin political movement. “Russian journalists are being killed be- cause themost awfulword for the authorities now is truth. This regime is based on lies. Annawas looking for the truth, and she paid for it with her life.” A streetcar clanged, the only


bell that would toll. A steady stream of people hurried by to- ward the Chistie Prudy metro station, carrying modish brief- cases, pushing expensive stroll- ers, toting smart shopping bags. “The only thing left for us now


is to recite poems,” said Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch, one of several speakers to remember Politkovskaya with verse.


NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES


At theMoscow demonstration in memory of Anna Politkovskaya, a woman displays a photo of the investigative journalist who was gunned down in herMoscow apartment building four years ago.


“The authorities are guilty in


all possible ways,” said Sergei A. Kovalyov, 80, who served seven years in labor camps for publish- ing an undergroundmagazine in the 1970s. “But we cannot de- mand an end to this arbitrari- ness. We have no strength. It is our shame.” They knew they were too few,


that more should care, but that did not diminish them. “Of course we are not thousands,” said Genrikh Borovik, a Soviet- era journalist, “but it is impor-


tant youhave comehere.Without journalists we cannot have a democratic country. We have al- ready lost toomany.” They dispersed to a Prokofiev


violin concerto and Shostak- ovich’s Fifth Symphony, the mu- sic Politkovskayawas listening to just before she died. “My generationwas part of the


first wave of democrats,” said AnatolyManokhin, 63, an official during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin who came to mourn not only the journalist but an era.


“We read Solzhenitsyn in samiz- dat, andwewere hauled in by the KGB. “Nowlook at us, a fewhundred


gray-haired people. Why not let themgather?” His own daughter, like so


many others, has no time for protests. She’s trying to earn money, he said, and build a ca- reer. “Now there is no democracy,”


he said, “and there is no second wave.”


lallyk@washpost.com DIGEST AFGHANISTAN


Peace council holds inaugural session Calling the meeting a “source


of hope” for Afghans, President Hamid Karzai on Thursday host- ed the first session of a 70-mem- ber peace council set up to guide efforts to reconcile with the Tali- ban and other insurgent groups. Publicly, the Taliban has said it


will not negotiate until foreign troops leave the country,yetmany Taliban leaders have reached out directly or indirectly to the high- est levels of the Afghan govern- ment. There have been no formal negotiations yet, only some con- tacts and signals from each side, according to Karzai’s spokesman, WaheedOmar. Meanwhile, airstrikes and


ground operations by NATO and Afghan troops killed dozens of insurgents, includingaseniorTal- iban leader who spearheaded at- tacks against security forces, the alliance said Thursday as the war in Afghanistan entered its 10th year.


—Associated Press HAITI


Report:Million-plus still in squalid camps More than amillion people are


still livingin1,300mostlyunman- aged camps nine months after


Haiti’s devastating earthquake, according to a report by Refugees International. The Washington-based non-


profit organization says its inves- tigators found during a recent visit to Haiti that sexual violence is rampant, gangs often roam freely and less than 30 percent of the camps havemanagers,mean- ingthat the restare largelyunable to communicate or coordinate with aidworkers. The report, released Thursday,


said the humanitarian response “appears paralyzed.” —Associated Press


CUBA


Thousands laid off as job cuts kick in Cubans faced a harsh newreal-


ity this week — the dismissal slip —as the government beganslash- ing state payrolls in a cost-cutting move that has created job insecu- rity in the Communist-run coun- try for the first time since the 1960s. Everywhere from hospitals to


hotels, workers were being laid off, and in the biggest known move so far, employees at state- owned Special Protection Servic- es Company were told the firm was being shut down and 23,000 people let go. The dismissals marked the be-


ginningofPresidentRaulCastro’s plantocut 10percentof the state’s


labor force, or about 500,000 workers, by April in the biggest reform since he succeeded older brother Fidel Castro in 2008. —Reuters


Toxic sludge reaches Danube: Toxic red sludge froma Hungari- an alumina plant reached the Danube on Thursday, and crews struggledtodiluteit toprotect the river fromwhat the primeminis- ter called an “unprecedented eco- logical catastrophe.” Experts said that damage beyond the borders of Hungary was unlikely to be great but that the threat had to be monitored closely. A spokesman forHungariandisaster crews said that they had seen sporadic fish deaths in the Raba and Mosoni- Danube riversbut that all fishhad died in the smaller Marcal River, whichwas hit by the spill first.


Kyrgyzcandidatewarnsofhigher rent for U.S. base: The head of a leadingpartyrunninginelections inKyrgyzstanonSunday saidthat if the coalition his party backs prevails, itwould probably sharp- ly increase the rent for a U.S. air base in the CentralAsian country. Temir Sariyev said that a govern- ment including his party would seek$100millionannually for the Manas base, up from the current $60million.


S. African icon retires: South Af- rican Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, who used his


BELA SZANDELSZKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Aman crosses a footbridge over theMarcal, the first river to be hit by the toxic red sludge from an alumina plant inHungary. “Life in the RiverMarcal has been extinguished,” said a rescue official.


church pulpit as a platform to help bring down apartheid, offi- cially retired from public duties Thursday. Tutu, whose lastmajor appearances came this summer whenSouthAfricahostedthe soc- cerWorldCup, said hewould step out of the spotlight to spendmore time at home with family. Presi- dent Obama said in a statement, “We will miss his insight and his


activism, but will continue to learn fromhis example.”


Swimmers sickened at Games in Delhi: More than a dozen swim- mers fromAustralia and England have fallen ill at the Common- wealth Games in the latest set- back for trouble-plagued organiz- ers in New Delhi. Organizers re- jected speculation that the water


quality at the aquatics complex was to blame.


Storm surge inundates Bangla- deshi coast: A wall of water whipped up by strong winds over the Bay of Bengal flooded coastal areas in Bangladesh over the past two days, forcing about 150,000 people to flee their homes. —Fromnews services


For Israelimilitary, accountability tests INTERNAL


INVESTIGATIONS


Rights activists: Effort doesn’t go far enough BY JOEL GREENBERG


jerusalem — A YouTube video showing a dancing Israeli soldier shimmying near a bound and blindfolded Palestinian woman went viral on the Internet this week, embarrassing the Israeli military and fueling fresh debate about morals and accountability in the armed forces. The army’s chief legal officer


ordered a military police investi- gation of the clip, which was posted two years ago but publi- cized this week on an Israeli tele- vision program. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued an emphatic condemnation. “The Israel Defense Forces is


one of the most moral armies in the world,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Humiliation of pris- onersanddetainees isnot theway of the State of Israel, nor that of the Jewish people.” The conduct of Israeli soldiers


in the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians had already stirred discussion this week after a mili- tary court convicted two former servicemen for using a boy as a human shield during Israel’s 2008-09 war in the Gaza Strip against the militant group Hamas. The soldiers had ordered theboy to openbags they suspect- ed had been booby-trapped. The conviction, the first for a


combat action during the war, served as an indicator of how effectively themilitary is address- ing alleged violations of interna- tional law a year after a U.N. fact-findingmissionaccusedboth Israel and Hamas of war crimes. The war left as many as 1,400 Palestinians dead, hundreds of themcivilians.TenIsraeli soldiers and three civilianswere killed. The army later conducted sev-


eral high-level internal investiga- tions and says it has questioned hundredsof soldiers andscoresof Palestinians, examined more than 150 incidents and opened 48 criminal probes into alleged vio- lations. Two-thirds of the investiga-


tions have been completed, with three indictments submitted to military courts, according to the army. Soldiers have been court- martialed in two of those cases— two in the human-shield case and onewhowas convictedof stealing a credit card fromaGaza home.A fourth soldier has been indicted on a charge of manslaughter in the shooting of a civilian walking with a group raising awhite flag. In three other cases, officers


have been disciplined, including two senior officers reprimanded for artillery shelling that hit a U.N. compound inGaza City. Still, there is a wide discrepan- cy between the number of crimi-


nalprosecutionsandthe reported cases of killing and wounding of noncombatant civilians, as docu- mented by human rights groups, the media and the U.N. fact-find- ingmission,whichwasheadedby South African jurist Richard Goldstone. Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitz, an


army spokeswoman, said the gap reflects the realities of combat as it was waged by the army against militants sheltering in a densely populated civilian environment. “The majority of the people that were killed were terrorists — we checked each name — and this is anamazing ratio,because insimi- lar war zones you have the com- plete opposite,” she said. “We were able to develop different kinds of munitions with a very high rate of precision in order to prevent the targeting of innocent civilians.” “The fact that we opened offic-


es fornongovernmentalorganiza- tions and Palestinians to file com- plaints and questioned a large number of people shows that we are going forward in a very trans- parent manner and that we have nothing to hide,” Leibovitz said. Details of some military investi- gations have been laid out in two reports issued this year by the Israeli ForeignMinistry. But both Israeli and foreign


human rights groups assert that the military’s investigations are far from transparent and that little has beendisclosed about the status of most cases. The army’s debriefings, in which officers in- terview their own subordinates, are unlikely to produce a full picture of the events in question, the rights advocates say. “A host of groups have quite


serious and well-documented al- legations, but we don’t know which have been investigated, or if criminal investigations are open or closed,” said Bill Van Esveld, a Jerusalem-based re- searcher for Human Rights Watch. “In addition to the num- bers, which are very troubling, there’s a lack of transparency about the criteria according to which they’re closing investiga- tions. It’s good that they’ve prose- cuted some people, but it’s been too little, and too low- level.” Sarit Michaeli, spokeswoman


for the Israelihumanrightsgroup B’Tselem, said the army tended to investigate soldiers for abuses such as beatings and theft more readily than killings by gunfire or shelling. According to military proce-


dures, cases of suspected wrong- doing are examined first through debriefings within the units in- volved, and if those produce find- ings that justify a criminal inves- tigation, the army’s advocate gen- eral can order a probe by the military police. The military’s approach “that


in a situation of armed conflict, hardly anybehaviorby a soldier is cause for a criminal investigation is one of the root causes of the culture of impunity in the army,” Michaeli said.


Greenberg is a special correspondent.


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2010


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