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PP RUEHAST RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR
DE RUEHC #5556 0212320
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 212312Z JAN 09
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TO RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE PRIORITY 7241
INFO ORG FOR SECURITY CO OP IN EUR COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS STATE 005556 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM OSCE RS KDEM
SUBJECT: OSCE PERMANENT COUNCIL:  STATEMENT ABOUT MURDERS 
OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS 
 
¶1. (U) Post is authorized to present the following statement 
at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on January 22. 
 
Begin text: 
 
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, 
 
The United States was shocked and saddened by two recent and 
brazen murders of human rights defenders in Russia.  On 
January 19, Stanislav Markelov, director of the Rule of Law 
Institute in Moscow, and Anastasia Baburova, a journalist 
with the Novaya Gazeta, were murdered in broad daylight in 
central Moscow.  An attorney who spent the better part of the 
decade pursuing human rights and social justice cases, 
Markelov had represented Anna Politkovskaya prior to her 
death in 2006.  The murders occurred minutes after Markelov 
announced at a press conference that he would continue to 
fight the early release from prison of Yuri Budanov, a former 
Russian tank commander who was convicted in July 2005 of 
strangling an 18-year-old Chechen woman in 2000.  With Ms. 
Baburova,s death, Novaya Gazeta has lost four reporters to 
murder or other mysterious circumstances since 2000. 
 
We would welcome an initiative by Russia to report to the 
Permanent Council on the status of their investigations and 
their efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of these 
crimes, which unfortunately are not isolated cases.  If left 
without justice, the killings of journalists and human rights 
activists have a chilling effect on freedom and respect for 
the rule of law in a society. 
 
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. 
 
End Text. 
CLINTON