Widows of the militants who perished in Kabardino-Balkaria are under pressure

It has become known to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that officers of law enforcement bodies are exerting pressure on the widows of the militants who perished in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Thus, on June 5, 2007, Zhanna Eristaeva, a resident of Nalchik and wife of the perished militant, was summoned to Interior Department (OVD) No. 2 for interrogation. She was asked about her family, her activities, places she visited and persons she met with. Then, the inspector took a photo camera, put her against the wall and made a full-face and a profile photos. Larissa Alakaeva, her mother-in-law, told later that the young woman was all in tears - from abuse and humiliation.

To her question about the aim of photographing, the officer answered, "To start a file."

"What is my guilt?" Zhanna Eristaeva asks. "I've a small child, and I'm a 3rd category invalid. After each interrogation my family and myself are under nervous shock. I live in constant fear.

Why have they registered me, have I committed a crime? When they call me, they never send a written summon. I perceive all that as persecution."

On June 5, Zhanneta Hazhbieva, widow of perished R. Nafedzev, was also brought to the OVD No. 2. She was told that she had been summoned by an officer of the criminal investigation department. "Since I couldn't leave my three children with my grandmother of 80 who started to shiver from excitement, I took the smallest boy with me," Zhanneta Hazhbieva tells her story. "I was asked whom I live with, what I do, etc.

Toward the end they told me that they need to take my photo. To my question 'what for?' they answered that they didn't know it themselves."

In the Zolskiy District of Kabardino-Balkaria, militiamen visited the widow of perished G. Afaunov. However, Afaunov's mother did not let them in, drove them away and wrote a complaint on them herself. The head of the district militia presented his claims - why the widow kept dressing defiantly. He meant her wearing a hijab.

Making comments on these facts, advocate Larissa Dorogova said that this was a violation of elementary human rights - intervention into one's private life.