UN: by consent to international investigation of Estemirova's murder, Russian authorities will show their intention to find gunmen

Rashid Aluash, adviser of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Russian Federation, believes that by consenting to hold an independent international investigation into Natalia Estemirova's murder, Russian leaders will manifest their commitment to reveal the culprits.

We remind you that UN independent experts in the sphere of human rights have offered their help to Russian government in investigation of a series of murders of human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists, including the murder of Natalia Estemirova, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial".

According to Rashid Aluash, this statement was made by independent experts of the United Nations on their own initiative. "They are the so-called independent UN experts, owners of the mandates of "Special Rapporteurs". They work on particular topical issues. The statement was sent to Russian authorities, and the press release about the offer issued by our office in Geneva was received yesterday by our representative office in Moscow," Mr Aluash said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The statement of seven UN experts in the area of human rights says that they are sending their request to Russian authorities aiming to get an invitation in response to come to the country and help the authorities in running an independent investigation into a number of murders of human rights activists who were defending human rights, lawyers and journalists accomplished in recent years; many of them were related to the situation with observance of human rights in Chechnya and other republics of Northern Caucasus, including Natalia Estemirova's recent murder.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told at the UN headquarters in Geneva that so far there was no answer of the Russian party to experts' letter.