Antiwar campaign continues in Ryazan

An action to protest against the war in Chechnya was carried out in Ryazan on May 24. It was arranged within the framework of the antiwar campaign "How Many?" waged by efforts of the Ryazan Human Rights Coalition, which includes the Ryazan human rights society Memorial, the Ryazan Committee of Soldier's Mothers, the Ryazan Human Rights School, and the Sasovo human rights center Choice of Conscience.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., full-length black-and-white pictures of ordinary people were on Pobedy Square. One man was missing in each picture. There were only black silhouettes instead of these people. They were those who went to war and did not retuned or people whose destiny is unknown. Dumb questions were in the air. How much does one human life cost? How many people are there who went away and never came back? How long will it last?

The campaign in Ryazan is unexampled. People who came to the square could address these questions to the President by signing a letter of inquiry prepared by lawyers of the Ryazan Memorial society and the Committee of Soldier's Mothers. In conformity with the Russian legislation, state agencies are to respond to every citizen's letter of inquiry in the time set by the law, regardless of the number of these letters.

124 letters were signed during the May 24 action. As of now, altogether over 300 letters have been collected. They all are sent to the presidential administration. The newspaper How Many will be an information basis for the coverage of the campaign and its results, said head of the Coalition's information service Konstantin Smirnov. Approximately 3,000 copies of this newspaper were distributed on May 24. It will be published until the end of the campaign.

Editors note: See also the article "Memorial, Caucasian Knot conduct PR-campaign in Ryazan devoted to problems of Chechen war".