Antiwar campaign underway in Ryazan

The second public action of the "How Many?" antiwar campaign, waged by the Ryazan Human Rights Coalition with the informational support of the Caucasian Knot Internet information agency, took place in Ryazan on May 28. The first action was conducted on May 24. That day, Ryazan residents were offered to sign an address to the President of the Russian Federation requesting to give information on the real number of victims of the Chechen war. 352 people have already signed this latter of inquiry.

The collection of signatures under the address to the President continued on May 28. Besides, the organizers of the campaign prepared one more latter of inquiry about the measures taken to provide safety for people in the zone of the Chechen conflict, reasons for the authorities' inaction in this field, and responsibility of those guilty of people's deaths. The collection of signatures under this address started as early as May 26. This letter of inquiry is addressed to the Defense Minister and done in conformity with the legislation. Therefore the authorities will have to respond to every letter of inquiry in the time set by the law.

The action was carried out on Svobody Square. 184 people signed the address in three hours.  A new number of the How Many newspaper was distributed during the action. It holds the form of the address and different materials related to the campaign. This newspaper is distributed in Chechnya now too. Several hundreds of copies were handed over by Vyacheslav Feraposhkin, director of the human rights center Choice of Conscience, to local non-governmental organizations and individuals.

Editors note: See also the article "Antiwar campaign continues in Ryazan".