A tribute to Natasha

Malalai Joya was the second recipient of the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award in 2008. The first recipient, Natalya Estemirova who handed it on to her, was assassinated just a few days ago (July 15th).

A courageous human rights defender and freelance journalist from Chechnya, 'Natasha' was kidnapped and murdered because, like Malalai Joya, she refused to keep silent or abandon her commitment to exposing injustice in her country.

Since 2000 and throughout the armed conflict in Chechnya, she worked for Memorial, Russia’s biggest human rights organisation. Natasha was Anna Politkovskaya's close friend and colleague. She was Anna’s most frequent companion during travel and investigations in Chechnya. They investigated a number of cases together – about which Anna wrote for “Novaya Gazeta” . Natasha wrote for Memorial’s website and for local newspapers.

Half-Russian, half-Chechen she also acted as Anna's interpreter in Chechnya and went everywhere with her. After graduation Natasha taught history in Chechen schools, then in 1991 she became one of the leaders of a teachers’ strike demanding better pay and better conditions.

During the armed conflict between the Russian Republics of Ingushetia and North Ossetia in 1992, Natasha helped bring refugees to safety and helped free hostages. During the first war in Chechnya in 1998, she collected testimonies from civilians who were tortured by the Russian forces in unofficial detention facilities, the so-called “filtration camps”. She produced a TV series and wrote articles in the Chechen newspapers about the prisoners in those camps.

Her last published article in the UK, on the abductions and abuses still going in in Chechnya under President Ramzan Kadyrov, appeared in The Independent on Friday 17 July, 2009. It was written in August 2008 but never published.