Razan رزن
—  city  —
Razan
Coordinates: 35°23′12″N 49°02′02″E / 35.38667°N 49.03389°E / 35.38667; 49.03389Coordinates: 35°23′12″N 49°02′02″E / 35.38667°N 49.03389°E / 35.38667; 49.03389
Country	Iran
Province	Hamadan
County	Razan
Bakhsh	Central
Population (2006)
• Total	11,390
Time zone	IRST (UTC+3:30)
• Summer (DST)	IRDT (UTC+4:30)

Razan^[1] (Persian: رزن‎) is a city in and capital of Razan County, Hamadan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 11,390, in 2,871 families.^[2]

References[link]

v t e Hamadan Province Capital Hamadan Counties and Cities Asadabad County Asadabad Bahar County Bahar Lalejin Mohajeran Salehabad Famenin County Famenin Hamadan County Hamadan Juraqan Maryanaj Qahavand Kabudarahang County Kabudarahang Gol Tappeh Shirin Su Malayer County Malayer Azandarian Jowkar Samen Zangeneh Nahavand County Nahavand Barzul Firuzan Giyan Razan County Razan Damaq Qorveh-e Darjazin Tuyserkan County Tuyserkan Farasfaj Sarkan Sights Ganjnameh Shrine of Habakkuk, Toyserkan Hamedan Stone Lion Ali Sadr Cave Hamedan Museum of Natural History Noshijan fire temple,Malayer Shrine of Esther and Mordechai, Hamedan Baba Taher Mausleum, Hamedan Avicenna mausoleum, Hamedan Emamzadeh Yahya,Hamedan Alvand ski resort Pirsolayman lagoon Median capital of Hegmataneh, Hamedan Ecbatan dam Geyan lagoon Baba-pireh shrine Ecbatana

This Hamadan province location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (Russian: А́нна Степа́новна Политко́вская; Ukrainian: Га́нна Степа́нівна Політко́вська; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin.^[1] On 7 October 2006 she was shot and killed in the lift of her block of flats, an unsolved assassination that continues to attract international attention.^[2][3][4]

Politkovskaya made her reputation reporting from Chechnya.^[5] Her post-1999 articles about conditions in Chechnya were turned into several books;^[6] Russian readers' main access to her investigations and publications was through Novaya gazeta, a Russian newspaper known for its often-critical investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. From 2000 onwards, she received numerous international awards for her work. In 2004, she published a personal account: Putin's Russia.^[7]

Early life[link]

Politkovskaya was born Anna Mazepa in New York City in 1958. Her parents, diplomats at the United Nations, were Ukrainian. Politkovskaya grew up in Moscow; she graduated from Moscow State University's school of journalism in 1980. While there, she defended a thesis about the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva and married fellow student Alexander Politkovsky. They had two children, Vera and Ilya. At first Alexander was better known, joining TV journalist Vladislav Listyev as one of the hosts on the late-night TV programme Vzglyad. Apart from her childhood years, Politkovskaya spent no more than a few weeks outside of Russia at any one time, even when her life came under threat. She acquired a US passport, but never relinquished her Russian citizenship.^[8]

Journalistic work[link]

Politkovskaya worked for Izvestia from 1982 to 1993 as a reporter and editor of the emergencies and accidents section. From 1994 to 1999, she worked as the assistant chief editor of Obshchaya Gazeta, headed by Yegor Yakovlev, where she wrote frequently about social problems—particularly the plight of refugees. From June 1999 to 2006, she wrote columns for the biweekly Novaya gazeta, a newspaper with strong investigative reporting that was critical of the new post-1991 regime from the outset. She published several award-winning books about Chechnya, life in Russia, and President Putin's regime, including Putin's Russia.^[9][10]

Reports from Chechnya[link]

Politkovskaya won a number of awards for her work.^[10][11] She used each of these occasions to urge greater concern and responsibility by Western governments that, after the 11 September attacks on the United States, welcomed Putin's contribution to their "War on Terror". She talked to officials, the military and the police and also frequently visited hospitals and refugee camps, in Chechnya and in the neighbouring Ingushetia, to interview those injured and uprooted by the renewed fighting.^[12]

In numerous articles critical of the war in Chechnya and the pro-Russian regime there, Politkovskaya described alleged abuses committed by Russian military forces, Chechen rebels, and the Russian-backed administration led by Akhmad Kadyrov and his son Ramzan Kadyrov.^{[citation needed]} She also chronicled human rights abuses and policy failures elsewhere in the North Caucasus. In one characteristic instance in 1999, she not only wrote about the plight of an ethnically-mixed old peoples' home under bombardment in Grozny, but helped to secure the safe evacuation of its elderly inhabitants, with the aid of her newspaper and public support. Her articles, many of which form the basis of A Dirty War (2001) and A Small Corner of Hell (2003), depict a conflict that brutalised both Chechen fighters and conscript soldiers in the federal army, and created hell for the civilians caught between them. As Politkovskaya reported, the order supposedly restored under the Kadyrovs became a regime of endemic torture, abduction, and murder, by either the new Chechen authorities or the various federal forces based in Chechnya.^[9] One of her last investigations was into the alleged mass poisoning of Chechen school children by a strong and unknown chemical substance which incapacitated them for many months.^[13]

Criticism of Vladimir Putin and FSB[link]

After Politkovskaya became widely known in the West, she was commissioned to write Putin's Russia (later subtitled Life in a Failing Democracy), a broader account of her views and experiences after former KGB lieutenant colonel Vladimir Putin became Boris Yeltsin's Prime Minister, and then succeeded him as President of Russia. This included Putin's pursuit of the Second Chechen War. In the book, she accused the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) of stifling all civil liberties in order to establish a Soviet-style dictatorship, but admitted

[It] is we who are responsible for Putin's policies ... [s]ociety has shown limitless apathy ... [a]s the Chekists have become entrenched in power, we have let them see our fear, and thereby have only intensified their urge to treat us like cattle. The KGB respects only the strong. The weak it devours. We of all people ought to know that.

She also wrote:

We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial—whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit.^[14]

"People often tell me that I am a pessimist, that I don't believe in the strength of the Russian people, that I am obsessive in my opposition to Putin and see nothing beyond that", she opens an essay titled "Am I Afraid?", finishing it—and the book—with the words "If anybody thinks they can take comfort from the 'optimistic' forecast, let them do so. It is certainly the easier way, but it is the death sentence for our grandchildren."^{[15][16][17][18][19][20]}

[edit] A Russian Diary

In May 2007, Random House posthumously published Politkovskaya's A Russian Diary, containing extracts from her notebook and other writings. Subtitled A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, the book gives her account of the period from December 2003 to August 2005, including what she described as "the death of Russian parliamentary democracy", the Beslan school hostage crisis, and the "winter and summer of discontent" from January to August 2005.^[21] Because she was murdered "while translation was being completed, final editing had to go ahead without her help", wrote translator Arch Tait in a note to the book.^[22]

"Who killed Anna and who lay beyond her killer remains unknown", wrote Jon Snow, the main news anchor for the United Kingdom's Channel 4 in his foreword to the book's UK edition. "Her murder robbed too many of us of absolutely vital sources of information and contact", he concluded, "Yet it may, ultimately, be seen to have at least helped prepare the way for the unmasking of the dark forces at the heart of Russia's current being. I must confess that I finished reading A Russian Diary feeling that it should be taken up and dropped from the air in vast quantities throughout the length and breadth of Mother Russia, for all her people to read."^[23]

Attempted hostage negotiations[link]

Politkovskaya was closely involved in attempts to negotiate the release of hostages in the Moscow theater hostage crisis of 2002. When the Beslan school hostage crisis erupted in the North Caucasus in early September 2004, Politkovskaya attempted to fly there to act as a mediator, but was taken off the plane, acutely ill, in Rostov-on-Don (see Poisoning).^[24][25]

Relationships with Russian authorities[link]

In Moscow, Politkovskaya was not invited to press conferences or gatherings that Kremlin officials might attend, in case the organisers were suspected of harbouring sympathies toward her. Despite this, many top officials allegedly talked to her when she was writing articles or conducting investigations. According to one of her articles, they did talk to her, "but only when they weren't likely to be observed: outside in crowds, or in houses that they approached by different routes, like spies".^[9] She also claimed that the Kremlin tried to block her access to information and discredit her:

I will not go into the other joys of the path I have chosen, the poisoning, the arrests, the threats in letters and over the Internet, the telephoned death threats, the weekly summons to the prosecutor general's office to sign statements about practically every article I write (the first question being, "How and where did you obtain this information?"). Of course I don't like the constant derisive articles about me that appear in other newspapers and on Internet sites presenting me as the madwoman of Moscow. I find it disgusting to live this way. I would like a bit more understanding.^[9]

Death threats[link]

After Politkovskaya's murder, Vyacheslav Izmailov, her colleague at Novaya gazeta—a military man who had helped negotiate the release of dozens of hostages in Chechnya before 1999—said that he knew of at least nine previous occasions when Politkovskaya had faced death, commenting "Frontline soldiers do not usually go into battle so often and survive".^[26]

Politkovskaya herself did not deny being afraid, but felt responsible and concerned for her informants. While attending a December 2005 conference on the freedom of the press in Vienna organised by Reporters Without Borders, she said "People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think. In fact, one can even get killed for giving me information. I am not the only one in danger. I have examples that prove it."^[27] She often received death threats as a result of her work, including being threatened with rape and experiencing a mock execution after being arrested by the military in Chechnya.^[28][29]

Detention in Chechnya[link]

Early in 2001, Politkovskaya was detained by military officials in the southern mountain village of Khatuni.^[30] She was investigating complaints from 90 Chechen families about "punitive raids" by federal forces. She interviewed a Chechen grandmother from a village of Tovzeni, Rosita, who endured 12 days of beatings, electric shocks, and confinement in a pit. The men who arrested Rosita presented themselves as FSB employees. The torturers requested a ransom from Rosita's relatives, who negotiated a smaller amount that they were able to pay. Another interviewee described killings and rapes of Chechen men in a "concentration camp with a commercial streak" near the village of Khatuni.^[31][32][33]

Upon leaving the camp, Politkovskaya was detained, interrogated, beaten, and humiliated by Russian troops: "the young officers tortured me, skillfully hitting my sore spots. They looked through my children's pictures, making a point of saying what they would like to do to the kids. This went on for about three hours."^[34] She was subjected to a mock execution using a BM-21 Grad multiple-launch rocket system, then poisoned with a cup of tea that made her vomit. Her tape records were confiscated. She described her mock execution:

A lieutenant colonel with a swarthy face and dull dark bulging eyes said in a businesslike tone: "Let's go. I'm going to shoot you." He led me out of the tent into complete darkness. The nights here are impenetrable. After we walked for a while, he said, "Ready or not, here I come." Something burst with pulsating fire around me, screeching, roaring, and growling. The lieutenant colonel was very happy when I crouched in fright. It turned out that he had led me right under the "Grad" rocket launcher at the moment it was fired.^[34]

After the mock execution, the Russian lieutenant colonel said to her: "Here's the banya. Take off your clothes." Seeing that his words had no effect, he got very angry: "A real lieutenant colonel is courting you, and you say no, you militant bitch."^[34]

In 2006, the European Court of Human Rights found the Russian Federation responsible for the forced disappearance of a suspected Ingush militant, Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev. Colonel-General Alexander Baranov, the commander of the Russian Caucasus deployment mentioned by Politkovskaya's camp guide as the one who ordered captured militants to be kept in the pits, was filmed as he ordered Yandiyev to be executed.^[35]

Poisoning[link]

While flying south in September 2004 to help negotiate with those who had taken over a thousand hostages in a school in Beslan (North Ossetia), Politkovskaya fell violently ill and lost consciousness after drinking tea. She had reportedly been poisoned, with some accusing the former Soviet secret police poison facility.^[36][37]

Threats from OMON officer[link]

In 2001, Politkovskaya fled to Vienna, following e-mail threats that a police officer whom she had accused of atrocities against civilians in Chechnya was looking to take revenge. Corporal Sergei Lapin was arrested and charged in 2002, but the case against him was closed the following year. In 2005, Lapin was convicted and jailed for the torture and subsequent disappearance of a Chechen civilian detainee, the case exposed by Politkovskaya in her article "Disappearing People".^[12][38][39] A former fellow officer of Lapin's was among the suspects in Politkovskaya's murder, on the theory that the motive might have been revenge for her part in Lapin's conviction.^[39]

Conflict with Ramzan Kadyrov[link]

In 2004, Politkovskaya had a conversation with Ramzan Kadyrov, then Prime Minister of Chechnya. One of his assistants said to her, "Someone ought to have shot you back in Moscow, right on the street, like they do in your Moscow". Ramzan repeated after him: "You're an enemy. To be shot...."^[40] On the day of her murder, said Novaya Gazeta's chief editor Dmitry Muratov, Politkovskaya had planned to file a lengthy story on the torture practices believed to be used by the Chechen security detachments known as Kadyrovites. In her final interview, she described Kadyrov—now president of Chechnya—as the "Chechen Stalin of our days".^[41]

Murder, investigation and trial[link]

Grave of Anna Politkovskaya at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in Moscow

Politkovskaya was found dead in the lift of her block of flats in central Moscow on 7 October 2006. She had been shot twice in the chest, once in the shoulder, and once in the head at point-blank range.^[42]

The funeral was held on 10 October 2006 at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery in the outskirts of Moscow. Before Politkovskaya was buried, more than one thousand mourners filed past her coffin to pay their last respects. Dozens of Politkovskaya's colleagues, public figures, and admirers of her work gathered at the cemetery. No high-ranking Russian officials could be seen at the ceremony.^[43] Politkovskaya was buried near her father, who had died shortly before her. There was widespread international reaction to the assassination. Some of her colleagues and friends accused the Russian authorities of negligence in doing nothing to prevent her murder, or even of actual involvement in her assassination.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2007, a large posthumous collection of Anna's articles, entitled With Good Reason, was published by Novaya gazeta and launched at the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow^[44] The event came soon after the birth of Anna's namesake grandchild: Vera's daughter was named Anna in honour of her grandmother. A few months later, 10 men were detained on suspicion of various degrees of involvement Politkovskaya's murder.^[45] Four of them were brought before the Moscow District Military Court in October 2008.

Trial[link]

Three men were charged with directly aiding Politkovskaya's killer, who was allegedly the brother of two of the suspects. There was insufficient evidence to charge the fourth man—an FSB colonel—with the murder, though he was suspected of a leading role in its organisation; he stood trial at the same time for another offence. The case was held before a jury (a rare occurrence in Russia)^[46] and, after the jurors insisted, was open to the press and public.^[47][48][49]

On 25 November 2008, it was reported that Politkovskaya's murder might have been ordered by a politician inside Russia. Murad Musayev, a lawyer for the men on trial, told journalists that the case notes—as one of the interpretations of the crime—mentioned that a politician, based in Russia (but not named in those notes), was behind her death.^[50][51]

On 5 December 2008, Sergei Sokolov, a senior editor of Novaya Gazeta, testified in court that he had received information (from sources he would not name) that defendant Dzhabrail Makhmudov was an agent of the FSB. He said Makhmudov's uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who was serving a 12-year jail sentence for the attempted murder of a Ukrainian businessman, also worked for the FSB.^[52][53]

Russia's Investigative Committee—with help of the Belgian police—arrested Rustam Makhmudov, the man suspected of killing Anna Politkovskaya, after he was detained in the Chechen Republic and transported to Moscow for questioning.^[54]

Following the acquittal[link]

After all three men were acquitted of Politkovskaya's murder in February 2009, her children Vera and Ilya, their lawyers Karinna Moskalenko and Anna Stavitskaya, and senior Novaya gazeta editor Sergei Sokolov gave their reaction to the trial at a press conference in Moscow.^[55] In his comments on the end of the trial, Andrew McIntosh, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Sub-Committee on the Media and Rapporteur on media freedom, expressed frustration at what he perceived to be a lack of progress in investigating the murder, or the inability of the Russian authorities to find her killers:

Two years ago, in its Resolution 1535 (2007), the Assembly called on the Russian Parliament to closely monitor the progress in the criminal investigations regarding the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and hold the authorities accountable for any failures to investigate or prosecute. The closure of the trial yesterday can only be regarded as a blatant failure. I call on the Russian authorities and Parliament to relaunch a proper investigation and shed light on this murder, which undermines not only freedom of expression in Russia, but also its democratic foundation based on the rule of law. There are no excuses for these flawed investigations into murders of politically critical journalists writing against corruption and crime within government, such as the murders of Georgy Gongadze in Ukraine in 2000 and Paul Klebnikov in Moscow in 2004.^[56]

Before the trial ended, Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer who had investigated many of the abuses documented by Politkovskaya, was assassinated in Moscow on 19 January 2009^[57] Journalist Anastasia Baburova, who was with Markelov at the time, died later of injuries sustained while trying to intervene.^[57] Baburova was a freelance contributor to Novaya gazeta, and Markelov represented the newspaper on many occasions. In November 2009, the first public results of the investigation into the double shooting suggested that the murders had no immediate connection to the Politkovskaya assassination.^[58]

More closely related to Politkovskaya's work as a journalist was the 15 July 2009 murder of Natalia Estemirova. A board member of the Memorial human rights society and one of Politkovskaya's key informants, guides, and colleagues in Chechnya, Estemirova was abducted in Grozny and found dead, several hours later, in the neighbouring Republic of Ingushetia.^[59]

All three murders highlighted the impunity with which such activists were being killed (see List of journalists killed in Russia). After the first killing, Novaya gazeta chief editor Muratov asked publicly for his journalists to be trained in self-defence, with firearms if necessary. When Estemirova's death was followed that August by the killing of two more human-rights activists in Grozny—Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband Umar Dzhabrailov—Novaya gazeta announced it could no longer take the risk of sending its journalists to Chechnya.^{[citation needed]}

The Chechen authorities expressed their offence at this "slur". In an interview with Radio Liberty, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov voiced statements about Estemirova that contradicted his earlier expressions of public concern and regret.^[60] She was a woman, he said, who had "never possessed any honour, dignity or conscience".^{[citation needed]}

On 5 August 2009, the prosecution service's objection to the acquittals in the Politkovskaya trial was upheld by the Supreme Court, and a new trial was ordered.^[61]

In August 2011, Russian prosecutors claimed they were close to solving the murder after detaining Dmitry Pavliuchenkov, a former policeman, who they alleged was the principal organiser.^[62] The following month Kommersant Daily reported that according to Pavlyuchenkov, he was acting on instructions from businessman and Putin critic Boris Berezovsky.^[63]

Documentary[link]

• 2008, documentary by Masha Novikova Anna, Seven Years on the Frontline; 78 min., the Netherlands.

• In 2008, Swiss director Eric Bergkraut made a documentary, Letter to Anna, about Politkovskaya's life and death. It includes interviews with her son Ilya, her daughter Vera, her ex-husband Alexander Politkovsky, and others—such as businessman Boris Berezovsky and film-maker Andrei Nekrasov.^[64][65][66]

• In 2011, Russian director Marina Goldovskaya made the documentary A bitter taste of Freedom, a Swedish Russian American co-production. The title relates to an earlier documentary film by the same director, A taste of freedom (1991) which is about Russian life in the new, post-Soviet reality and features the Politkovsky family.

A bitter taste of Freedom was shown at the 27. Warsaw International Film Festival where it won the Best Documentary Feature Award. From the festival's programme^[67]:

"She was brave, she was bold, and she was beautiful. In her fearless quest to uncover the wrongdoings of the Russian State, Anna Politkovskaya inspired awe in some and fear in countless others. An investigative journalist for Moscow's liberal 'Novaya Gazeta', she was the only spokesperson for victims of Putin's government. Hers was a lonely voice, yet loud enough for the entire country to hear. It was too loud. At age 48 she was assassinated for simply doing her job. A documentary about the bravery of the human spirit. As the director says, it 'is especially important now, when the world is so full of cynicism and corruption, when we so desperately need more people with Anna's level of courage and integrity and commitment'."

Anna Politkovskaya Award[link]

The human rights organization Reach All Women in War (RAW in WAR), which particularly focuses on protecting women's rights during war time, announced in 2007 that they would be awarding an annual "Anna Politkovskaya Award" in Politkovskaya's honor. The award recognizes "a woman human rights defender from a conflict zone in the world who, like Anna, stands up for the victims of this conflict, often at great personal risk".^[68]

The award was first given in October 2007 to Anna Politkovskaya's friend and colleague Natalia Estemirova,^[69] who was herself found shot dead in 2009.^[59]

Other winners of the Anna Politkovskaya Award:

• 2008: Malalai Joya, Afghanistan
• 2009: One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality, Iran
• 2010: Halima Bashir, Sudan
• 2011: Razan Zaitouneh, Syria^[68]

Awards[link]

• 2001: "Golden Pen Prize" of the Russian Union of Journalists^[70]
• 2001: Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism
• 2002: Norwegian Authors' Union Freedom of Expression Prize ("Ytringsfrihetsprisen")
• 2002: PEN American Center Freedom to Write Award
• 2002: International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award^[71]
• 2003: Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage^[72]
• 2003: Hermann Kesten Medal
• 2004: Olof Palme Prize (shared with Lyudmila Alexeyeva and Sergei Kovalev)
• 2004: Vázquez Montalbán Award of International Journalism
• 2005: Civil Courage Prize (with Min Ko Naing and Munir Said Thalib)^[73]
• 2005: Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media
• 2006: International Journalism Award named after Tiziano Terzani
• 2006: World Press Freedom Hero of the International Press Institute^[74]
• 2007: UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (awarded posthumously for the first time)^[75]
• 2007: National Press Club/John Aubuchon Freedom of the Press Award (posthumous)
• 2007 Democracy Award to Spotlight Press Freedom by the National Endowment for Democracy,^[76]

Bibliography[link]

• Politkovskaia, Anna (2000) Voyage en enfer: Journal de Tchetchenie, Robert Laffont: Paris.
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2001) A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya, Harvill: London.
• Политковская, Анна (2002) Вторая чеченская (The Second Chechen [War]), Zakharov: Moscow.
  • Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya, translation of Vtoraya chechenskaya, The University of Chicago Press.
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2004) Putin's Russia, Harvill: London.
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2007) A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, Harvill Secker: London.
• Политковская, Анна (2007) За что^{[dead link]} (With Good Reason), Novaya gazeta: Moscow.^[77] The Russian title makes grim play of the frequent disbelieving question^[78] of victims of the late 1930s Great Terror in the Soviet Union: "But whatever for?!" («За что?!»)
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2010) Nothing But the Truth: Selected Dispatches, Harvill Secker: London. A 480-page selection from the 2007 volume За что (With Good Reason).
• Politkovskaya, Anna (2011) Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches, Melville House Publishing: Brooklyn, New York.
• Politkovs'ka, Anna. "Druha chechens'ka." Trans. I. Andrusiak. Kyiv: Diokor, 2004.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The One-Year Anniversary of the Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anna Politkovskaya

• “Anna Politkovskaya Award” Presented each year by RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in WAR) to women human rights defenders from war and conflict. The first Anna Politkovskaya Award recipient, in 2007, was Natalia Estemirova
• Book Festival readings, Anna Politkovskaya at the Edinburgh International Book Festival's audio recordings and transcriptions 2004–05 (translated to English, streaming audio)
• Photo report from August 2008 Moscow rally dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's birth (Russian)
• The Writer’s Conscience: Remembering Anna Politkovskaya & Russia’s Forgotten War, 6 December 2006, CUNY Graduate Center, New York City – audio
• Three Years Later Russia Looks the Same at Estonian Free Press
• Reach all Women in War (RAW in WAR)
• Politkovskaya writing about her Ukrainian descent in the Ukrainian edition of her book by Diokor Press

Mohamed Bouazizi (29 March 1984 – 4 January 2011; Arabic: محمد البوعزيزي‎) was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides. His act became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring, inciting demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. The public's anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi's death, leading then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power.

The success of the Tunisian protests inspired protests in several other Arab countries, plus several non-Arab countries. The protests included several men who emulated Bouazizi's act of self-immolation, in an attempt to bring an end to their own autocratic governments. Those men and Bouazizi were hailed by some Arab commentators as "heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution."^[2]

In 2011, Bouazizi was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize jointly along with four others for his and their contributions to "historic changes in the Arab world".^[3] The Tunisian government honored him with a postal stamp.^[4] The Times of the United Kingdom named Bouazizi as person of the year 2011.^[5][6]

Early life and employment struggles[link]

Mohamed Bouazizi, who was known locally as "Basboosa",^[7] was born in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, on 29 March 1984. His father, a construction worker in Libya, died of a heart attack when Bouazizi was three, and his mother married Bouazizi's uncle some time later.^[8] Along with his six siblings,^[9] Bouazizi was educated in a one-room country school in Sidi Salah, a small village 12 miles (19 km) from Sidi Bouzid.^[10] Although several media outlets reported that Bouazizi had a university degree,^[9][11][12] his sister, Samia Bouazizi, stated that he had never graduated from high school,^[13] but that it was something he had wanted for both himself and his sisters.^[10] With his uncle in poor health and unable to work regularly,^[14] Bouazizi had worked various jobs since he was ten,^[8] and in his late teens he quit school in order to work full-time.^[14]

Bouazizi lived in a modest stucco home, a 20-minute walk from the center of Sidi Bouzid,^[15][16] a rural town in Tunisia burdened by corruption^[17] and suffering an unemployment rate estimated at 30%.^[8] According to his mother, he applied to join the army, but was refused, and several subsequent job applications also resulted in rejection.^[14] He supported his mother, uncle, and younger siblings, including paying for one of his sisters to attend university, by earning approximately US$140 per month selling produce on the street in Sidi Bouzid.^[10][14] He was also working toward the goal of buying or renting a pickup truck for his work.^[18] A close friend of Bouazizi said he "was a very well-known and popular man [who] would give free fruit and vegetables to very poor families."^[14]

Confiscation of wares and self-immolation[link]

According to friends and family, local police officers had allegedly targeted and mistreated Bouazizi for years, including during his childhood, regularly confiscating his small wheelbarrow of produce;^[14] but Bouazizi had no other way to make a living, so he continued to work as a street vendor. Around 10 p.m. on 16 December 2010, he had contracted approximately US$200 in debt to buy the produce he was to sell the following day. On the morning of 17 December, he started his workday at 8 a.m.^[10] Just after 10:30 a.m., the police began harassing him again, ostensibly because he did not have a vendor's permit.^[18] However, while some sources state that street vending is illegal in Tunisia,^[19] and others that Bouazizi lacked a required permit to sell his wares,^[10][18] according to the head of Sidi Bouzid's state office for employment and independent work, no permit is needed to sell from a cart.^[17]

In any case Bouazizi did not have the funds to bribe police officials to allow his street vending to continue.^[10][20] Similarly, two of Bouazizi's siblings accused authorities of attempting to extort money from their brother,^[17] and during an interview with Reuters, one of his sisters stated, "What kind of repression do you imagine it takes for a young man to do this? A man who has to feed his family by buying goods on credit when they fine him ... and take his goods. In Sidi Bouzid, those with no connections and no money for bribes are humiliated and insulted and not allowed to live."^[16]

Bouazizi's family claims he was publicly humiliated, that a 45-year-old female municipal official, Faida Hamdi,^[8][9][14] slapped him in the face, spat at him, confiscated his electronic weighing scales, and tossed aside his produce cart.^[18] It was also stated that she made a slur against his deceased father.^[16][18] Bouazizi's family says her gender made his humiliation worse.^[9][21]

Countering these claims, Faida Hamdi^[8][9][14] and her brother Asharq Al-Awsat, in interviews claimed that she did not slap Bouazizi or otherwise mistreated him. This was also confirmed by an eyewitness who told Asharq Al-Awsat that he did not see Hamdi slap Bouazizi.^[22][23]

Both Bouazizi's mother and the eyewitness who told Asharq Al-Awsat stated that her aides had kicked and beaten him after confiscating his fruit-cart, ^[22] Faida Hamdi states it might have happened^[23] and Asharq Al-Awsat denies it happened.

Bouazizi, angered by the confrontation,^[24] ran to the governor's office to complain^[18] and to ask for his scales back.^[25] Following the governor's refusal to see or listen to him, even after Bouazizi was quoted as saying "'If you don't see me, I'll burn myself',"^[18] he acquired a can of gasoline from a nearby gas station and returned to the governor's office. While standing in the middle of traffic, he shouted "how do you expect me to make a living?"^[25] He then doused and set himself alight with a match at 11:30 a.m. local time, less than an hour after the altercation.^[18]

Death and funeral[link]

Ben Arous Burn and Trauma Centre where Bouazizi died

According to Bouazizi's sister, whose information was based on details relayed from her uncle who was present at the scene, people immediately panicked when he caught fire, and one of them tried to douse the flames with water, which only worsened his condition.^[26] Bouazizi barely survived, and suffered severe burns over 90% of his body before locals managed to douse the flames. He was taken by ambulance to a medical facility in Sidi Bouzid. When they were unable to treat Bouazizi's severe burns, he was taken to a larger hospital in Sfax, more than 70 miles (110 km) away.^[10] Later, as the government's interest in his case grew, he was transferred to a Burn and Trauma Centre in Ben Arous, where he was placed in an intensive care unit.^[27] On 31 December 2010, doctors at the Ben Arous Burn and Trauma Centre reported that Bouazizi was in stable condition, and that he was showing positive prognostic factors.^[26] However, he remained in a coma throughout the remainder of his life.^[28]

Bouazizi was visited in hospital by then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.^[29] According to Bouazizi's mother, Ben Ali promised to send him to France for medical treatment,^[14] but no such transfer was ever arranged. Bouazizi died at the Ben Arous Burn and Trauma Centre 18 days after the immolation, on 4 January 2011, at 5:30 p.m. local time.^[30][31]

It is estimated that more than 5,000 people participated in the funeral procession that began in Sidi Bouzid and continued through to Bouazizi's native village, though police did not allow the procession to pass near the spot at which Bouazizi had burned himself.^[32] From the crowd, many were heard chanting "Farewell, Mohammed, we will avenge you. We weep for you today. We will make those who caused your death weep."^[33] He was buried at Garaat Bennour cemetery, 10 miles (16 km) from Sidi Bouzid.^[34] His grave was described by Al-Jazeera as "simple" and surrounded by cactuses, olive and almond trees.^[14] In addition, a Tunisian flag flies next to it.^[35]

Investigation[link]

An investigation was launched following Bouazizi's self-immolation to determine the details leading up to his actions. On 20 December 2010, it was reported that Faida Hamdi, the female officer who allegedly accosted Bouazizi the day of his immolation, was suspended along with the secretary-general (governor) of Sidi Bouzid,^[36] but this was subsequently denied by the latter.^[37] Some time later, Hamdi was arrested on orders from President Ben Ali and held in an unspecified town.^[8][22] A brother of Hamdi later stated that she had been arrested and detained on two separate occasions, the first time following Ben Ali's visit to Bouazizi in the hospital and subsequent meeting with his mother and sister at his presidential palace. He says his sister and her aides were released following a short detention and the closing of the investigation which "confirmed her innocence."^[22] He said her second arrest was "in response to the demands of the Tunisian protesters," and that the Tunisian security authorities informed him that she was being held only for her own protection and would be released once the protesting ended.^[22]

According to Bouazizi's mother, Bouazizi undertook his action because he had been humiliated, not because of the family's poverty.^[18] "It got to him deep inside, it hurt his pride," she said, referring to the police harassment.^[14] One of Bouazizi's sisters stated during an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that their family intends to take legal action against all involved, "whether this is the municipal officers that slapped and insulted him, or the mayor [who] refused to meet him."^[22]

On 19 April, the case against Hamdi was dropped after Bouazizi's mother withdrew the family's complaint against her. She stated "It was a difficult but well-thought out decision to avoid hatred and... [to] help reconcile the residents of Sidi Bouzid." Hamdi had maintained her innocence, telling the court she did not slap Bouazizi, while her lawyer said the matter was "purely a political affair." Bouazizi's brother Salem supported the decision, saying "All the money in the world can't replace the loss of Mohamed who sacrificed himself for freedom and for dignity." Large crowds of people outside the courtroom also appeared to have been satisfied by the Bouazizi family's decision with some claiming Hamdi was being used as a scapegoat.^[38][39]

Protests[link]

Tunisian street protests

Outraged by the events that led to Bouazizi's self-immolation, protests began in Sidi Bouzid within hours,^[17] building for more than two weeks, with attempts by police to quiet the unrest serving only to fuel what was quickly becoming a violent and deadly movement.^[40] After Bouazizi's death, the protests became widespread, moving into the more affluent areas and eventually into the capital. The anger and violence became so intense that President Ben Ali fled Tunisia with his family on 14 January 2011,^[18] trying first to go to Paris, but was refused refuge by the French government. They were eventually welcomed into Saudi Arabia under "a long list of conditions" (such as being barred from participation in the media and politics), ending his 23-year rule and sparking "angry condemnation" among Saudis.^[40] In Tunisia, unrest persisted as a new regime took over, leaving many citizens of Tunisia feeling as though their needs were still being ignored.^[41]

Aftermath[link]

A French protest in support of "the Hero of Tunisia", on 15 January 2011

Many Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa regard Bouazizi as a hero and inspiration.^[42][43] He is credited with galvanising the frustrations of the region's youth against their governments into mass demonstrations, revolts, and revolutions.^[44] Bouazizi is considered a martyr by the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) of Tunisia.^[14] Tunisian film director, Mohamed Zran, plans on making a feature film about Bouazizi, describing him as "a symbol for eternity."^[44] Tarak Ben Ammar, also a Tunisian film director, intends to make a film on Bouazizi as well, stating he is "a hero for us as Tunisians and the Arab world as a whole."^[42] Since suicide is forbidden in Islam, Bouazizi's self-immolation created controversy among scholarly Muslim circles. While al-Azhar, the most prestigious religious institution in the Sunni Muslim world, issued a fatwa ("directive") stating "suicide violates Islam even when it is carried out as a social or political protest," influential Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi spoke sympathetically of Bouazizi.^[2]

On 4 February 2011, Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, announced that, as a tribute to honour Bouazizi, a square in Paris will be named after him;^[45] the Place Mohamed Bouazizi was unveiled four days later. On 17 February, the main square in Tunis that was previously called "November 7", after the date of Ben Ali's take-over in 1987, was renamed after Bouazizi.^[46]

Bouazizi was posthumously awarded the 2011 Sakharov Prize as one of "five representatives of the Arab people, in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights".^[47]

Copycat incidents[link]

Bouazizi's actions triggered the Werther effect, causing a number of self-immolations in protests emulating Bouazizi's in several other countries in the Greater Middle East and Europe. In Algeria in particular, protests against rising food prices and spreading unemployment^[48] have resulted in many self-immolations. The first reported case following Bouazizi's death was that of Mohsen Bouterfif, a 37-year-old father of two, who set himself on fire when the mayor of Boukhadra in Algeria refused to meet with him and others regarding employment and housing requests on 13 January 2011. According to a report in El-Watan, the mayor challenged him, saying if he had courage he would immolate himself by fire as Bouazizi had done.^[49] He died on 24 January. Maamir Lotfi, a 36-year-old unemployed father of six, also denied a meeting with the governor, burned himself in front of the El Oued town hall on 17 January, dying on 12 February.^[50] Abdelhafid Boudechicha, a 29-year-old day laborer who lived with his parents and five siblings, burned himself in Medjana on 28 January over employment and housing issues. He died the following day.^[51]

In Egypt, Abdou Abdel-Moneim Jaafar, a 49-year-old restaurant owner, set himself alight in front of the Egyptian Parliament.^[52] His act of protest helped instigate weeks of protest and, later, the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011. In Saudi Arabia, an unidentified 65-year-old man died on 21 January 2011, after setting himself on fire in the town of Samtah, Jizan. This was apparently the kingdom's first known case of self-immolation.^[53][54]

Although these cases, with the exception of Egypt, did not provoke the same kind of popular reaction that Bouazizi's case did in Tunisia, the Algerian, Yemeni, and Jordanian governments have experienced significant protests and made major concessions in response to them.^[18] As such, these men and Bouazizi are being hailed by some as "heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution."^[2]

The wave of copycat incidents reached Europe on 11 February 2011, in a case very similar to Bouazizi's. Noureddine Adnane, a 27-year-old Moroccan street vendor, set himself on fire in Palermo, Sicily, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment that was allegedly inflicted on him by municipal officials.^[55] He died five days later.^[56] In Amsterdam, Kambiz Roustay, a 36-year-old asylum seeker from Iran, set himself on fire on Dam Square in protest of being rejected asylum. Roustay had fled the country for publishing works undermining the regime, and feared being tortured by the Iranian regime upon his return.^[57]

See also[link]

	Tunisia portal
	Biography portal
	Human rights portal

• Self-immolations in Tunisia
• 2011 Algerian self-immolations
• List of political self-immolations
• Thích Quảng Đức
• Romas Kalanta
• Jan Palach
• Ryszard Siwiec

References[link]