Fatima Tlisova
Encyclopedia
Fatima Tlisova (born 1966) is a Russia
n (Circassian) journalist currently living in the United States
.
Insurgency in the violent North Caucasus
region.
She has been assaulted repeatedly since 2002 for filing reports not favourable to the Governments and Secret Services of the Republics of the North Caucasus, as well as the
federal government of Vladimir Putin
. Her travails included
being beaten and having her ribs broken, being poisoned, kidnapped and having cigarettes extinguished on her skin, and finally, her teenage son almost disappearing for good.
After more than a month of speculation in the media,
on 2007-06-28 the
New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
announced that Tlisova, along with Radio Liberty reporter Yuri Bagrov, had been granted political asylum in the USA, but after reports by her denying this, the announcement was changed to say that they had received "refugee status".
, one of whose reporters, Anna Politkovskaya
, was murdered by a contract killer in October 2006. The paper is not officially banned, but sales are strongly discouraged, so much so that vendors will sell it only to known customers.
Subsequently she became the Editor-in-Chief of the Caucasus desk for the Regnum News Agency
.
Since 2005, she was also working with the Associated Press
.
She had travelled widely in the region, filing reports from
Adygea to Dagestan.
Her conflict with the authorities started in 2002, "a couple of days after her article on abusive
practice of militaries in Chechnya was published by the Obschaya Gazeta". One night, after a birthday party celebrating her 36th birthday, she had gone to the door of her apartment building to see off her guests. After they left, "a hand grabbed her and she says she was dragged around a corner and beaten by two
large men. She spent several days in intensive care with broken ribs, a
concussion and other injuries.".
In January 2005, she faced considerable harassment for a series of articles about the murder of seven shareholders in the firm Kavkaztsement. A few months earlier, they had dared challenge the firm's majority shareholder Ali Kaitov,
nephew of the corrupt and unpopular Republic president Mustafa Batdyev. Shortly after they went to see Kaitov at his dacha
, gunshots were heard from the vicinity, and these seven people simply disappeared.
They included Rasul Bogatyrev, a deputy in the state legislature; the family of the murdered raised vigorous protests, and
the case drew considerable attention in the international press:
After a month of official inaction, four of the seven dead bodies were found at the bottom of a mine; they had been dismembered and burnt with tyres as fuel.
Subsequently a large rally protesting the local government overcame teargas and reinforced police lines to take over the presidential palace. Fatima Tlisova was directly quoted in the international media as reporting from the scene:
Following Tlisova's coverage revealing further details of the murders, the Kabardino-Balkaria
n Interior Ministry withdrew her accreditation. She was accused of illegally receiving a pension and criminal proceedings were initiated but were later dropped.
Shortly after this, "a car with tinted glass pulled up to her on a Nalchik
street and she was told to get inside if she wanted to see her children again." Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (Federal Security Services, FSB) agents
then took her to a nearby forest and extinguished cigarettes on every finger of her right hand, "so that you can write better".
She also reports two occasions when she feels she had been poisoned - once when she applied
face cream, from a jar in her own home, which peeled the skin from her face and fingers (October 2003), and another time when she lost consciousness after sipping some tea, and ended up with serious heart damage.
But the final straw came on October 8, 2006, one day after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya
in Moscow. She sent her 16-year old son on an errand and he failed to return. Eventually she traced him to a police station in the custody of a drunken policeman who had put his name on
a dreaded "list" of Chechen
sympathizers. According to human
rights advocates people on these lists are usually savagely beaten, and may even vanish forever. In an interview to Jim Heintz of the Associated Press
, Tlisova explained her desire for asylum:
A few weeks later, she came home
one night to find signs that her apartment had been broken into. The next morning, she fell violently ill, and fainted. Medical tests revealed acute kidney failure, but in a few days she had recovered, and her kidneys were functioning normally. Given the past history, and the Russian propensity for poisoning, she believes that an intruder put poison in her food.
asked for asylum, but she denied this.
On June 1, the paper "Caucasian Knot" reported that she had been granted asylum, and rumours persisted.
On 2007-06-28, Tlisova and Bagrov, along with the Committee to Protect Journalists
, met the Congressional Human Rights Caucus chaired by Rep. Tom Lantos
. In a press release on the event, the CPJ announced
However, a report a few days later from her workplace, Regnum news agency
, quoted her as denying this:
The report labelled rumours of her asylum as an "information campaign".
At some point, the relevant paragraph in the CPJ announcement was also revised, with an Editor's note. The new text says that Tlisova and Bagrov had received refugee
status".
In her interviews about moving to the USA, Tlisova appears ambivalent; while welcoming the security it gave her family, she also feels she cannot "remain silent" about the violence in her homeland. At another point, she says: "I see my further work only in Caucasus".
This may reveal a dichotomy in her about the asylum situation.
The asylum for the dissident journalists has given rise to speculation that the United States and its allies are playing hardball with Russia
, especially when shortly afterwards, four Russian Diplomats were expelled from the United Kingdom
, for Russia not agreeing to extradite FSB agent Andrei Lugovoi
, who is suspected of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko
.
However, the asylum may be more a result of increasing international
awareness of the dangerous conditions for journalists in Russia, than political hardball.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n (Circassian) journalist currently living in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Refugee status
Tlisova claims she has been facing severe intimidation for reporting on the ham-handed attempts to counter increasing Islamic and ChechenChechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
Insurgency in the violent North Caucasus
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
region.
She has been assaulted repeatedly since 2002 for filing reports not favourable to the Governments and Secret Services of the Republics of the North Caucasus, as well as the
federal government of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
. Her travails included
being beaten and having her ribs broken, being poisoned, kidnapped and having cigarettes extinguished on her skin, and finally, her teenage son almost disappearing for good.
After more than a month of speculation in the media,
on 2007-06-28 the
New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
announced that Tlisova, along with Radio Liberty reporter Yuri Bagrov, had been granted political asylum in the USA, but after reports by her denying this, the announcement was changed to say that they had received "refugee status".
Persecution
Tlisova started her career with the liberal biweekly Novaya GazetaNovaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
, one of whose reporters, Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
, was murdered by a contract killer in October 2006. The paper is not officially banned, but sales are strongly discouraged, so much so that vendors will sell it only to known customers.
Subsequently she became the Editor-in-Chief of the Caucasus desk for the Regnum News Agency
REGNUM News Agency
REGNUM News Agency is a Russian non-governmental federal online news service disseminating news from Russia and abroad from its own correspondents, affiliate agencies and partners...
.
Since 2005, she was also working with the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
.
She had travelled widely in the region, filing reports from
Adygea to Dagestan.
Her conflict with the authorities started in 2002, "a couple of days after her article on abusive
practice of militaries in Chechnya was published by the Obschaya Gazeta". One night, after a birthday party celebrating her 36th birthday, she had gone to the door of her apartment building to see off her guests. After they left, "a hand grabbed her and she says she was dragged around a corner and beaten by two
large men. She spent several days in intensive care with broken ribs, a
concussion and other injuries.".
In January 2005, she faced considerable harassment for a series of articles about the murder of seven shareholders in the firm Kavkaztsement. A few months earlier, they had dared challenge the firm's majority shareholder Ali Kaitov,
nephew of the corrupt and unpopular Republic president Mustafa Batdyev. Shortly after they went to see Kaitov at his dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...
, gunshots were heard from the vicinity, and these seven people simply disappeared.
They included Rasul Bogatyrev, a deputy in the state legislature; the family of the murdered raised vigorous protests, and
the case drew considerable attention in the international press:
- The relatives of the murdered wrote Vladimir PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
that considering the dacha near which their sons disappeared belonged to the son-in-law of the republic's president, they were compelled to express "categorical distrust in both the law-enforcement organs and the organs of state power of Karachaevo-Cherkessia" in investigating this case.
After a month of official inaction, four of the seven dead bodies were found at the bottom of a mine; they had been dismembered and burnt with tyres as fuel.
Subsequently a large rally protesting the local government overcame teargas and reinforced police lines to take over the presidential palace. Fatima Tlisova was directly quoted in the international media as reporting from the scene:
- RFE/RL Russian Service correspondent Fatima Tlisova witnessed the incident. She sent the following report: "Almost all of offices in the White House [government building] have been ransacked. There is no information available yet about the whereabouts of President Batdyev. Almost every window in the building is broken. The surrounding area is filled with paper and broken furniture. Some government officials and ministers are watching the events from the streets adjacent to the White House."<
Following Tlisova's coverage revealing further details of the murders, the Kabardino-Balkaria
Kabardino-Balkaria
The Kabardino-Balkar Republic , or Kabardino-Balkaria , is a federal subject of Russia located in the North Caucasus. Population: -Geography:The republic is situated in the North Caucasus mountains, with plains in the northern part....
n Interior Ministry withdrew her accreditation. She was accused of illegally receiving a pension and criminal proceedings were initiated but were later dropped.
Shortly after this, "a car with tinted glass pulled up to her on a Nalchik
Nalchik
Nalchik is the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. It covers an area of...
street and she was told to get inside if she wanted to see her children again." Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti (Federal Security Services, FSB) agents
then took her to a nearby forest and extinguished cigarettes on every finger of her right hand, "so that you can write better".
She also reports two occasions when she feels she had been poisoned - once when she applied
face cream, from a jar in her own home, which peeled the skin from her face and fingers (October 2003), and another time when she lost consciousness after sipping some tea, and ended up with serious heart damage.
But the final straw came on October 8, 2006, one day after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
in Moscow. She sent her 16-year old son on an errand and he failed to return. Eventually she traced him to a police station in the custody of a drunken policeman who had put his name on
a dreaded "list" of Chechen
Chechen people
Chechens constitute the largest native ethnic group originating in the North Caucasus region. They refer to themselves as Noxçi . Also known as Sadiks , Gargareans, Malkhs...
sympathizers. According to human
rights advocates people on these lists are usually savagely beaten, and may even vanish forever. In an interview to Jim Heintz of the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, Tlisova explained her desire for asylum:
- Do you know what these lists are? These are lists of broken lives. The fact that a drunken policeman can drag an innocent young man into a police station in broad daylight and put him on such a list - I didn't want that to happen to my son.
A few weeks later, she came home
one night to find signs that her apartment had been broken into. The next morning, she fell violently ill, and fainted. Medical tests revealed acute kidney failure, but in a few days she had recovered, and her kidneys were functioning normally. Given the past history, and the Russian propensity for poisoning, she believes that an intruder put poison in her food.
Asylum and impact on US-Russia relations
In March 2007, Tlisova went to the United States for a two-year program to study journalism. In early March, the Sunday Times reported that she hadasked for asylum, but she denied this.
On June 1, the paper "Caucasian Knot" reported that she had been granted asylum, and rumours persisted.
On 2007-06-28, Tlisova and Bagrov, along with the Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
, met the Congressional Human Rights Caucus chaired by Rep. Tom Lantos
Tom Lantos
Thomas Peter "Tom" Lantos was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 until his death, representing the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and a portion of southwest San Francisco...
. In a press release on the event, the CPJ announced
- This spring, unable to continue their work unobstructed, Bagrov and Tlisova were granted political asylum, and they resettled in the United States.
However, a report a few days later from her workplace, Regnum news agency
REGNUM News Agency
REGNUM News Agency is a Russian non-governmental federal online news service disseminating news from Russia and abroad from its own correspondents, affiliate agencies and partners...
, quoted her as denying this:
- There is only one thing true in what has been reported about me: I did take place in a round-table discussion at the US Congress. I am staying in America to study; after it I intend to continue working in Caucasus.
The report labelled rumours of her asylum as an "information campaign".
At some point, the relevant paragraph in the CPJ announcement was also revised, with an Editor's note. The new text says that Tlisova and Bagrov had received refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
status".
In her interviews about moving to the USA, Tlisova appears ambivalent; while welcoming the security it gave her family, she also feels she cannot "remain silent" about the violence in her homeland. At another point, she says: "I see my further work only in Caucasus".
This may reveal a dichotomy in her about the asylum situation.
The asylum for the dissident journalists has given rise to speculation that the United States and its allies are playing hardball with Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, especially when shortly afterwards, four Russian Diplomats were expelled from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, for Russia not agreeing to extradite FSB agent Andrei Lugovoi
Andrei Lugovoi
Andrey Konstantinovich Lugovoy is a Russian politician and businessman and deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the LDPR. He is a former KGB bodyguard and the ex-head of the security firm "Ninth Wave."...
, who is suspected of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
.
However, the asylum may be more a result of increasing international
awareness of the dangerous conditions for journalists in Russia, than political hardball.