David McDuff has announced the formation of a Chechnya war crimes tribunal in Russia. His blog A Day at a Time states:

The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) in Nizhny Novgorod (Russian Federation) has formed an initiative to start a tribunal on war crimes and human rights abuses in Chechnya. The group has circulated a draft document outlining the possible form such a tribunal might take, based on historical and current precedents which include the Nuremburg Trials (1945-49), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the United Nations, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal.

The Nizhny Novgorod group has recently founded an identical sister organization in Finland. The intention is to guarantee the continued working of the group even if (or rather, when) the organization is banned in late January by a process in the Russian Federal judicial system.

If you are interested in supporting the RCFS, please send an email message to the group’s deputy managing director, Oksana Chelysheva (mirror_wolfe@hotmail.com).

Heaven only knows how long these heroic Russians have to live if they continue this work. They deserve our support and heartfelt thanks.