11 February 2004 05:20
US JOURNALIST REPORTED MISSING NEAR CHECHNYA IS ALIVE: EDITOR
MOSCOW, Feb 11 (ONASA - AFP) - A Moscow-based US journalist who was reported missing near war-torn Chechnya is alive
and well, her editor told AFP Wednesday. Rebecca Santana "is on her way back to Moscow and doing just fine,"
Chuck Holmes, foreign editor of Cox Newspapers told AFP by telephone from Washington. He said Santana, who had not been
in contact since arriving Sunday in a republic bordering Chechnya, had phoned him at about 1330 GMT. Earlier in the day,
the US embassy said it had filed a missing person report concerning Santana. Holmes said that Santana had unsuccessfully
tried to contact him earlier and had been unaware that a search had been launched. Several foreign journalists and aid
workers have gone missing in or near Chechnya, which in the past decade has gone through two wars with Russian troops
and a lawless period of de facto independence. Russia tries to tightly control information coming out of the war-ravaged
republic and has previously detained foreign correspondents. Moscow poured tens of thousands of troops into the restive
republic in October 1999 at the start of the second war and Chechen rebels continue to wage guerrilla warfare against
Russian targets there to this day. Last July AFP's local correspondent in the region, Ali Astamirov, was pulled by
armed men from a car in neighboring Ingushetia. He has not been heard from since, despite numerous appeals by AFP to
local officials and President Vladimir Putin to help find him. On August 12, 2002, armed men in Dagestan, which also
borders Chechnya, kidnapped Arjan Erkel, who headed the local mission of medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres
(Doctors Without Borders - MSF). One year after the kidnapping, MSF launched a massive campaign, both through diplomatic
channels and the mass media, to put international pressure on the Russian authorities to solve the case. The
world-renowned organization has called on member states of the United Nations to put pressure on Putin to "assume
his responsibilities" and help free Erkel. Santana, who graduated from Columbia University journalism school in
1997, first came to Russia in 1999 not knowing a word of Russian, after having worked in the Baltics for various
publications. She learned the language and worked as a stringer for various publications, including Voice of America
radio, before eventually joining Cox Newspapers as their main correspondent in Moscow.
[ONASA News Agency] |
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