RUSSIAN ACTIVIST FOUND DEAD

RUSSIAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
KIDNAPPED, FOUND DEAD

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A prominent human rights activist was found dead after being kidnapped in Russia's troubled republic of Chechnya on Wednesday, provoking outrage from President Dmitry Medvedev and the international community. Natalia Estemirova, a close friend of murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, worked for the human rights organization Memorial in the Chechen capital Grozny and documented abuses by law enforcement agencies, colleagues said.

She was snatched as she left her house on Wednesday morning, pushed into a white vehicle and driven away, colleagues at Memorial and Tanya Lokshina, Russia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Reuters. "The body had two wounds to the head, it was clear she had been murdered in the morning," Madina Khadziyeva, a spokeswoman at the Ingush Interior Ministry, told Reuters. She did not specify the nature of the injuries.

The murder is the latest in a series of killings of journalists and human rights defenders in Russia which has drawn international condemnation and led to questions about Medvedev's pledges to uphold the rule of law and build a freer society. Human rights groups have repeatedly accused the authorities of serious abuses during their war on the insurgents, including extra-judicial killings, torture and illegal punishment. HRW's Lokshina said she was killed for her work: "She was documenting some blatant human rights abuses. There is absolutely no doubt that is linked to her work, she was killed simply because of doing her job as a human rights worker."

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Kamsa has here (SB - 10.3.22) been described as asabhya, meaning "uncivilized" or "most heinous," because he killed the many children of his sister. When he heard the prophecy that he would be killed by her eighth son, this uncivilized man, Kamsa, was immediately ready to kill his innocent sister on the occasion of her marriage. An uncivilized man can do anything for the satisfaction of his senses. He can kill children, he can kill cows, he can kill brahmanas, he can kill old men; he has no mercy for anyone. According to the Vedic civilization, cows, women, children, old men and brāhmaṇas should be excused if they are at fault. But asuras, uncivilized men, do not care about that. At the present moment, the killing of cows and the killing of children is going on unrestrictedly, and therefore this civilization is not at all human, and those who are conducting this condemned civilization are uncivilized asuras.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 10 - Chapter 3 - Verse 22"