Blog #4 Erin Holbrook

This picture is of a group of protesters in Moscow honoring the sixth anniversary of the death of Anna Politkovskaya. A Russian reporter, Ms. Politkovskaya was assassinated on her way home from the grocery store for her criticisms of Russian government. She was well known for her reports on what she called the "Dirty War": The 2nd Chechen Conflict of 1999.

Her reports included a wide range of unnerving topics, from starving children in villages to schoolchildren driven half mad, allegedly poisoned by their own government in a weapons test. After reading about her and her works, I was stunned. I could not believe the injustices going on so publicly and so recently, with nothing done about it. It was only this previous year that her assassins went to trial, the masterminds are still at large. What progress has been made in her line of work, though? What has anyone done with regard to the injustices she passionately wrote about? I cannot emphasize how much her work meant to Russians who knew of her, of how she was criticizing Russia for "trampling on human rights" until the day she died, and how she likely would have more criticisms today. This woman stood up to tell the truth and to try to help people, even though she was killed for it. She is both an inspiration and a reminder that our world is far from civilized. She is a reminder of the violations of human rights committed everywhere, everyday. She is a reminder of the constant uphill battle for justice.