Word: reportings
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...forcibly moving activists and dissidents from Beijing and preventing others from leaving their homes in the days leading up to the anniversary - China's Internet police have shut down a range of websites and message boards in an apparent attempt to restrict any discussion of the issue. Web monitors report that some 6,000 chat rooms and message boards in China have been blocked by censors known collectively as the "Great Firewall." In addition, social-networking services like Twitter, the photo-sharing site Flickr and even Microsoft's new would-be Google-rival search engine, Bing, have all been blocked...
...Lieut. General Vladimir Shamanov - who is named in the ECHR's findings - has been chosen to head Russia's paratrooper unit. "A commander in this position should have a firm commitment to upholding international humanitarian law," said Holly Cartner, the HRW director for Europe and Central Asia, in a report released on May 28. "It's hard to understand how an officer with oversight for operations that have resulted in numerous violations of humanitarian law has been considered qualified to assume this role...
...ECHR's ruling on the Katyr-Yurt attack, Shamanov's new role as head of Russia's élite airborne troops flies in the face of that promise, says HRW. "Lt. General Shamanov presided over operations fraught with human rights violations and civilian casualties," HRW states in the report. "He should be investigated, not promoted...
...decorated a Hero of Russia, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said he "deserve[s] the deepest respect" for his "great contribution to the success of [the] counterterrorist operation [in Chechnya]." Part of that contribution came during operations in the village of Alkhan-Yurt in 1999. In its report, the HRW says that during fighting in the area, "Russian troops under Shamanov's command committed at least 14 killings that amounted to extrajudicial executions...
Shamanov's promotion may also cause trouble on Russia's foreign relations front. A year after Medvedev made his speech promising greater respect for the rule of law, a report by human-rights watchdog Amnesty International said that in Russia "impunity prevails" for human-rights violations by the government. Russia may have gained a hardened combat soldier as the leader of its élite forces, but it's losing international faith in Medvedev's reforms...