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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

27 July 1998

Yumashev B. Valentin
Head of Presidential Administration
Kreml, 103132, Moscow
Russia

Dear Mr. Valentin:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States, and the world's largest federation of scientific societies, with 143,000 individual members and 282 affiliated groups. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

We are writing to you on behalf of the Committee regarding Alexandr Nikitin, an engineer working for the Norwegian ecological foundation, Bellona. We are concerned about the ongoing investigation of Mr. Nikitin, who is scheduled to be put on trial for treason and espionage and faces the threat of the death penalty. It is also our understanding that his passport has been confiscated, and that he is not permitted to leave St. Petersburg. The Committee is aware of a previously negotiated agreement on Mr. Nikitin's behalf reached by the former Russian prime minister and the Vice President of the United States, Al Gore. However, with the appointment of a new prime minister, it is our fear that Mr. Nikitin's case will have to be renegotiated.

Mr. Nikitin was reportedly arrested on 6 February 1996 and held for ten days as part of what has been referred to as a "Russian Federal Security Services (FSB) offensive against the environmental movement." It is our understanding that his arrest is based on secret decrees to which he is not allowed access and stems from his work for the Bellona Foundation. The FSB claims that the report that Mr. Nikitin helped to write, regarding the unsafe condition of nuclear facilities on the Kola peninsula, contains state secrets. However, Mr. Nikitin and Bellona maintain that the report contains nothing but information that has already been published in the mass media.

The report, entitled "The Russian North Fleet - Sources of Radioactive Contamination," that led to Mr. Nikitin's arrest was released on 18 April 1996. However, it is our understanding that it remains banned in Russia. The Committee has also learned that FSB agents have searched Bellona's office in Murmansk on several occasions, and that other environmentalists working for Bellona reportedly continue to be harassed and threatened with imprisonment.

We would like to point out that the arrest of Alexandr Nikitin is in violation of Article 42 of the Russian Constitution, which prohibits secrecy in matters that may constitute hazards to the environment or the health of human beings. In addition, it is contrary to human rights provisions enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the Russian Federation is a state party. Under the ICCPR, everyone has the right to liberty and security of the person; no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention, and everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression. The right to freedom of expression includes the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers. Under the UDHR, no one is to be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile; everyone has the right to leave any country, including his or her own, and to return to his or her own country; and everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

We urge you to use your good offices to assure that the charges against Alexandr Nikitin are dropped immediately and unconditionally, on the grounds that they stem solely from the legitimate scientific work that he was conducting for the Bellona Foundation. The Committee calls on the Russian authorities to provide a full and detailed explanation of the charges against Mr. Nikitin. We also would like to express our concern that actions against environmental research will ultimately make the environmental clean-up of Russia more difficult.

Sincerely,



Irving Lerch, Ph.D. Mary Gray, Ph.D.
Co-Chair Co-Chair
AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom
and Responsibility and Responsibility

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