World Chechnya Day: Memorial Service

Via worldchechnyaday.org

London, United Kingdom

World Chechnya Day Memorial Service

Date: Thursday 23 February 2006

Time: 12 - 1pm

Venue: Yalta Memorial, Cromwell Gardens, South Kensington (behind the Ismaili Centre).

Nearest tube station: South Kensington (District, Circle and Piccadilly Line)

As part of World Chechnya Day, you are invited to attend the Save Chechnya Campaign remembrance service at the Yalta Memorial in South Kensington from 12-1pm on Thursday 23rd February to commemorate the Deportations and Genocide of the Chechen people in 1944.

Sixty two years ago, on 23 February 1944, Stalin ordered the forcible deportation of the Chechen, Ingush and other nations of the North Caucasus to Central Asia. The people who were were transported with little or no provision in cattle trucks and more than half died in transit or in massacres committed by Soviet troops. Those who survived the journey were left facing starvation and disease in the harsh winters of Siberia and Central Asia. In 2004 the European Parliament passed a motion formally recognising this tragedy as a genocide.

Speaking at the Memorial will be:

* Professor George Hewitt - Professor of Caucasian Languages (SOAS), Trustee of MARCCH
* Mrs. Saida Sherif - Chairperson, Save Chechnya Campaign
* Vanessa Redgrave - Actress and Human Rights Activist
* Ahmed Zakayev - (Late) President Maskhadov's Representative in Europe
* Rabbi Jacqueline Tabick - North West Surrey Synagogue
* Revd Father Frank Gelli - Former Curate of St Mary Abbots, Kensington Parish Church. Founder of Arkadash Network for Religious Dialogue.
* Abdur Raheem Green - London Central Mosque

Schedule:

12.00 Gather at the Yalta Memorial
12.15 Opening: Mrs. Saida Sherif
12.20 Vanessa Redgrave
12.25 Professor George Hewitt
12.30 Ahmed Zakayev
12.35 Rabbi Jacqueline Tabick
12.40 Revd Father Frank Gelli
12.45 Abdur Raheem Green
12.50 Recital of Memories
13.00 Prayer
13.09 Minutes Silence
13.10 Balloon Release

Directions:

The Yalta Memorial is situated in South Kensington, London SW7 in public gardens between Cromwell Gardens and Thurloe Place:

Map


For further details, please contact Hajira Qureshi on hajira@cantab.net

See also in this blog: World Chechnya Day