She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
Having suffered Stalin’s deportation of the Chechen people to Central Asia, Maya Shovkhalova (born 1936) returned to Grozny in 1958. She graduated from the Tbilisi Music Conservatory. In the 1990s, she was a member of the Commission on Rehabilitation of Victims of the 1944-1956 Repressions in Chechnya. Since the beginning of the Russian-Chechen armed conflict, Maya has been engaged in anti-war activism, cooperating with international as well as Russian NGOs. She is also head of the NGO Iberia which focuses on the issues of demining and banning of land mines … (1000peacewomen 1/2).
She says: « We condemn acts of terrorism irrespectively of whether they are committed by groups of bandits or by the Russian military.” (From the appeal of Chechen peace advocates to the world community)
She is signing the Public Appeal of Chechen NGOs of Prague Watchdog, 29th 2003,
… and here the appeal on Kafkas Vakfi.
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Sorry, no photo found of Maya Shovkhalova – Russian Federation
She works for Iberia, and for Yaltinskaya initsyativa za mir v Chechnie YIMC.
Maya Shovhalova was born in Grozny in 1936. Having suffered Stalin’s deportation of the Chechen people to Kazakhstan, Maya returned to Grozny in 1958. After graduating from Tbilisi Music Conservatory (Georgia), she worked as a soloist at the theater and the Philharmonic Hall in Grozny. For some time she was engaged in teaching. She was a member of the Commission on Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions in Chechnya during 1944-1956. Since the beginning of the Russian-Chechen armed conflict Maya has been taking an active part in human rights advocacy activities.
In February 1944, during the deportation of all the Chechens and Ingushs to Central Asia, staged by the Soviet regime, a horrible tragedy happened: 700 inhabitants of Khaibakh, a high mountain Chechen village, were burnt alive in the building of the local club by a Soviet punitive detachment.
It was not until the 1990s that this barbarous act was investigated. Maya Shovkhalova took an active part in the work of the Investigation Commission on Khaibakh events that made public this and other crimes against humanity at the time of Stalin’s repressions.
The beginning of democratic changes in the Soviet Union and the committed work of human rights activists who revealed the crimes of the communist regime gave hope that such tragedies would never be repeated. But hopes were dashed by the following developments which resulted in the Russian-Chechen armed conflict. During the first military campaign Maya helped the wounded, took part in negotiations between the Chechen president Dudaev’s representatives and the Russian soldiers’ mothers who wanted to return their sons back home. Unfortunately all the efforts of the peace advocates failed to stop the savage war.
Despite all this Maya has succeeded in making her contribution to informing the world community about the genocide of her people during the two Russian-Chechen wars from 1994 to 2004. She continues her diverse and multiple human rights advocacy
activities, cooperating with the all-Russian anti-war NGOs. Thanks to her and her colleagues’ work, a great number of people all over the world have learned about the real state of affairs in Chechnya, about everyday violations of the most fundamental human rights, and the concealed cases of mass killings of civilians.
She participated in the Peace March Moscow-Grozny (March 1995), in the Peace March held in Italy on UN 50th Anniversary, and the international action “Peace Train”.
After the Nord-Ost tragedy Maya enrolled in the Coalition of Chechen and Russian Non-Governmental Organizations “Yaltinskaya initsyativa za mir v Chechnie” (“Yalta Initiative for Peace in Chechnya”).
Within the framework of the Initiative Shovhalova took part in organizing the contest of children’s drawings “Give Us Peace Back!” Maya cooperated with the All-Russian Human Rights NGO “Memorial”. Since 1997 she has been engaged in the projects of the International Organization ICBL, which focuses its activities on the ban of the use of land mines. Maya is the head of the NGO “Iberia”, members of which work on the mine security on the territory of the Chechen Republic. (1000peacewomen 2/2).
Sorry, no other information found for Maya Shovkhalova, Russian Federation.
links:
download: Chechnya – War and History, by the German-Caucasian Society, 58 pdf-pages;
a website in Japanese; and the same website in russian.