Mr. Mirzayanov’s case is an important test of the Russian government’s commitment to respect human rights and build just legal institutions. We urge you to ensure that the courts act as a truly independent branch of government, according to the rule of law and free from government pressure.
Sincerely,
Michael Posner
Executive director
Annex 74
Letter of the Physicians for Social Responsibility to the Alexsei Kazannik, General Procurator of the Russian Federation. January 21, 1994
Dear Procurator General,
I understand that the closed trial of Dr. Vil Mirzayanov is scheduled to begin on Monday, 24 January in Moscow City Court.
During my visit to your country last year, I was fortunate to be able to meet with Dr. Mirzayanov and we had a number of long talks together. At the time I made his acquaintance, I was very impressed by his sincerity, his integrity and his strong love of his country. It was not selfish motivation, but Dr. Mirzayanov’s deep patriotism and his true concern for the welfare of his fellow Muscovites that prompted him to act, to try to draw attention to and to correct environment environmentally dangerous practices of his institute and the chemical-military complex. I personally feel a strong common bond with this courageous man, recognizing that his motives are the same as those that led me to release the Pentagon Papers.
Fortunately for all of us, we are living in different times now, the beginning of a post-Cold War Era. We must recognize however, that for the arms control agreements we are forging to have any real meaning, it is essential that they be verifiable by citizens. In Stalinist times, Dr. Mirzayanov would have been considered an enemy of the state. Now he should be recognized for what he is, a pioneer in creating a new, needed international norm of citizen responsibility, a man on the cutting edge of reform and democracy in your country. Silencing Mirzayanov and others like him will not help your country solve environmental problems or reduce the threat posed by chemical accidents that could happen at any time. Silencing them will serve to reduce the world’s confidence in Russia’s stated intentions to comply with international accords. And it will reduce Russian citizen’s confidence in their government’s ability to change or be honest about mistakes of the past which directly threatened the lives of many people.
One of your officials has mentioned to some people in our country that the Mirzayanov trial is a small thing, something of little importance. Instead, I think you will find that the Mirzayanov case is of critical importance to us, at the center of much that we value and honor most in our culture – freedom of speech, the of the scientist to disclose information to prevent a greater danger, the official who recognizes a loyalty to the constitution and to his countrymen that is more important than the rules of his agency, the ecologist against the polluters, anyone who rallies against weapons of mass destruction, a man who has exposed the corruption and incompetence of more powerful people.
The Mirzayanov case is an immediate legal litmus test of emerging Russian democracy. He is an individual in the true tradition of Andrei Sakharov, a man persecuted under the former regime for telling the truth, but now, rightfully, universally honored. I urge you to take the high road and use your authority to have the case dismissed immediately. There a number of statutes of the new Russian Constitution that can be referenced as grounds for dismissal. Furthermore, I would urge you to call for an intensive investigation by your office into the allegations Dr. Mirzayanov and others have made about secret chemical weapons programs and unsafe practices in the chemical military.
With respect,
Daniel Ellsberg
Annex 75
Letter of the American Physical Society to the President of Russia, Boris Nikoloyevich Yeltsin.
January 24, 1994
Dear President Yeltsin:
The Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists (CIFS) at the American Physical Society, a 43,000 member organization of physicists, is charged with monitoring the human rights situation of physicists and other scientists around the world, and advocating for those requiring assistance.
It has come to our attention that Dr. Vil Mirzayanov, a Russian chemist who publicized information concerning production of binary nerve gases in the Moscow vicinity, will be brought to trial on criminal charges concerning this publicity on January 26, 1994. Further, it is our understanding that Dr. Mirzayanov’s trial will not be open to foreign observers.
It is troubling that Dr. Mirzayanov will be brought to trial for acting in accordance with at least two international treaties to which the Russian Federation is a signatory nation, the Convention on Chemical Disarmament and the Declaration on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which both specifically prohibit chemical weapons production. We respectfully request that Dr. Mirzayanov’s trial be open to international observers and that the charges against him be dropped.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to your reply.
Sincerely yours,
Fang Lizhi,
Chair
Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists
Annex 76
The Extract from the Congressional Record – Senate. (February 1, 1994. S.S.543-544). Library of Congress. http: //thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin
Mr. DeConcini: Mr. President, I would like to call to the attention of my colleagues today a closed trial that opened in Moscow last Monday, January 24. A Russian scientist named Vil Mirzayanov is being tried on charges of exposing state secrets.
As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I most assuredly believe a nation has a right to preserve certain secrets related to national security. But let’s look at the particulars of this case.
Dr. Mirzayanov is a Moscow scientist and chemist who in 1992, on the basis of his work in a secret laboratory in Moscow, disclosed in the Russian and Western press that Russia was continuing to test chemical weapons despite having signed international agreements banning such tests. Subsequently, Dr. Mirzayanov was arrested and briefly held in custody in October 1992. He was then kept under house arrest until January 24, 1994, when his trial convened.
What Dr. Mirzayanov did must have infuriated some influential members of the Russian military-industrial complex, although it was apparently not illegal under Russian law at that time. Therefore, authorities prevailed upon Prime Minister Chernomyrdin to sign a retroactive secret decree in March 1993 to make Mirzayanov’s allegations a crime. It hardly seems likely that a government supposedly commited to rule of law would hold a citizen liable for violating a decree not made public. Incidentally, the new Russian Constitution quite sensibly forbids using secret decrees as basis for criminal charges.
Human rights activists and members of the scientific community have come to Dr. Mirzayanov’s defense, both in terms of the legality of his trial and with respect to the substance of Dr. Mirzayanov’s allegations that Russia is continuing chemical weapons testing. Dr. Joshua Lederberg, president of the New York Academy, has called for the charges against Dr. Mirzayanov to be dropped. “Otherwise”, he notes, “we must conclude that Mirzayanov was telling the truth and a whole new class of deadly binary chemical weapons was created and that the Russian Government is reverting to the old Soviet-style practice of presecuting dissident scientists.” I would note also that the respected Russian scientist and academic Roald Sagdeev has written that “the trial of Mirzayanov can only bring irreparable moral harm to the policies of the Russian Government and indeed the entire cause of peace.”