Chechnya: IHF Cites Danger of Possible "Genocide"

Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 08:54:25 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Chechnya: IHF Cites Danger of Possible "Genocide"

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: International Helsinki Federation <[email protected]>

Chechnya: IHF Cites Danger of Possible "Genocide"


          Human Rights Organizations Demand End to Russia´s
          Campaign Against Chechnya; Cite Danger of Possible
                             "Genocide";
               and Deplore "Ethnic Cleansing" in Russia
 
Helsinki, 22 October 1999: Representatives of human rights
organizations from Europe, the former Soviet Union and North America
are calling upon Russia to end its military campaign against Chechnya,
and appeal to the Finnish European Union Presidency to ensure that
economic cooperation with Russia is made conditional on an end to the
violence and improvements in human rights in Russia.
 
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) deplored
the reported death of over 100 civilians in Grozny on 21 October, and
said that "the international community must condemn and demand an end
to the slaughter of innocent civilians by Russian forces".
 
IHF president Mrs. Ludmila Alexeyeva, who also chairs the Moscow
Helsinki Group, said: "Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, a real
war is being waged against Chechnya, with tragic consequences for the
civilian population. In several cities in Russia, under the same
pretext, the authorities are conducting a genuine campaign of ethnic
cleansing. These events are no less dangerous for European security
than the Kosova crisis caused by the Milošević regime last spring. In
and around Chechnya we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe which
is alarming, insofar as the international community is paying very
little attention."
 
Dr. Yuri Orlov, founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said: "Repeated
humiliation caused by poverty, social inequalities, and NATO´s
demonstration of force in Yugoslavia, have pushed Russian collective
consciousness to the brink of fascism. Recent terrorist acts have only
acted as a trigger. The current war in Chechnya consolidates that
sentiment. The ongoing ethnic cleansing in certain cities, public
support for the bombings and the anti-chechen and anti-western
rhetoric carried even in otherwise democratic media, have become
commonplace in Russia. Human rights defenders are at present the only
opposition to this mass pychosis".
 
The Helsinki committees agree that states have a right to fight
terrorism, but categirigally reject the Russian claim that the action
against Chechnya is merely an "anti-terror, police matter", and "an
internal affair". They agreed that the best way the EU can help the
Russian people is to press the Russian government to alter its present
course, which IHF fears could even lead to genocide.
 
For more information: Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director,
Tel. +43-676-339 05 06 (mobile)
 
__________________________________________________
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Rummelhardtgasse 2/18
1090 VIENNA, AUSTRIA
Tel. +43-1-408 88 22
Fax  +43-1-408 88 22-50
E-mail: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.ihf-hr.org

-- 
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe

Submissions: [email protected]  
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected] 
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================