CHECHEN REPUBLIC OF ICHKERIA MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Press release:
Russian troops wiped out a Chechen village.
According to a
report of the Council of Chechen Nongovernmental Organizations, last
Sunday, December 7, Russian military, burning down every house, killing
local civilians and slaughtering cattle, entirely razed to the ground
a mountain Chechen village Dzumsoy.
This is yet another
Russian crime against humanity in Chechnya, committed under the orders
of the current Russian regime - the same regime that, we are told,
is a friend and a partner of the world’s most developed democracies.
Press-Officewww.chechnya-mfa.info
Russian occupiers destroy the village of Dzumsoy
It has become
known from inhabitants of the Itum-Kale district that Russian occupying
formations have completely destroyed and burned the village of Dzumsoy.
This was reported by the Information Centre of the "Council of Non-Government
Organizations" (SNO). On 7 December, a convoy of the Russian occupying
formations was attacked between the populated areas of Dzumsoy and
Bugaroy in the Itum-Kale district. According to some informations,
27 aggressors were killed and 16 others suffered injuries in the battle.
According to
eye-witness accounts from inhabitants of the Itum-Kale district, Dzumsoy
village was blocked by the occupying formations in the evening of
the same day. The inhabitants of the village - with the exception
of a few persons - had time to leave the populated area. Inhabitants
of the adjacent villages assert that the occupiers broke into the
village and set all houses on fire and slew all the cattle that had
remained on the abandoned farms.
The people told
that three local residents who had remained in their houses were killed
by the Russian military bandits. Dzumsoy village, which counted [...]
farms, was eradicated from the face of the earth as a result of this
punitive action. All the houses were burned and those inhabitants
of the village who remained alive are temporarily living with their
relatives and acquaintances.
The populated
area of Bugaroy, not far from Dzumsoy, underwent a punitive action
too. However, according to eye-witness accounts, here the occupiers
confined themselves to the burning of several working quarters and
to robberies.
The Russian agencies
didn't report the destruction of Dzumsoy village by the occupiers.
The fate of its inhabitants remained without attention from the puppet
structures as well. The Chechen news agencies described the details
of this tragedy.
IA DAYMOHK
2003-12-13
http://www.daymohk.info/rus/index.php?mode=1&element=4774&PHPSESSID=7d96566c62ce580922e35a5e50aab4ee
[Translation by N.S.]
Refugees
Whipped
out from Europe
Problems of illegal immigration and granting asylum were on agenda
of the recent meeting of foreign ministers of EU member-states in
Brussels.
The ministers
were supposed to work out a compromise on "safe third countries"
to which refugees would be returned before considering each case
in particular. Observers believe that due to a great number of differences
in this respect the meeting could hardly result in a final solution
of the problem.
Harmony to
the detriment of refugees
The day before
the meeting Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
harshly criticized the draft of the new EU immigration law. The
project provisions are aimed at making rules for asylum seekers
more strict, Lubbers warns. In an interview to Frankfurter Rundshau,
the UN Commissioner noted that the planned measures must not be
aimed at driving out from Europe as many people as possible. Having
no alternative proposals, Ruud Lubbers demanded, the EU ministers
must abandon the given project. Also the European Council for Refugees,
the European Commission as well as human rights organizations such
as Amnesty International and Pro Asyl spoke against the new "harmonized
EU policy" in the field of granting asylum.
Common denominator
A "considerable
deterioration" of refugees' condition is underscored in the appeal
of the High Commissioner to the current EU President Silvio Berlusconi.
The UN Commissioner office is deeply concerned about the EU plans.
"It seems that European Union - instead of harmonizing its legislation
- is trying to find the smallest common denominator to enable the
member-states to adopt their laws which seriously complicate the
process of receiving refugee status," the official UN representative
Chris Yanovsky notes.
The following
three aspects of the draft seem the most arguable
Safe third
countries
According to
Lubbers, the notion of "safe third countries," where illegal refugees
will supposedly be deported if they are denied asylum, needs a more
precise legal definition. To all appearance, people will be sent
to "third countries" which cannot be considered safe, or the countries
where refugees have never been.
Right on the
border
The draft of
the new European legislation allows to deport illegal immigrants
right on the border. At that the UN Commissioner considers the provisions
on a guaranteed observance of refugee rights too vague.
Without waiting
for court ruling
Besides, an
asylum seeker can be deported before his/her appeal is considered.
Many illegal immigrants receive the refugee status after they submit
their appeals, - Yanovsky underscores, - "from 30 to 60 percent."
After the new legislation comes into force, the UN representative
says, people having the right to asylum can be deported before the
final court ruling.
The UN High
Commissioner for Refugees is afraid that the new recommendations
will give a carte-blanche to certain countries and all existing
norms for treating asylum seekers will be violated. Especially considering
the fact that the majority of refugees in the world are accepted
by non-European countries and their number in European Union is
decreasing: so far this year some 150,000 people have applied for
refugee status.
Refugees are
not immigrants
The UN High
Commissioner for Refugees urged EU member-states to distinguish
between immigrants and asylum seekers. Europe shall work out an
efficient immigration policy. And parallel to it - a policy in the
field of granting asylum. The new law, which will be based on the
present EU proposals, will be used as "a whip" against people persecuted
in their native countries, representatives of Amnesty International
warned before the meeting in Brussels.
[13.12.2003
11:11] Eleonora Volodina/Deutsche Welle
http://www.grani.ru/War/Chechnya/m.53837.html
(tr by N.S..)
A rally against
the war in Chechnya will take place on the Pushkinskaya Square
11.12.03 14:48
The antiwar-action
committee will conduct in Moscow a rally against the war in Chechnyaon
the 11th of December. This was reported to the Ekho Moskvy radio
station by the executive director of all-Russian movement For
the Human Rights - Leo Ponomarev. "On the 11th of December we're
passing 9 years since the day of the beginning of the so-called restoration
of constitutional order in Chechnya by all available to the Russian
authority means, noted the human rights activist. - All this led to
the fact that during that time have more than 10 thousand Russian
soldiers have perished, tens of thousands of peaceful citizens of
different nationalities ve been killed, the city of Grozny has been
destroyed. The war already arrived to Moscow, as a result of acts
of terror in Moscow have perished hundreds of our citizens"
Protest action
will take place at 17.30 [5:30PM] to 19.00 [7:00] on the
Puskinskaya Square next to the restaurant McDonalds. Organizers invite
there all their members. "Policy the country's leadersip has brought
situation in Chechnya into a blind alley. We consider that only direct
negotiations between the belligerents can stop military actions and
lead to the curtailment of acts of terror in Moscow and other cities
of Russia ", - stated Ponomarev.
http://www1.gazeta.pl/swiat/1,34270,1820850.html
Demonstration
in Moscow against the war in Chechnya
maw 11-12-2003,
last updated 11-12-2003 17:18
Do not get deceived,
the war in Chechnya is going on! - under this slogan some 50 people,
human rights activists, students protested on the Pushkinskaya Square
in Moscow on the 9th anniversary of sending of Russian army to Chechnya.
"No - to policy of death", "Already 1 million soldiers have gone through
Chechnya", "No - to bombings, no - to zachistkas", "Chechnya - forgive
us!" - one could read on their banners.
- I know, that
after the last bombing in Moscow, our action could be extremaly unpopular
for people - says to Gazeya Lev Ponomarev from For the Human Rights
movement. - We condemn the bombings, but they take place because there's
no negotiations with the other side. And besides the polls show that
a majority of Russians wants negotiations with the guerillas.
December 12th 2003 · Prague Watchdog
Czech activists
stage protest before Russian Consulate in Brno on behalfof Chechen
refugees
(Prague Watchdog)
– Members of the Czech NGO “Nesehnuti” and the Czechbranch
of Amnesty International organized a rally in front of theRussian
Consulate in the country's second largest town of Brno onThursday
to protest the arbitrary enforced actions taken against Chechenrefugees
in Ingushetia.
The rally began
rather dramatically with a re-enactment of a symbolicscene showing
Russian soldiers evicting a Chechen family from theirtemporary dwelling
and forcibly dragging them back to Chechnya.
Then, by holding
a moment of silence for all the Chechen war victims andlighting candles,
the activists aligned themselves with theinternational event “In
Memory of Chechen Victims.” This had beenundertaken by dozens
of human rights organizations primarily based inthe territory of the
former Soviet Union, on the 9th anniversary of thebeginning of the
first Chechen war. (More information about the eventcan be found on
the website http://www.hro.org/memory.)
The protest in
Brno was also held to call attention to the outrageousdecision to
halt asylum proceedings for approximately 60 Chechenrefugees in the
Czech Republic who are in danger of being expelled fromthe country
early next year.
Milan Stefanec
of Nesehnuti criticized the Czech authorities' decisionto expel the
refugees: “These people escaped from a war-torn land, andnow
the Czech Republic is telling them via the police and InteriorMinistry
that they must go back home.”
“The fate
of Chechens affects our lives far more than we think, despitethe apparent
remoteness of the country. Among the petitioners who seekasylum in
the Czech Republic, Chechen refugees are in the forefront. Yetour
authorities, unfortunately, have little sympathy toward therefugees’
difficult situation,” stated Lubor Kysucan, one of thecoordinators
of Amnesty International.
"It is therefore
imperative that we constantly remind people that eventhough the war
has ended, violating the human rights of innocentcivilians by the
Russian powers-that-be does not cause just one act ofterrorism, but
is an ongoing threat," asserted Kysucan.