Ivanov insults the GfbV
- Zülch demands that Berlin returns to a policy based on human rights
SOCIETY FOR THREATENED PEOPLES (GfbV) PRESS RELEASE ...Göttingen, 11.02.2003
In connection with the statements by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, trying
to place the Society for Threatened Peoples in the neighbourhood of terrorist
supporters, the Secretary-general of the GfbV, Tilman Zülch, declares the
following:
Ivanov's insults are an honour The Federal Government must return to a human rights-based
policy Sergey Ivanov is to blame for the genocide of 80,000 Chechens. That the
Russian Defense Minister attacked the Society for Threatened People at the security
conference in Munich is an honour for us as a human rights organization. Because
he is the commander of the Russian army that rages in Chechnya and is torturing,
kidnapping, raping and murdering people.
But the fact that the German government is silent when a person guilty of genocide
insults a human rights organization that was founded in Germany and has a UN adviser
status, shows the shortcomings of this government. Because Gerhard Schröder
and his foreign minister Joschka Fischer play the role of guardians of peace in
the Iraq conflict, while they collaborate with the Russian government in Chechnya.
Until this very day, Russia prevents foreign journalists, human rights activists
and politicians from entering Chechnya. Until this very day, nothing has been
heard of a note of protest from the Federal Government. Its silence, and the organized
cooperation of German secret services with their partners in Chechnya, are the
real scandal.
The Society for Threatened Peoples will continue to put its finger into the open
wound, where people are oppressed, tortured and murdered.
We call upon the Federal Government to return to a policy based on human rights
at long last. It must radically change its line on Chechnya and pressure President
Vladimir Putin to respect the international human rights conventions. Otherwise,
its engagement for peace in Iraq would reveal itself as a show for internal political
purposes.
At the Munich security conference, Ivanov had evoked the anti-terror coalition,
extended it to Chechnya, and subsequently deplored that "... the German-based
Society for the Defense of Oppressed People, are still in existence and continue
with their vigorous operations in the territory of Germany."
Tilman Zülch can also be reached on the phone at +49 0172 5620 523.