September 9th 2003 · Prague Watchdog / Timur Aliyev ·

Chechen human rights activists to boycott presidential election

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus –

At their meeting in the Ingushetian town of Nazran on September 7, representatives of Chechen NGOs declared they would not participate in the upcoming Chechen presidential election in any way. About 70 representatives of Chechen human rights organizations and public figures attended this meeting whose agenda included: "Is There A Choice on October 5 - Participation or Complicity?"; "The Chechen Refugee Problem"; and "The Blacklist."

"If we succumb to the provocations connected to the [presidential] election, we'd risk becoming accomplices in the killing of our nation. We must also realize that we'd risk legalizing new punitive actions aimed at `introducing constitutional order'," stated the keynote speaker, Ruslan Badalov, chairman of the Chechen National Salvation Committee.

Madina Magomadova, chairwoman of "Chechen Mothers for Peace", is convinced that the world must hear about the situation in Chechnya and the Chechen NGOs' stance as soon as possible, before the issue is forgotten. In discussing the current Chechen refugee problem, Imran Ezhiyev, chairman of the "Society of Chechen-Russian Friendship," said that normal living conditions have not as yet been created in Chechnya. "If they had, then all the refugees would have returned home by now."

A joint resolution was adopted at the end of the conference declaring that no one would act as an observer in the upcoming election, and asked that all international organizations not do so either.

Meanwhile, the monitoring of human rights violations will continue during the election. They also asked the OSCE, PACE and the UN Commission on Human Rights to create a forum which would discuss the ending of military activities in Chechnya and in which Chechen organizations would take part.

 

From Gazeta Wyborcza, Sep.09, 2003 issue maw 09-90-2003

Russian human rights activists split on the issue of elections in Chechnya

The Russian human rights activists split on the issue of elections in Chechnya Part of Russian human rights activists called yesterday that planned for Oct. 5th presidential elections in Chechnya should be recognized as illegitimate, some of them also against sending any observers to Chechnya.

The main argument in these elections, it's a Kalashnikov machinegun. We can't affirm by our participation this kind of situation - explains Lev Ponomarev, the chief of "For Human Rights" organization. According to him, a majority of people will go to vote because they are afraid of repressions or are being forced, and surely will support the interim president - Akhmad Kadyrov. -

People are more afraid of Kadyrov's terror than the repressions of Russian army and terrorists attacks - says Svetlana Ganushkina from Memorial, which also yesterday called on activists of the NGO's not to go to Chechnya as observers. - We will see these elections like in Soviet times, when people en masse were going to balloting boxes, and when leaving, they were saying that everything was so great - ironizes Ganushkina. Different view has Ludmila Alexeyeva - the chief of Moscow Helsinki Group, who's sending to Chechnya 400 observers under the patronage of Ella Pamfilova, the chief of Human Rights Commission by the pres. of Russia. - At the beginning, I also had an opinion that elections had no sense, the same as sending observers to Chechnya - explains Alexeyeva to Gazeta. - But, we are not able to stop these elections now. So, it's better to look on the hands of electoral committees.

To send observers have asked me also many Chechens, who don't want that the elections will be totally transformed into a farce. I know, that I will have very little influence on the situation, but at least, from these observers, the world will know what kind of manipulations took place there.