EU pledges support for Russia's peace plan in Chechnya (*)

SAINT PETERSBURG, May 31 (AFP) - The European Union supports Russia's efforts to bring peace to its breakaway republic of Chechnya, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said here on Saturday at an EU-Russia summit.

"The European Union will continue to support the efforts of Russian leaders to carry out a policy aiming to bring peace back to Chechnya," said Simitis, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

European observers have been the most critical of Russia's war in Chechnya, urging President Vladimir Putin to end the nearly four-year-old conflict that has killed thousands of Russian soldiers and an unknown number of civilians.

Simitis praised the Russian president's peace plan, launched with a constitutional referendum in March and a subsequent offer of rebel amnesty.

"The recent referendum, combined with the approved amnesty, is an important step forward," he said.

Russia's lower house of parliament last week passed the proposed amnesty upon first reading, two months after Chechens overwhelmingly adopted a new constitution fixing the republic's place in the Russian Federation.

But many observers have criticized the process, urging Putin to open peace talks with separatist rebels in the mainly Muslim republic.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also praised the controversial peace process, saying: "I think it is absolutely right that you resolve that through the political process and political dialogue that you have engaged in."

Blair said the referendum result was "a very, very important step forwards."

The final declaration issued after the summit's end mentioned the contentious Chechen issue despite initial opposition from Moscow.

Russia and the EU "note the recent referendum and express the hope that the recently launched political process, as well as social and economic development, will bring back a state based on law that favorizes the protection of human rights and finally a real reconciliation in Chechnya," it said.

The text condemned "all forms of violence, particularly terrorist acts, that can put in doubt the perspective of a political solution."

Putin has insisted the political plan will continue, despite a spate of deadly rebel attacks that have killed more than 80 people in the last month alone.

"We are working on granting the fullest autonomy to Chechnya possible," he said. "The political process will be continued."

French President Jacques Chirac said European leaders wanted to underline "our common hope to see the March 23 referendum open the path to peace and reconciliation in the framework of a poiltical process."

Yet Chirac also told journalists after the EU-Russia summit that several heads of state had urged the Russian leadership to allow for "a certain amount of transparency that allows important and recognized nongovernmental organizations" to work in the war-torn republic.

Putin assured his Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende that the search would continue for a Dutch doctor kidnapped in Dagestan in August while working with aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctor Without Borders) in the southern republic, which neighbors Chechnya.

"The case of Arjan Erkel is a manifestation of the terrorism that also threatens other countries. We will continue our search efforts," Putin said.

Russian officials have said they know the Dutch doctor is alive(**), but have no idea of his whereabouts.

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Comment:

* What is Russian's "peace plan"? That remains a mystery. What Russian's "peace plan" in Chechnya is has been seen in the last ten years. While the EU kept substantially silent on it now it even backs and praises Putin's genocidal policy.

** Obviously they know! Because they paid the terrorist who kidnapped him. It is well known that the main suspect for Arjan Erkel's kidnapping are the Russian secret services. It is incredible, not so much what Putin says, who after all is only doing his usual criminal business, but how Western observer and journalist accept all this nonsense without any further consideration.

This press release shows how the St. Petersburg summit was one of the worst cynical and realpolitcal outcomes of Europe since the pre-nazi Europe of Munich. They are deliberately encouraging the birth of a criminal regime they will be forced to confront with sooner or later. M.M.