The European Parliament removes the item "Chechnya" from the agenda of a plenary session

Brussels, 11 March 2002.

On the proposal of the PPE and PSE groups, the European Parliament decided at 5.30 pm this afternoon, with 154 votes for and 58 against, to remove the item "Chechnya" from the agenda of the coming plenary session.

Statement by Olivier Dupuis, MEP and Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party, on the 18th day of his hunger strike for Chechnya:

"The decision in plenary to remove the question of Chechnya from the agenda of this session marks a day of shame and sadness for the European Parliament. To postpone sine die a debate and a vote on a tragedy that has, in the space of a few years, already caused over 200,000 deaths and 400,000 refugees in a population originally of little over one million people is not worthy of a democratic Parliament. To do so because the EP delegation is soon to visit Moscow shows the real nature of a Parliament increasingly "strong with the weak and weak with the strong". A behaviour reminiscent of the despicable times of the Europe of Daladier and Chamberlain, or more recently of the behaviour of Europe towards Pol Pot and Milosevic. A behaviour which, as at the time of Stalin or Brezhnev, reflects Europe’s present lack of concern for democracy and the Rule of Law for the 150 million Russians whose country is increasingly in the hands of the racketeering, criminal autocracy that prospers from the tragedy in Chechnya. A behaviour that unfortunately characterises the Union’s policy towards China, the Arab countries, ...

The President of the parliamentary delegation with Russia, Bart Staes, has fortunately confirmed his decision to receive the Chechen ministers Zakaiev, Akhmadov and Khanbiev this Thursday at the European Parliament. This first success has convinced me, after 18 days, to suspend my hunger strike for Chechnya, a nonviolent initiative of dialogue with my colleagues in the EP. Thanking them for their support, I invite Oumar Khanbiev, the Chechen Minister of Health, and Andrei Rodionov, the Secretary of the Radical Anti-militarist Association of Moscow, to end their hunger strikes. I also invite the 500 people from over 35 countries - including many from Russia and Chechnya - who had decided to take part from tomorrow evening in the two-day fast to urge the European Parliament to take action, to suspend their initiative and to be ready for an initiative of much wider scope in the next few weeks to ensure that a majority of the Members of the European Parliament decide to debate and to take courageous decisions on the issue of Chechnya."

From a press release of the Transnational Radical Party.