European Commissioner Poul Nielson discovers forced repatriation of refugees to Chechnya.

Brussels, 15 November 2002.

In an interview with Reuters broadcast by Radio Liberty, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Cooperation, Poul Nielson, stated that "the Russian authorities must put an end to the practice of forced repatriation of refugees to Chechnya”. In the course of the conversation, the Commissioner also highlighted “the need to take measures to guarantee the security of the staff of the humanitarian organisations working in the northern Caucasus, who face enormous difficulties and risk their lives every day.”

Question from Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of the European Parliament, for the Commission:

“Can these statements be interpreted as a change in the attitude towards the Chechen tragedy of Commissioner Poul Nielson and of the whole Commission, and as a new desire on their part to act to put an end to the extremely serious abuses of the fundamental rights in Chechnya? Moreover, is Commissioner Poul Nielson aware that the Geneva Convention categorically prohibits the forced repatriation of peoples, and that if the Russian authorities do not put an end to this practice the Commission will have to bring proceedings against them before the competent international courts? As regards the security of the staff of the humanitarian organisations working in Chechnya, does the Commissioner not believe that the fact that he himself has not visited Chechnya since the beginning of the second Chechen war, three years ago, could be interpreted as a sign of a lack of will on the part of the Commission to ensure the security of the humanitarians operators on the ground, and that the only way to remedy this is therefore for the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid to undertake, as soon as possible, a thorough visit to Chechnya, not arranged and supervised by the Moscow authorities, to allow him to get direct knowledge of the situation?"

From a press release of the Transnational Radical Party.