| EU joins
U.S. criticism on Kremlin power 15 Sep 2004 09:09:04 GMT Source: Reuters (Adds Bot offer of help paragraphs 12-13, edits) STRASBOURG, France, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The European Union on Wednesday echoed U.S. concerns about moves planned by Russian President Vladimir Putin to fight terrorism, saying the answer was not to boost Kremlin power at the expense of democracy. After a spate of attacks in Russia blamed on Chechen separatists, Putin has said he will name regional governors himself in future and make changes to the electoral system that will effectively stop the rise of a strong opposition. But EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said resolution of the Chechen conflict lay in "far-sighted, humane and resolute" policies rather than moves limiting democracy. "I hope they (the solutions) are forthcoming and that the government of the Russian Federation will not conclude that the only answer to terrorism is to increase the power of the Kremlin," Patten told the European Parliament. "The fight against terrorism does not justify or excuse the abuse of human rights," said Patten, insisting the 25-nation bloc would raise its objections with Moscow. "The challenge for Russia is to put in place a leadership in Chechnya in which the population of Chechnya has confidence. Without this there can be no lasting, genuine reconciliation, which it is clear the majority of the population wishes to see." U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, said Putin's planned changes were "pulling back on some of the democratic reforms". Other voices have been less restrained. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, German leader of the Greens in the European assembly, accused Russia on Tuesday of "going back to a tsarist dictatorship". Reacting to the criticism, Russia has curtly told Washington and others to mind their own business. Putin defended the planned changes as strengthening the Russian administration to prevent crises such as that in Beslan. At least 326 hostages, half of them children, died in the storming of School No.1 in Beslan, southern Russia, this month after it was seized by gunmen demanding Chechen independence. Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told parliament the EU remained ready to help Russia despite differences over Chechnya, such as in the reconstruction of the region and combating terror funding. "The Russians deserve every support we can give," he said. "We stand ready to increase cooperation on a technical level and share experience we have gained in counter-terrorism." OSCE raps Russia for lack of information on siege 16 Sep 2004 09:36:33 GMT Source: Reuters By Julia Damianova VIENNA, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Russia's failure to provide timely and truthful information on the Beslan school siege hurt Russian democracy and fanned public mistrust of government and media, Europe's top human rights body said on Thursday. The media freedom watchdog of the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also said there had been cases of detention and harassment of journalists trying to cover the siege, in which more than 300 people died. "Even more importantly, the government did not provide in a timely manner truthful information on the handling of the crisis," OSCE media freedom representative Miklos Haraszti said in a report. The result was a "triple credibility gap" between the government and media, between the media and citizens and between the government and its people, the report said. "This is a serious drawback for a democracy," it said. The Russian government and senior security officials understated the number of hostages and gave contradictory or incorrect information about the identity of the hostage takers, the report said. "As a result, journalists were physically attacked in Beslan for allegedly misinforming the public," it added. The two-day siege by Chechen rebels at Beslan's School No. 1 ended with the deaths of more than 320 hostages -- half of them children. The rebels took more than 1,000 parents and children hostage, although the government at the time put the number much lower, at over 300. The OSCE report cited Russian newspaper reports and interviews with journalists who worked in Beslan, who said television camera crews had been beaten by angry crowds accusing them of lying for reporting the government's number of hostages. The report also singled out the three nationwide television broadcasters that are the main source of information in a country spread across 11 time zones. All are controlled directly or indirectly by the state. "Unfortunately, they (the broadcasters) did not provide accurate and up-to-date information. In the end, the print media and Internet news sites stepped in, filling the information void as much as they could," the report said. It also cited several reported cases of journalists being stopped en route, sent back from Beslan or harassed while working. Those included two opposition journalists, Anna Politkovskaya and Andrei Babitsky, who never made it to Beslan. Politkovskaya was taken to hospital with food poisoning after drinking a cup of tea on the plane, while Babitsky was detained after an airport scuffle with strangers. It also cited reports that a crew from Georgia's Rustavi-2 television were detained in Beslan an hour after they reported their own account of the storming of the school, which differed from the Kremlin's version. |