13/02/2004 |

Chechnya: Open Letter of Olivier Dupuis to Mrs. Laila Freivalds, Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister

For the attention of Mrs Laila Freivalds Minister of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gustav Adolfs torg 1 103 39 Stockholm Tel:+46-8-4051000 Fax:+46-8-7231176 registrator@foreign.ministry.se

Brussels, 13 February 2004

Dear Minister,

I am writing to draw your attention to a question that seems to me to be of vital importance, the solution to which now lies in the hands of the authorities of your country.

Last October, Mr Ilyas Akhmadov, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Chechen government, lodged an application at the Swedish Consulate in Washington for a permission to join his wife and kids that had been granted asylum in Sweden. At the time of his application, the consular authorities informed Mr Akhmadov that the procedure would take no more than three months.

In January of this year, having received no answer, Mr Akhmadov once again appealed to the Swedish Consulate in Washington, which replied that it would no longer be possible to resolve the matter in three months, and that he might not receive a reply until June or July: nine months rather than the expected three.

Many people would quite rightly be astonished at a delay of this sort on the part of a country known for the efficiency of its administration. I myself am not astonished, because I have a strong suspicion that the Swedish authorities have very little responsibility in this affair. I fear, in fact, that it is not an "administrative" question, but a strictly political question created by an initiative coming directly from Moscow. I have good reason to believe, in fact, that the Russian authorities, just as they did last year with Mr Zakaiev, have fabricated charges and sent an international arrest warrant to Interpol, and that the Swedish authorities consequently find themselves in an extremely delicate situation.

If they welcome Mr Akhmadov they may feel to be forced, as the Danish and British authorities were last year, to arrest and try him. I suspect they prefer not to have to do this and therefore decided to postpone a decision on his application.

If this analysis is correct, then I am afraid that yet another European democracy once again is failing the Chechen people and their leaders by giving in to the blatant pressure from the Putin’s criminal regime that has murdered thousands of innocent Chechen civilians, ruined the country and created in Chechnya “the state of terror and impunity”.

For years Europe did not oppose Kremlin’s genocidal policy in Chechnya. Not when we watched the mass bombardment of civilian populated towns and villages. Not when Russian generals ordered to detain all Chechen male from age of 10 to 60. Not even when we learnt about the concentration camps, where Chechen civilians were tortured, raped and executed. The least Europe must do is not to let Russia to persecute Chechens inside of our own countries. There must be a line that even most real-politic minded politicians are not prepared to cross. Even more so when it comes to Europe whose role is of crucial importance to Chechnya’s present and future and therefore to those of Russia.

I will not enlarge upon the family implications of this affair. Mr Akhmadov has not seen his wife and his two oldest children for almost two years. He has never seen his youngest son. From a political point of view, the consequences are evident. Mr Akhmadov is the author of the peace plan of the government of President Maskhadov, which proposes the establishment, on the basis of the experience in Kosovo, of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya. The plan, which has already received support from numerous international personalities, 145 Members of the European Parliament, many members of national parliaments, and over 16,000 members of the general public from around 100 different countries, would make it possible to bring an end to the spiral of terror created by the advocates of war in Moscow and their accomplices in Chechnya who have made terrorism their chosen weapon, by returning the initiative to those like Mr Maskhadov who want to resolve the Russo-Chechen tragedy by political means.

On 18 January I began a hunger strike. I did so first of all to be "closer" to the Chechens a few weeks before a sad commemoration: that which they will celebrate on 23 February in memory of the genocide that they suffered on 23 February 1944 when Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire Chechen people to Central Asia, during which almost a third of the population died of starvation, cold or disease. I did so also to try to ensure that the Peace Plan drawn up by Mr Maskhadov and his government is finally taken into consideration by the authorities of the Union and of the Member States. I did so to try to persuade the European authorities to allow the hundreds of wounded and mutilated Chechen children to be treated in hospitals in the Union, and to allow the thousands of Chechen students who can no longer study in their own country to find a welcome in our universities. I did so to urge the authorities of the European Union to grant Mr Akhmadov and the other members of his government full freedom of movement throughout the territory of the Union, instead of preventing them from residing and circulating freely.

In the hope that you will be able to find a rapid solution to the questions I have outlined, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your attention.

Yours respectfully,

Olivier Dupuis

PS. I am pleased to send you with this letter the Peace Plan of the Chechen Government of President Maskhadov and “Open Wound. Chechnya 1994 to 2003”, the last book of Stanley Greene, an American Photographer who spent a lot of time in Chechnya. The pictures are commented by the French philosopher, André Glucksmann.