CHECHNYA: THE RUSSIAN TROOPS
DYNAMITE CIVILIANS. THE EU TELLS ITS CITIZENS : KEEP MOVING, THERE'S NOTHING TO
SEE !
Brussels, 20 February 2003. According to some independent Russian sources at the
beginning of January the Russian military and paramilitary forces have carried
out a "zachistka" action in the Chechen town of Argun; more than one hundred
men were detained. A couple of days later, eighteen corpses were thrown
out of the Russian check-point building, 32 people disappeared at all, the rest
except of six were released for ransom -- all beaten and tortured -- and the last
six were taken to Argun-river and have been blown up with a dynamite bar.
On the other end the Russian authorities are dismantling all refugee camps
in Ingushetia and sending the refugees back to Chechnya where they will be exposed
to such hideous violations and will risk their freedom and their lives,
until the international community decide to force the Russian Federation to put
an end to these atrocities and finally open genuine negotiations with the legitimate
government of President Mashkadov on the future status of Chechnya.
Question from Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and
Member of the European Parliament, to the Commission:
“What kind of information does the Commission have concerning the hideous
crime perpetrated by Russian military and paramilitary forces in the town
of Argun and what was its reaction? What political and diplomatic initiatives
does the Commission intend to take vis-à-vis the Russian authorities who
while dismantling the refugee camps in Ingushetia forcing the Chechen people to
go back to Chechnya are simultaneously carrying out such criminal actions as the
one realised in Argun ? Could he Commission draft a proposal for
a joint action aiming at the realisation of an extraordinary operation - along
the lines of the action taken for Bosnia and Kosovo - to receive all Chechen refugees
whose lives and integrity would be threatened if they were to go back to
Chechnya ?”
www.radicalparty.org
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Olivier Dupuis
Member of the European Parliament
http://www.radicalparty.org/
tel. +32 2 284 7198
fax +32 2 284 9198