European Parliament - Strasbourg, Sitting of Wednesday 14 May 2003
Olivier Dupuis (NI-Radical). -
Mr President, Mr Commissioner, Mr President of the Council, honourable colleagues,
I find that the text we are due to vote on tomorrow on relations between the European
Union and Russia is quite frankly repugnant. Mr Oostlander has told us of his
concerns about democratisation, or the absence of democratisation, in
Russia, but he did not say a word, during the four minutes of his intervention,
about Chechnya.
Mr Paasilinna, who together with Mr Oostlander is one of the main influences behind
this resolution, did not mention Chechnya, either. We are even called on, in this
resolution, to praise the Russian military forces as "peace-keeping forces". On
the subject of the Russian peace-keeping forces, in Chechnya or elsewhere - in
Afghanistan a few years ago, for example - not everyone will be in agreement!
For once, at least, the Council has spoken to us about Chechnya, but I think that
the Council is deceiving itself, I would even go so far as to say it is lying
to itself. And as a result it is lying to us and deceiving us, because the question
is not that which the President of the Council has expounded. The political solution
proposed by Mr Putin is not a political solution, it is an encouragement to two
forms of terrorism: the daily terror exercised by the Russian forces present in
Chechnya and the action of the terrorist groups helped secretly by the Russian
military forces themselves, who now occupy the whole region and no longer leave
any chance for the political solution envisaged by the Council.
We have done everything, Europe has done everything to isolate Mr Maskadov, although
he was elected by the Chechen people in a vote legitimised by the OSCE. The European
Union has done everything to ensure that the members of Mr Maskadov's cabinet
can no longer circulate in Europe and meet the political authorities of the EU
member states. It has done everything to ruin any chance of real negotiations
between the Chechens and the Russian authorities.
What we have now is a sort of Quisling who reigns over Grozny and the surrounding
area and obeys Moscow. From time to time he rebels and draws up a report - which
you did not mention, Mr President of the Council - in which he describes the policy
of daily terror pursued by the Russian authorities in Chechnya.
This is the reality today. Without President Maskadov, there will be no chance
of peace, no chance of a political solution in Chechnya. Without a clear message
to Mr Putin to urge him to begin negotiations, there will be no solution in Chechnya.
Around ten months ago Mr Putin stated in the Financial Times that the problem
for Russia is not the final status of Chechnya, but a problem of security. The
Chechen Foreign Minister has proposed an United Nations administration in Chechnya,
precisely to reassure the Russian authorities and to establish, within five to
ten years, a Chechen State administration that would represent a guarantee against
threats to Russian security.
You no longer want to speak to or see the Chechen Foreign Minister, who can no
longer circulate in Europe, to whom you have refused a visa, as you have refused
visas to other members of Mr Maskadov's cabinet. This is the opposite of what
should be done, and yet it is what you continue to do.
This is what prevents us from breaking the circle of terror, what drives young
Chechens to despair, as Mr Belder and Mrs Schroedter have said, young people who
have seen their parents, their brothers and their cousins killed in Grozny or
in other cities around Chechnya, kidnapped and abused by the Russian forces. By
acting in this way, you are driving them into the hands of the extremists who
fund madmen in other parts of the world.
You must change tack immediately, otherwise you will be agreeing to drink blood
rather than champagne at the forthcoming summit in St.Petersburg.
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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