| Chechen Human Rights Activist Suspends
Hunger Strike (RFE/RL) 19 January 2006 -- A French-based Chechen human rights activist who had been on hunger strike for nearly six weeks in the eastern French city of Strasbourg has said he will end his protest. In comments posted on the pro-Chechen independence website Kavkaz-Center on 19 January, Said-Emin Ibragimov says he made his decision after receiving assurances that he would be given the opportunity to address the 23-27 January session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on human rights violations in Chechnya. Ibragimov, a former minister in the Chechen separatist government, is calling upon the Council of Europe, of which Russia is a member, to condemn the war in Chechnya as a mass violation of human rights. Earlier this week, the PACE rapporteur on Chechnya, German Socialist parliamentarian Rudolf Binding, wrote Ibragimov a letter urging him to end his hunger strike. (Kavkaz-Center) Wednesday, January 18, 2006. Issue 3333. Page 2. Chechen on Hunger Strike for 39 Days The Associated Press STRASBOURG, France — A Chechen human rights activist said Tuesday that he had been on a hunger strike for 39 days to demand Europe's help in achieving lasting peace in his homeland, despite pleas by Europe's top human rights watchdog that he end the strike. Said-Emin Ibragimov, who lives in exile in Strasbourg, said he planned to continue until the chairman of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly pledged to do more to end the violence that has plagued the restive southern republic for more than a decade. "I feel very weak now, but I am determined to continue," he said by telephone. Ibragimov's family said he had difficulties moving but would not stop until he received a letter from the parliamentary assembly promising to resolve the situation in Chechnya. Ibragimov has been admitted to the hospital several times and placed on a drip, and he has been drinking water. Rudolf Binding, a German member of the parliamentary assembly, appealed to Ibragimov to end his strike quickly. "The disastrous human rights situation in the Chechen republic remains a matter of the highest concern. I will personally continue my efforts to put an end to the unacceptable sufferings of your people, who need human rights defenders to remain alive. So I appeal to you to stop urgently your hunger strike and to restore your forces and energy to help me and your people in this huge task," he wrote in a letter delivered to Ibragimov. But Ibragimov, a former Soviet boxer, said he would not stop his hunger strike until he received assurances from the assembly's chairman. The parliamentary assembly consists of several hundred legislators from the Council of Europe's 46 member states. The assembly meets in Strasbourg four times per year, and the situation in Chechnya will be debated at the assembly's meeting next week. Binding, who has visited Chechnya many times, said large-scale human rights violations there continued to occur in a climate of impunity and that European governments had failed to address them in a regular, serious and intensive manner. Asylum laws leave Chechens stranded in Poland Karin Zeitvogel | Wolomin, Poland 18 January 2006 In the corner of the dimly lit entrance hall of a Soviet housing block in the Warsaw suburb of Wolomin, housing Chechen refugees, a middle-aged man toys aimlessly with a large switchblade. Children's voices ring down from the upper storeys of the building, home to between 200 and 300 Chechens who have fled the war in their north Caucasus homeland to end up at one of 17 refugee centres in Poland. A pall of cigarette smoke hangs over the hallway, where a dozen Chechen men mill around, nothing better to do with their day. Mikail (39) has been at this centre for one year and two months. He left behind him an idyllic life in Chechnya, where he headed a cultural centre and his family reared horses until their stables were destroyed in the war. "I'm not a murderer. I left Chechnya because my mother pleaded with me to go before I disappeared without a trace," he says. Upstairs, Liza (28) shares a musty room of 12 square metres with her husband and three children, aged two, four and 10. "One day my husband was arrested and beaten. We paid a ransom, bought him back, and the next day we decided to leave," she says. Hava (34) lost her brother and husband in Chechnya. "The Russians came and took my brother, so my husband went to get him back. I never saw either of them again," she said. After she filed a formal complaint about the disappearances, masked men came to the house. They beat Hava's 13-year-old daughter so severely that she now has vision problems, and Hava's son, now four, was so terrified that he still doesn't speak. "We need help. We need medical care. Poland can't give it to us. We want to be able to live a normal life. I've had an interview with officials about obtaining refugee status. That was in October and I still haven't had an answer. I don't know what to expect." Asylum law European Union officials met at the weekend to try to harmonise asylum law -- not to make it easier for genuine refugees to make sense of EU rules or to help countries like Poland, which bears the brunt of the influx of refugees from the east, but to stem the number of asylum seekers trying to enter the bloc. In 2004, the year Poland joined the EU, 7 183 people from the Russian Federation, 90% of them Chechens, sought asylum in Poland -- more than double the number of two years earlier, according to the Polish Office of Repatriation and Aliens. "Poland receives the same aid as everyone else from the EU to deal with refugee issues," says Jan Wegrzyn, head of the Repatriation and Aliens agency, which deals with refugee issues. "We don't see the possibility of getting more," he says. There is no system in the EU that will allow the refugee burden to be more fairly shared out among member states, he adds. Only about 8% of Chechens are granted refugee status in Poland, Wegrzyn adds. Most are given "tolerated stay" status, which gives holders the right to work but little else. Many simply disappear, heading west to what Chechens see as EU Eldorados. Sneaking out Hava, Liza and Mikail have tried their luck sneaking into Germany or France, but all were caught and sent back to Poland, their first port of call in the EU and, under the 2003 Dublin regulations, the country in which they must seek asylum. "Most Chechens come to Poland because it is the closest place they can reach," says Attar Ornan, a psychologist who works at refugee centres in Poland for global medical charity Médecins sans Frontières. "Not being allowed to go elsewhere in the EU is very difficult for them," she says. "They feel no one is interested in what is going on in Chechnya or here. No one wants to listen. They feel abandoned, there and here." Mikail has been granted tolerated-stay status in Poland, meaning he has been given a work permit but will not get the 1 000 zlotys (€250) a month paid to refugees. "The Polish state gave me 1 200 zlotys [€300] for two months. I have to find an apartment and work, but it's very hard," says Mikail, who has learned Polish and trained to work as a security guard. Poland has the highest unemployment rate in the EU, at about 18% of the workforce. "The authorities here won't let me leave, but I can't live here. I can't work. We want to be able to live normal lives, not as sub-standard citizens. If there were no war in Chechnya, I'd go back in an instant. But that's out of the question now," he says. -- AFP 19.01.2006, Statement of the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the enactment of the Russian Law on Non-profit Organisations The EU has made clear to the Russian Federation its concerns over the possible effects of the draft law on NGOs. It has also underlined the great importance the EU attaches to freedom of _expression and association, which are of fundamental importance for a democratic society. The EU reiterates its strong support for the legitimate and peaceful activities of civil society. It is in Russia's interests that civil society should be allowed to develop freely. The EU welcomes changes made to the draft law before its second reading, but remains concerned that the law as it has been adopted could have a serious impact on the legitimate activity of civil society organisations in Russia. The EU will pay close attention to the implementation of the law when it passes into force and expresses its expectation that it will be implemented in line with standards and commitments undertaken in the framework of the Council of Europe and the OSCE. The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the EFTA countries Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine align themselves with this declaration. * Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process. __________________________________________ Joachim Frank, Project Coordinator International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights Wickenburggasse 14/7 A-1080 Vienna Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 22 Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50 Web: http://www.ihf-hr.org ______________________________________ ESTONIAN MEP: EUROPEAN UNION'S CHECHNYA POLICY HAS FAILED BRUSSELS, Jan 19, Baltic News service Tunne Kelam, a conservative member of the European Parliament from Estonia, said the European Union's Chechnya policy had failed, adding that a tribunal to investigate war crimes committed in Chechnya would be set up. During the Wednesday discussion in the European Parliament of the situation in Chechnya after the elections and the situation of the civil society Kelam criticized the welcome of the previous EU presidency Great Britain to the November elections in Chechnya, a spokesman for the conservative faction informed BNS. Representatives of EU presidency Austria and of the European Commission took part in the discussion. Kelam, member of the Europarliament's Russian delegation, said referring to information provided by Russian human rights organizations that the elections were only conducted on paper, the role of the local people being almost non-existent. "These elections have to be seen as a masquerade that conceals the still continuing violence and suppression of human rights," Kalem said. "Today's resolution is a sign that neither the Council nor the Commission have taken sufficient consideration of the report (adopted by the parliament in June 2005) or the violation of human rights in Chechnya," he said. Kelam said a joint position in principle would have to adopted in the Chechen issue. He also underlined the importance of the proposal, set forward in a resolution of the parliament, to set up an international tribunal for Chechnya to pass sentence for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8814, sise@bns.ee January 19, 2006 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL External Document AI Index: EUR 46/002/2006 (Public) News Service No: 019 20 January 2006 Russian Federation, Chechnya: Council of Europe must take action to ensure real change for human rights The human rights situation in the Chechen Republic is under scrutiny at the January session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Members of parliament of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe will debate a report by the Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. The report states that “[t]here is no end to gross human rights abuses in Chechnya” and urges the Committee of Ministers “to confront its responsibilities in the face of one of the most serious human rights issues in any of the Council of Europe’s member states”. Amnesty International welcomes the fact that PACE continues to call attention to the grave human rights situation in the North Caucasus and to make recommendations to both the Russian Federation and to the bodies and mechanisms of the Council of Europe aimed at addressing them. The organization also notes the initiatives of PACE to promote dialogue with the aim of a durable solution to the conflict. “Disappearances” and abductions, torture, arbitrary detention and incommunicado detention of individuals in both unacknowledged and official places of detention continue to take place in Chechnya and neighbouring republics in Russia’s North Caucasus. Impunity remains the norm, as few perpetrators of human rights violations are identified and brought to justice. This grave human rights situation must be urgently addressed by the Russian authorities. The Russian authorities must take immediate action to stop the human rights abuses and address the systematic and political obstacles which have prevented those responsible for such abuses from being brought to justice. The Russian authorities must implement in full the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights relating to the situation in Chechnya, not only so as to provide full redress to the victims but also to prevent further human rights violations. In addition, before Russia assumes the leadership of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in May 2006, the Russian authorities at the highest level should ensure that they demonstrate their real engagement and cooperation with the Council of Europe bodies and mechanisms. To do so they must implement the recommendations made by the bodies and mechanisms of the Council of Europe including the Parliamentary Assembly, the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Venice Commission, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). The Russian authorities should also immediately authorize publication of all reports of visits to the Russian Federation, including to the North Caucasus region, by experts of the CPT. Finally Russia should take concrete measures to implement all unfulfilled commitments made when joining the Council of Europe a decade ago. Amnesty International calls on the Council of Europe to ensure that it takes further action and offers effective assistance to the Russian authorities in fulfilling its human rights obligations. The various bodies and mechanisms of the Council of Europe should keep the North Caucasus as a high priority, and bring appropriate pressure to bear on the Russian authorities to implement the full range of their obligations as a Council of Europe member state. Inter alia, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe should ensure that his office monitors and regularly reports to the Committee of Ministers on the ongoing human rights situation in Chechnya, and ensures that the reports are made public. The Committee of Ministers should continue to ensure it regularly discusses the human rights situation in Chechnya; and continue to bring appropriate pressure to bear upon the Russian authorities to implement the recommendations of the bodies and mechanisms of the Council of Europe, and to take effective individual and general measures in relation to all European Court of Human Rights judgments, in particular those relating to violations committed in the course of the armed conflict in Chechnya. In addition, the Council of Europe should continue its cooperation activities with the relevant Russian government authorities. In particular, the Council of Europe should support the Russian federal and Chechen authorities, in taking practical steps to address the issue of missing persons and “disappeared” persons in Chechnya, particularly through introducing effective systems for identification and recording of bodies found, and improving forensic facilities in Chechnya. Moreover, the Council of Europe should continue to work with the Russian authorities to ensure that legislation governing the work of civil society organizations is amended so as to fully respect Council of Europe standards. Independent civil society organizations play a crucial role in monitoring and publicly reporting on the human rights situation in the North Caucasus and should be supported in their valuable work. Background Ongoing human rights abuses in Chechnya Human rights abuses including “disappearances” and abductions, torture, arbitrary detention and incommunicado detention in unacknowledged as well as official places of detention are continuing in Chechnya and neighbouring republics in the North Caucasus. Such violations are overwhelmingly committed with impunity, as very few perpetrators are ever identified and brought to justice. While official statistics vary, most recently in December 2005, Lema Khasuev, the Ombudsman in the Chechen Republic stated that there are 2096 cases of enforced “disappearance” by unidentified security forces in Chechnya.i However, Amnesty International is aware of only one conviction in connection with a “disappearance” in Chechnya, that of Sergei Lapin, convicted in March 2005 of torturing Zelimkhan Murdalov; Zelimkhan Murdalov subsequently “disappeared”. For example, Chechen security forces reportedly arbitrarily detained and tortured several individuals from the village of Novie Atagi, Chechnya, in September 2005, and one man is reported to have “disappeared”. Large numbers of armed men wearing camouflage uniform reportedly arrived in the village during the nights of 12-14 September and detained ten men; according to relatives, the armed men did not produce any arrest warrants or any form of identification to indicate which official body they were from. On 15 September and for several days thereafter, villagers blocked the Kavkaz main road near Novie Atagi demanding to know where those detained had been taken, and for them to be released. During this period, some of the men who had been detained were set free. Allegedly some of them had been severely beaten while in detention, but did not dare to go to a hospital in Chechnya for treatment, travelling instead to neighbouring republics in the North Caucasus. The picket lasted for several days until it was established that four of the remaining detained men were being held in the police detention facility (known as IVS from its initials in Russian) in Shali district police station in connection with the murder of a policeman. One of the four named as Ruslan Khalaev, aged 21, was detained at 3am on 14 September. According to reports, Ruslan Khalaev was tortured including being beaten with batons, having water poured over him and being tortured with electric shock until he agreed to sign a “confession” of guilt. However, the whereabouts of a fifth man detained during the raid, Islam Bakalov, were not established and it is feared that he has been “disappeared”. According to the office of the General Procurator, a preliminary investigation has established that unidentified staff of special military regiment no. 2 of the Chechen Republic Internal Affairs ministry “seized” seven men in Novie Atagi, including Islam Bakalov, “unlawfully and in violation of procedures”. At least three men have been “disappeared” or abducted so far in different regions in Chechnya in 2006, according to the NGO Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS). RCFS has also reported that the practice of carrying out detentions in which security forces are masked and do not identify themselves continues. Reports of targeted killings of civilians by Chechen armed opposition groups also continue. For example, Memorial Human Rights Centre reported in December 2005 that an armed opposition group had targeted and killed three civilians in the village of Avturi in Shali district, allegedly as a reprisal for what they viewed as “collaborating” with the Russian federal authorities. Such actions are in direct violation of international humanitarian law. The human rights situation in other North Caucasus republics There is violence and unrest in other North Caucasus republics, increasingly accompanied by reports of human rights violations such as arbitrary detention, torture, “disappearances” and abductions. Amnesty International continues to receive reports of people being detained in Ingushetia and transported to neighbouring republics such as North Ossetia, where they have been subjected to torture. For example, according to reports received by Amnesty International, on the morning of 30 November 2005, Ruslan Tsechoev, Muslim Tsechoev, Magomed Tsechoev and Yusup Khashiev were detained in Nazran, Ingushetia by Russian federal law enforcement officials and transported to the premises of the Regional Department for the Fight against Organized Crime (RUBOP) in Vladikavkaz. During interrogation sessions there it is alleged that they were beaten and subjected to electric shock treatment. Muslim Tsechoev, Magomed Tsechoev and Yusup Khashiev are reported to have been released late that evening, having been made to sign statements that they had no complaints about their treatment, and also a record of the interrogation session without being able to read it first.ii Following their release they are reported to have submitted complaints to the procuracy about their detention and torture, and to have had medical examinations that have confirmed their testimonies of being tortured. Ruslan Tsechoev was charged with “Banditry” and remains in detention in Vladikavkaz. In a statement he sent from detention, Ruslan Tsechoev reported that while detained at the RUBOP in Vladikavkaz he was tortured repeatedly, including while a lawyer was present: he was beaten with truncheons and round his head with a book, subjected to electric shock treatment, and threatened that he would be killed unless he made statements and gave information. He stated he has lost his hearing and he feared his kidneys had been damaged due to the beatings, but that he was being denied medical assistance. (A lawyer, hired on his behalf by his relatives, has submitted a complaint about the alleged torture.) Violence and unrest has spread also to the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. On 13 October 2005 a group of up to 300 gunmen launched attacks on government installations in and near Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, including the building of the Federal Security Service (FSB), police stations, the TV centre and the airport. There were reports that gunmen took at least two civilians hostage. More than 100 people, including at least 12 civilians, were reported to have been killed during the ensuing shooting between law enforcement officials and the gunmen; many were wounded. The raid was reportedly in response to months of persecution of practising Muslims in the region, including arbitrary detention and torture by law enforcement officials, and wholesale closure of mosques. Following the raid, law enforcement officials detained dozens of people; many of the detainees were reportedly tortured, including former Guantánamo Bay detainee Rasul Kudaev. The investigator in charge of the case from the General Procurator’s department in the Southern Federal District suspended Rasul Kudaev’s lawyer from the case after she filed a formal complaint about Rasul Kudaev’s treatment at the hands of law enforcement officials while in detention in Nalchik (see AI Index: EUR 46/041/2005 and AI Index: EUR 46/061/2005). Precarious situation for internally displaced people in Ingushetia and Chechnya In Ingushetia, conditions in the camps for those displaced by the conflict in Chechnya remain generally cramped and unsuitable. The conditions at a camp on the site of a former dairy farm are particularly harsh. However, during a visit to the camps in September 2005, the people living in these conditions who met with the Amnesty International delegates stated that they are afraid to take their families back home to Chechnya while the violence and abuses continue, and while it remains impossible for them to rebuild their destroyed homes. According to information available to Amnesty International, the conditions in the temporary accommodation centres in Grozny which house people displaced from the conflict, including those who returned to Chechnya following the closure of the tent camps in Ingushetia in 2004, are uncomfortable and unsafe. There is no hot or cold water, they are cramped, and those living there are reportedly subject to constant document checks, harassment, intimidation, and detention by Chechen security forces. Civil Society Independent verification of violations has frequently been gravely hampered by the security situation in the North Caucasus, in particular in Chechnya, and obstacles to access imposed by the Russian authorities on international human rights monitors, as well as domestic and foreign journalists seeking to operate in Chechnya. In such circumstances, the work of local independent civil society organizations in monitoring and publicly reporting on events is particularly important. These organizations often provide legal assistance to victims of serious human rights abuses, and their families, and undertake humanitarian initiatives for those affected by the conflict. However, far from creating the conditions supportive for such work, in some cases the Russian authorities seem to be harassing such organizations. For example, Amnesty International has expressed its concern at an apparent campaign of harassment and prosecution aimed at members of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS), reportedly in response to the organization’s work on human rights. The RCFS is a non-governmental organization that monitors human rights violations in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus, and undertakes humanitarian initiatives for individuals affected by the conflict in the North Caucasus, for example organizing medical assistance and holiday breaks in other parts of the Russian Federation for children affected by the conflict. Stanislav Dmitrievskii, the Executive Director of RCFS, is being prosecuted on charges of “inciting racial hatred” for his publication of articles by Chechen separatists calling for a peaceful end to the conflict. The prosecution is viewed by many as in response to the organization’s human rights work. Amnesty International is concerned that the criminal prosecution is a violation of his right to freedom of expression, and part of a campaign of administrative harassment aimed at closing down the work of the RCFS. Amnesty International fears that the recently adopted law on civil society organizations will make working conditions for independent human rights monitors, in particular those working on sensitive areas such as human rights violations in the North Caucasus even harder. Despite amendments to the law following domestic and international outcry, it still contains restrictive and vague provisions which raise serious concerns about freedom of association in Russia. For example, the authorities will be able to deny registration to civil society organizations if the organization’s name “offends public decency or ethnic and religious feelings”. They will also have unlimited power to send officials to any “event” organized by Russian and foreign civil society organizations, without necessarily having reasonable grounds to believe Russian law is being breached. They will also have unprecedented p owers of scrutiny of sources of funding, as well as planned and actual spending. ENDS…/ For more information please call Amnesty International’s press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or visit our website at http://www.amnesty.org _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ iSpecial report of the Human Rights ombudsperson in the Chechen Republic, Grozniy-Inform, 9 December 2005, citing information from the Committee for the defence of Constitutional Rights of citizens at the Chechen government iiReports from the Memorial Human Rights Centre and the International Helsinki Federation Public Document **************************************** For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW. web: http://www.amnesty.org For latest human rights news view http://news.amnesty.org The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria CHECHENPRESS, the Department of official information, 20.01.06 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria presents its compliments to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden and declare a resolute protest concerning the coming cooperation in the field of military of the Ministry of Defense of the Kingdom of Sweden with military sub-units of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation which is obviously taking part in war crime during the ongoing occupation of Chechnya by the Russian military forces. Recently it has been published in European and Russian media that the Ministry of Defense of Sweden is planning a joint military exercise with 138th motorized brigade of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Also comments of the Secretary of Defense of Sweden stating that the joint exercise is nothing but the progress on Russian and Sweden relations were announced. Based on above mentioned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria would like to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden that the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria still is in war with the Russian Federation, and based on clear evidence of aggression following by war crime, crime against humanity, mass violation of human rights, ecological and humanitarian disaster the Chechen side all ready appoint well known international lawyers to investigate such with following appeal to international court. Based on these circumstances we keep a right to condemn the Ministry of Defense of Kingdom of Sweden for its cooperation with terror units, which was announced as "units of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation". At the same time the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria believe that Swedish tax payers, who traditionally condemn the Russian violations in Chechnya, are in sharp disagreement with the decision met by the Ministry of Defense of their own country. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria takes this opportunity once again to express our highest consideration to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden. Her Excellency Laila Freivalds The Minister of Foreign Affairs Of the Kingdom of Sweden Ousman Ferzaouli, The Minister of Foreign Affairs January 20, 2006 Friday 05:06 AM EST MP criticizes PACE report on human rights in Chechnya MOSCOW, January 20, Itar-Tass - The chairman of the Russian State Duma committee for international affairs criticized on Friday a report on human rights in Chechnya prepared for the upcoming session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which opens in Strasbourg next week. Speaking at a news conference at the Itar-Tass news agency, Konstantin Kosachev said the document was ``unbalanced'' and did not reflect positive tendencies underway in Chechnya. According to Kosachev, the report drawn up by the PACE Commission on Human Rights led by Rudolph Bindig, was prepared ``hastily'' and was based on information ``obtained from non-governmental organizations''. ``Of course, not everything is okay in Chechnya'' from the point of view of human rights, he admitted. However, the issue needs to be thoroughly worked on with the pointing out to positive tendencies as well as persisting drawbacks, he noted. If PACE experts had approached the problem like that, ``such a report would be useful for us,'' the top parliamentarian noted. He said the upcoming PACE session would focus on such issues as international condemnation of totalitarian communist regimes, secret CIA prisons in Europe and the situation in Belarus ahead of the presidential election. |