Ekho Moskvy, 25 February 2004 [BBC Monitoring]

Europe should interfere in Russian-Chechen conflict - rebel envoy

[No dateline, as received] The aim of Chechen separatists' envoy Akhmed Zakayev's visit to Denmark is to discuss the Russian-Chechen conflict, as told to Ekho Moskvy radio by Zakayev himself.

"I arrived in Copenhagen on the invitation of the chairperson of the Danish socialist party. I met members of the state commission for political cooperation this morning," Zakayev said.

"We discussed the Russian-Chechen conflict, this is the goal of my visit. I believe that it is our common tragedy, the common anguish of Russia and Chechnya and we must do our best to restore peace in this part of Europe," he added.

"My visits and meetings with European politicians are aimed at normalizing the Russian-Chechen relationships. No matter how hard we try to close this issue and isolate it from the world, it is virtually impossible to do that. No matter how hard the Russian leadership tries to stress that this is Russia's internal problem, it is not true and Europeans feel it," Zakayev went on to say.

He said that "since neither Chechens nor Russia fail to break this vicious circle, Europeans should interfere in this conflict more actively".

"Since Europeans invest large sums of money in Russian economy, they are closely following all the processes that take place there. Today, authoritarian rule is being established in Russia, to be more precise, a totalitarian regime and the oppression of democracy in Russia worries Europeans," Zakayev added.

[Passage omitted]

"After the so-called referendum and the Chechen presidential election had been held, which were aimed at settling [the crisis] and achieving stability, the number of refugees increased by several times. This is a clear signal to Europeans that the situation in Chechnya is far from being improved," he concluded by saying.