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CHECHNYA: The European Parliament recognizes the genocide of the Chechen people in 1944 and calls on the commission to study the Akhmadov peace plan Brussels, 26 February 2004 - In the debate on the Belder Report on EU-Russia relations, the European Parliament has adopted the two amendments tabled by the Radical MEP Olivier Dupuis and supported by over 100 colleagues including Poettering, Paasalinna, Coh-Bendit, Frassoni, Wurtz, Pasqua, Malmstrom and Bonde. The first amendment, adopted almost unanimously, calls on the Commission and the High Representative for CFSP to study the Akhmadov Plan, which proposes, on the basis of the international experience in Kosovo, the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya. According to Ilyas Akhmadov, Foreign Minister in the Chechen government of Mr Maskhadov, this international administration should be established, after the withdrawal of the Russian military and civilian forces and the disarmament of the Chechen resistance groups, to oversee the reconstruction of Chechnya and the passage to democracy and the Rule of Law, in order to prevent any possibility of destabilisation. At the end of the transitional period, the Chechen people would be called on to vote on the final status of Chechnya. The second amendment, adopted by the plenary assembly of the EP, recognises that, on the basis of the IV Convention of The Hague of 1907 and the Convention on the prevention and repression of the crime of genocide adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, the deportation of the entire Chechen people ordered by Stalin on 23 February 1944 constitutes an act of genocide. Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament, Radical: "On Monday 23 February, after taking part in the demonstrations in Brussels and Rome in commemoration of the Chechen genocide of 1944, I wrote to my colleagues to inform them that I had decided, after 36 days, to end my hunger strike. I did so in order to allow them to vote freely on the two amendments to the Belder Report without any suspicion of undue pressure which my nonviolent initiative may have aroused, even involuntarily. Their overwhelming vote in favour of the amendments this morning thus acquires even greater significance, and cannot fail to strengthen the determination of everyone in Europe who believes that it is essential to put an immediate stop to the ongoing genocide of the Chechen people." You can support the Peace Plan for an interim UN administration in Chechnya by signing the international appeal on the TRP website: www.radicalparty.org =====
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