| What does the
Council think about the possibility of creating a provisional UN administration
on Chechnya? Brussels, 27 August 2003. An ambitious report (An Agenda for Renewal U.S. - Russian Relations 2000) by the US-based Carnegie Endowment has claimed that there was "no solution" to the conflict in Chechnya, as a withdrawal of Russian troops, which is "the only way to end the war", would, in the view of the authors, lead to a victory of "Chechen radicals and international mujahedeen which is not in the US interests" and supposed to be "appalling for the North Caucasian peoples". In other words, both President Putin and some of the pro-democracy 'think-tanks' pretended that Russia has no option but continue its genocidal war in Chechnya, as in their view a withdrawal of the Russian troops would be seen as a defeat before the Chechen forces and would transform Chechnya into "a base for the Chechen radicals and international terrorists". However, an alternative exist to these false alternatives. Last March Mr. Ilyas Akhmadov, the Chechen Foreign Minister, presented a new peace plan that proposes a provisional UN administration to carry out democratization and demilitarization of Chechnya, which has been subsequently sent to the Foreign Ministers of the EU member states and candidate states as well as to the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Javier Solana, and to External Affairs Commissioner, Chris Patten. Besides, during a recent program of the Moscow based radio Echo Moskvy dealing with the issue of the establishment of a UN administration upon Chechnya, 75 % of the people who expressed their opinion have declared themselves in favour of the solution proposed by Minister Akhmadov. Although that was not a scientific survey, it constitutes nevertheless a new meaningful indicator of the opinion of the Russian population. Question of Olivier Dupuis, member of the European Parliament, radical, to the Council: "Which evaluation has the Council made on the Peace Plan presented by Chechen Foreign Minister that proposes the institution of a UN provisional administration on Chechnya? Does the Council share the opinion of President Putin and of some think-thanks according to which the only alternative to the ongoing genocidal war would be transformation of Chechnya into "a base of the Chechen radicals and international terrorists"? Doesn't the Council believe that a UN provisional Administration, like in Kosovo, could, in a few years, contribute to establishing the Rule of Law and Democracy in Chechnya and, consequently, to create the best antidote to possible extremist developments?" You can support the Peace Plan in favour of a UN administration on Chechnya on www.radicalparty.org ===== Olivier Dupuis Member of the European Parliament http://www.radicalparty.org/ tel. +32 2 284 7198 fax +32 2 284 9198 |