| Appeal to the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe from the family of Aslan Maskhadov CHECHENPRESS, 27.0106. Mr Chairman, Mr Secretary-General, Members of the Assembly, Ladies and Gentlemen, The family of the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov, who was murdered by Russian special services on 8 March 2005 in the Chechen village of Doykur-Evl (Tolstoy-Yurt), hereby appeals to you. Our appeal concerns the refusal of the leadership of the Russian Federation to give the body of Aslan Maskhadov to his family for burial, thereby adding to the pain of our loss. The Russian leadership is disregarding the norms of international law on the pretext that the murdered, legitimate President of the CRI, Aslan Maskhadov, was allegedly an “international terrorist”. Many representatives of international organizations, members of the European Union, PACE and OSCE, knew Aslan Maskhadov well. Aslan Maskhadov was a significant political figure. In 1997 he was elected president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Sixty per cent of residents of the Chechen Republic, i.e. more than half the entire population, voted for him. International observers monitored the elections and recognised them as legitimate. Talks were held at the highest level in the Kremlin with Aslan Maskhadov. He frequently made realistic proposals to settle the military and political conflict between the Russian Federation and the CRI. It should be noted that his projects were of an exclusively diplomatic nature and envisaged peace talks at the negotiating table, which had a positive reception on many occasions from the international community. Aslan Maskhadov fought honourably, all his methods of struggle were just and open. He observed the Geneva Convention and condemned terrorism in any form, doing his utmost to prevent it. His main fault and the direct cause of his removal was the fact that he proposed peace to the Russian authorities, who, it has emerged, want anything but peace in Chechnya. The main reason for his murder was his declaration of a cease-fire, a cease-fire that was not broken by the Chechen side, thereby depriving the Russian side of the opportunity to make yet more accusations against the Chechens. His greatest sin was that units of Chechen partisans really were subordinate to him. A historic chance was missed, a chance to stop the genocide of the Chechen people which Russia has been methodically carrying out for over 400 years with the silent agreement of humanity. The murder of Aslan Maskhadov was a severe blow to the process of finding a peaceful settlement to the Russo-Chechen conflict. This war has given birth to one more problem for Chechens, alongside murder, kidnapping, torture and humiliation, and that is the impossibility for relatives to bury their dead. The Kremlin regime has made an open challenge to the entire world community, passing a range of inhumane legal acts. Russia adopted an amendment to the law “On combating terror” according to which Chechens killed in battle are classified as “terrorists” and considered on a par with those who have been legally executed.. For that reason their bodies are not given to their families for burial. We think that a law that refuses relatives the right to bury their loved ones, and that forbids the disclosure to them of the place of burial, insults the feelings of believers of all faiths – Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists etc. - and in essence contradicts all the norms of morality and ethics accepted in civilized, democratic society. Another monstrous situation arose in connection with this tragedy when the Russian leadership, trampling on common human values, acted in an extremely crude way towards the body of CRI President Aslan Maskhadov, whom they had murdered, presenting his body for mockery on television. No-one should be seen like this, not even an enemy, not even a corpse. This is sacrilegious and utterly inexplicable in the contemporary, civilized world. All the aforementioned is a direct violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, not to mention unacceptable in terms of common human ethics and morals. We have no doubt that you, like many others, condemn the barbaric murder of the legitimate CRI President, Aslan Maskhadov, the public mockery of his body and the refusal to hand his body to his relatives. We urge you to use your position and authority to demand: 1. that the Russian Federation leadership hand over the body of the head of our family, Aslan Maskhadov, for burial, which is required by religious precepts and traditions; 2. that the Russian Federation leadership publicly apologise for the deliberate lies about and slander of the head of our family, Aslan Maskhadov, his murder and the public mockery of his body; 3. an international investigation, outside Russia, into the murder of Aslan Maskhadov. We think that the investigation, and the testimonies that we are collecting, could be the basis of an international tribunal to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Chechnya; 4. that the Russian Federation leadership hand over to international justice the organisers and executors of the murder of Aslan Maskhadov. We would also like to inform you that, after the murder of the head of our family, a Special Working Group on the Aslan Maskhadov Case was set up, which is working to investigate the murder and defend the good name and honour of Aslan Maskhadov. The Special Working Group is ready to make available the documents and factual information that it has on the case. In the great hope of your understanding, Yours sincerely, The Family of Aslan Maskhadov: Kusama Maskhadova – widow Ansor Maskhadov – son Fatima Maskhadova – daughter 23 January 2006 http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2006/01/27/04.shtml Kavkaz-Center Letter of protest to Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds Ms. Foreign Minister! I congratulate Sweden on great progress in the cooperation with Russian war criminals – I refer to Operation Snowflake. I hope that Swedish soldiers have learned much from their Russian colleagues. Has the Russian soldiery taught your military how they should take living people and prick out their eyes, cut off their ears and break all their bones? Have the participants of the maneuvers also trained in raping 9-year-old girls? The thing Sweden has done is called political prostitution. Until now Top 3 whores of the bloody Putin-regime have been Germany, Britain and Italy. Does Sweden want to surpass them? Were these maneuvers so necessary? This is a political gesture that implies that Sweden betrays human rights. Sweden has insulted more than 200,000 Chechens, slaughtered by Russian troops. Sweden has insulted Russian political prisoners who have struggled against Putin’s neofascist mafia regime. Why doesn’t Sweden demand the release of lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin who tried to prove that FSB had exploded houses in Moscow in September 1999? Why don’t you care about peace activist and journalist Pavel Lyuzakov who wrote articles against the war in Chechnya and because of that got a gun planted on him by FSB? Why aren’t you interested in the fate of chairman of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society Stanislav Dmitriyevsky? Take a look at the web site www.ria.hrnnov.ru/eng/index.php. The Russian authorities that are incurably ill with putinoid schizophrenia want to put him behind bars because he has published in his newspaper two Chechen peace appeals. Why don’t you protest? I have regularly sent to the Swedish Embassy in Moscow human rights information. Now I begin to doubt whether Sweden really needs these reports. Maybe Sweden is more interested in the collaboration with Russian Gestapo FSB in fighting human rights activists who disturb Sweden’s “pragmatic” cooperation with Russian terrorist mafia state? Eugene Novozhilov (Jevgenij Novo?ilov), human rights activist and former political prisoner (November 16, 2001 – July 1, 2002). Krasnodar, Russia 2006-01-26 |