2 October 2003, Volume IV, Issue 35 CHECHNYA WEEKLY: News and analysis on the crisis in Chechnya

President George W. Bush's remarks at his joint press conference with Vladimir Putin closing their recent Camp David summit meeting largely gave the latter what he wanted on Chechnya. The U.S. president's words were interpreted by mainstream news media, such as the Associated Press, as endorsing the Kremlin's crackdown.

"Russia and the United States are allies in the war on terror," Bush said. "Both of our nations have suffered at the hands of terrorists, and both of our governments are taking actions to stop them. No cause justifies terror. Terrorists must be opposed wherever they spread chaos and destruction, including Chechnya."

Bush went on to use the phrases "human rights" and "free and fair elections," but only in such a way as to avoid directly challenging the Putin administration's claim to be pursuing those goals already. Indeed, Putin himself could have used Bush's formulation without having to change one word: "A lasting solution to that conflict will require an end to terror, respect for human rights and a political settlement that leads to free and fair elections."

An anonymous "senior administration official" interviewed by Ken Fireman of Newsday denied that interpretation, insisting that Putin would understand Bush's words as an implied rebuke. "We wanted to raise Chechnya but we wanted to do it in a polite way," said the official. (*) "The president said terrorism is not justified, there are terrorists in Chechnya, and that is all true. But the conflict in Chechnya cannot be reduced to a fight against terrorists ... Putin understood what he was hearing."

But this official evidently failed to convince Fireman, who wrote on September 28 that Putin left America "with something of great political value to him: a statement from Bush largely endorsing the Russian view that Moscow's bloody, brutal and seemingly intractable military campaign in Chechnya was a legitimate front in the war against terrorism."

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(*) They are "rising Chechnya in a polite way" since ten years now..... M.M.

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Open letter to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Norway and Sweden:

The "presidential elections" in Chechnya on 5 October - a political farce!

Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, 1 October, 2003

On 5 October, 2003, the Russian occupying power in Chechnya will hold so-called "presidential elections". Both the Kremlin and the puppet administration it has installed in Chechnya, lead by Akhmad Kadyrov, are calling these elections a "political process".

This is a grotesque description, something the Western democracies, including the Scandinavian countries with our proud democratic traditions, now ought to condemn in absolute terms and clear words!

Now, a few days before the elections, the Kremlin's so-called "political process" turns out to be thoroughly farcial. The mentioned Kadyrov now stands without any real political contestants. All other serious presidential candidates have either been threatened to withdraw, or their candidacy has been blocked administratively by old-fashioned, totally transparent, "Soviet-bureaucratic" methods.

The "presidential elections" in Chechnya on 5 October, which have been fully "orchestrated" by Moscow, thus don't have any political legitimacy whatsoever.

As a consequence, none of the observation authorities of the democratic countries is going to send independent election observers to Chechnya on 5 October.

There will be no representatives of the OSCE eller the Council of Europe.

We can't express it more clearly ourselves than the spokesman of the Council of Europe, Frans Timmermans, did as late as on 29 September, in an interview with Radio Netherlands. In this interview, Timmermans calls the whole political theatre "a Soviet-style election with only one candidate". Asked if these "elections" can be recognized, the spokesman of the Council of Europe answers "absolutely not", and Timmermans continues: (...) "The Russian[s] will simply go through with it. It will have no effect whatsoever on the ground, because people in Chechnya know these are bogus elections. They know they don't really have a choice and that this is Moscow imposing its own man on them. (...) there is no peace process.  The war is still going on (...) The only way you can end this war is by dialogue and the Russians have refused to hold this dialogue. We as the Council of Europe have tried time and again to get this dialogue started, also with our colleagues in the Duma, the Russian Parliament, and we've never achieved that. (...) as long as Moscow is unwilling to enter into dialogue with real representatives of the Chechen people, there is no peace process."

These are clear words. We miss corresponding clear words from the foreign ministers of our Scandinavian countries.

The hard-hit Chechen people has a moral and political right to receive support from our governments. In this hard time, with two devastating wars since 1994, the Chechens have the right to get strong political and human support for an end to their incredible suffering. No war in Europe since 1945 has demanded the lives of such a big percentage of the civilian population as the war in Chechnya did. Up to 30 percent of the population might have been killed, most of them as a result of the Russian state terror.

The Chechens thus have an urgent demand and need for support to their right to life, their right to political, democratic freedom, the right to choose their leaders, their own status and future themselves, without threats and violence.

The United Nations' universal human rights are also valid for the Chechens, and these fundamental rights can and must be superior at any time to so-called "realopolitical" considerations in our relations with Russia.

The Scandinavian countries have proud traditions in the field of initiation of political dialogues and of starting peace processes in otherwise totally locked wars and conflicts. We'd like to recall the Oslo peace process for the Middle East, the coordinated Scandinavian support for the democratization of South Africa, the support for the freedom movements in the Baltic countries, or the support for many small nations' right to survival. The governments of the Scandinavian countries have often taken a courageous lead in the support for the small nations of the world.

- So, when we e.g. are glad about the clear support from the Scandinavian countries to the "Roadmap for Peace" in the Middle East, it makes us wonder at the same time, why the Scandinavian countries don't give priority to a similar "Roadmap for Peace" in Chechnya. - When the Scandinavian countries e.g. condemn in clear words the threats by the Sharon government to physically "liquidate" the Palestinian leader, Arafat, it makes us really wonder at the same time, why the Scandinavian  countries don't condemn  in the same way Russian statements about "liquidating" Chechnya's only freely elected leader of all times, Aslan Maskhadov. We must remind in this connection in the strongest possible way that Maskhadov was democratically elected in 1997, with full approval of the OSCE! Why do such "double standards" exist in the judgement of the Middle East vs. Chechnya?

The time of silence about Putin's most recent bogus in Chechnya must end now. Our political leaders now must come forward with clear positions. Anything else would be a case of historical cowardice with regard to the serene promises and ideals of freedom and democracy for all peoples, and the promises of "Never Again" - which have been included in the basis of all relevent democratic institutions in the international community since 1945.

We appeal to the Scandinavian foreign ministers to take the lead in the question of Chechnya. We appeal to the governments of our countries to show the political courage to reject in public the political "Soviet farce", which is now going to be replayed by President Putin and his mercenaries in Chechnya on 5 October.

We appeal to the foreign ministers of the Scandinavian countries to launch a common political initiative, which finally can pave the road to a sincere political dialogue between the real opponents in the deplorable Chechen war.

The Chechen people has suffered enough. Now, all democratic countries, which take the words democracy and freedom seriously, must live up to their responsibility and take concrete initiatives to stop what is alarmingly approaching a genocide in a corner of Europe - Chechnya.

Yours sincerely,

Ingvald Godal, Chairman, Support Committee for Chechnya, Norway;

Johan Lagerfelt, Chairman, Swedish Chechnya Committee, Sweden;

Thomas Bindesbøll Larsen, Chairman, Support Committee for Chechnya, Denmark

[Translation by N.S.]