CHECHNYA/CHARLES DE GAULLE
AIRPORT: FORMER CHECHEN MINISTER LOM-ALI ALAMDOV RISKS EXPULSION. URGENT QUESTION
TO THE COUNCIL
Brussels, 3 February 2003. On 18 January Mr Lom-Ali Aldamov, Minister of
Trade from 1997 to 1999 in the Chechen government of President Maskhadov
and arefugee in Georgia, presented an application for asylum in France.
The application was rejected by the Home Minister on the grounds that Mr
Aldamov had not formally proven his identity. On 25 January the French authorities
tried to put Mr Aldamov on a plane for Georgia, but he refused to board. Five
statements (from journalists, heads of associations, relatives, and finally from
the French Foreign Office) have testified that Mr Aldamov is indeed Mr Aldamov.
Moreover, the UN Refugee Office has once again confirmed that the Chechens are
at risk in Georgia. Until 5 February, when a decision will be made on the
validity of the rejection of the application for asylum, the Home Minister has
ordered the Court of Bobigny to keep the former minister in a waiting area in
Roissy. Mr Aldamov still risks expulsion.
Urgent question from Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament and Secretary
of the Transnational Radical Party, to the Council:
Is the Council aware of the situation of Mr Aldamov and of the fact that
he risks being expelled from the territory of the Union ? In the face of the growing
hindrances to the freedom of movement and residence in the territory of the Union
of leading Chechen figures (in particular, aswell as Mr Aldamov, Mr Zakhaiev,
the Minister of Culture, threatened with extradition in Great Britain, Mr Akhmadov,
the Foreign Minister, blocked in the United States without a passport, Mr Khanbiev,
the Health Minister, whose Schengen visa has not been renewed, and Mrs Dudaeva,
the widow of President Dudaev, whose passport has not been renewed), does
the Council not believe that it should proceed without further delay, on
the basis of article 14 § 3 of the Treaty, to draw up a “white list”
of Chechen figures to whom the Union, as such, could grant visas, stay permits
and other documents necessary in order to allow them to carry out their activities
in favour of the search for a political solution to the Chechen tragedy
in the best possible conditions ?
www.radicalparty.org
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Olivier Dupuis
Member of the European Parliament
http://www.radicalparty.org/
tel. +32 2 284 7198
fax +32 2 284 9198