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3.2.2004 Elena Bonner: I am ashamed of Europe” USA. Since 18 January, Olivier Dupois, radical member of the EuropeanParliament, has been on hunger strike, demanding that the governments ofdemocratic countries, above all the European Union, begin examining thequestion of genocide of the Chechen people. Elena Bonner, widow of thewriter Sakharov, has spoken in support of Olivier Dupois: »For nearly two weeks I have been following Olivier Dupois’s hungerstrike with great concern and interest, and I feel deeply ashamed. Thisis akin to the shame I experienced when the USSR blockaded Berlin,scattered the Hungarian opposition, crushed the freedom of the Czechsand Slovaks with tanks, continually fed the flames of the war in theNear East, and stirred up world-wide (UN-wide) anti-semitism. Now I am ashamed of Europe, ashamed to be a European at the time of thisoutburst of European anti-semitism and anti-Israeli feeling. I amashamed that the eye of the European citizen is stubbornly averted fromthe genocide of the Chechen people, which is taking place on Europeansoil, that same territory which every European politician and everyperson in public affairs is proud to describe as our common European home. I am ashamed of the USA and the UN, who in their broad interpretation ofthe terms of political correctness, are afraid to describe Palestinianterrorism as terror, and the genocide in Chechnya, genocide. Olivier Dupois, a member of the European Parliament, has gone withoutfood for thirteen days but has received not a glance either from hisparliamentary colleagues, or from the Council of Europe, nor from otherEuropean bodies or from the transatlantic UN or White House. This general silence and distancing from real human suffering, proveshow unnecessary (and maybe even how harmful?) these many internationalbodies and institutes are for the wellbeing of the world, as they livefor their own Constitutions and Programmes, spending our millions intaxes on their bureacracy, awarding each other prizes and failing tonotice the blood which is being spilled at this time. Dear M. Dupois, your personal courage, your action is the best hope forthe many people who even now add their voice in support of you, to breakthe cycle of general indifference and political cowardice.” PRIMA News Agency [2004-02-02-USA-06] Rome, 3 February 2004 - Yesterday afternoon the Hon. Margherita Boniver, Under-secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met the Radical MEP Olivier Dupuis on the 15th day of his hunger strike. The meeting was requested by Dupuis himself in an open letter asking, among other things, for a pledge from the Under-secretary to solve the problem of entry into Italy for several dozen injured Chechen children still waiting to be treated in Italian hospitals. Statement by Olivier Dupuis after yesterday's meeting: "The meeting was really excellent, and very concrete. I have no doubt whatsoever about Margherita Boniver's desire to reach a rapid solution - within a week or ten days - to the problems related to the entry into Italy of Chechen children so that they can receive proper treatment for their war wounds. I was pleased to note that she is also taking great interest in the plan to allow Chechen students to enrol in Italian universities. Finally, she also pledged to bring up the question of the application of Article 14 §3 of the EC Treaty, in order to allow Chechen politicians working to promote a peaceful solution to the Chechen tragedy to reside and circulate freely throughout the territory of the Union, with the other 14 Member States of the European Union." On 18 January MEP Olivier Dupuis, a member of the Transnational Radical Party, began a hunger strike in order to urge the authorities of the European Union and of the Member States finally to address the question of the Chechen genocide from a political and humanitarian point of view. He is calling in particular for support for the Peace Plan presented by the Maskhadov government for the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya, for hospitality for wounded Chechen children in hospitals in the EU, and for a "white list" to allow members of the government of President Maskhadov to reside and circulate freely throughout the territory of the Union. The international appeal in support of the Peace Plan for an interim United Nations administration can be signed at www.radicalparty.org ===== |