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Feb. 4, 2004 Italy: Chechnya Better MOSCOW (AP) -- Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday that he perceives Russia's attention to human rights in Chechnya as increasing. "What we noted is the existence of a desire, an inclination for transparency in all that is happening in Chechnya, especially the attention to human rights," Frattini said after meeting with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Western human rights organizations have frequently criticized Russia for severe human rights violations in Chechnya, which has been in the grip of war for most of the past decade. A constitutional referendum and presidential elections were held there last year as part of the Kremlin's strategy to portray Chechnya as stabilizing through political means, but human rights groups denounced the voting as rigged. Frattini said the European Union is considering opening a "representative office" in Chechnya or neighboring Ingushetia.
----------------------------------- Brussels, 4 February 2004. "Dear Olivier, I am writing to you with the deepest feelings: I am enormously grateful to you for the devotion with which you have drawn the world's attention to the tragedy of the Chechen people and to my own personal situation. However, now I must plead with you to stop your hunger strike. The struggle for justice for our people is bound to take quite a long time yet and we cannot afford to lose even one man of good will. Given the obstacles that we still face, it is imperative that you and all who would seek a fair resolution of the Chechen problem band together and use all of their intellectual capacities to convince the key decision makers to take courageous steps. So, dear Olivier, I ask you to stop punishing your body and bring your intellect to bear once again on the Chechen problem. You friend Ilyas
Akhmadov, Foreign Minister of the Chechen Republic Ichkeriya" 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 appeal in support of the Peace Plan can be signed on-line at www.radicalparty.org ===== RBC, 04.02.2004 The State Duma has sent a special inquiry to the Russian General Prosecutor's Office regarding internationally wanted Chechen envoy Akhmed Zakayev's recent visit to Germany where he delivered a speech to the Bundestag (the lower house of the German parliament). "Duma deputies are concerned about the fact that Zakayev visited Germany", said Konstantin Kosachov, the chairman of the Duma committee on international affairs that initiated the inquiry. According to Kosachov, deputies "would like to be fully apprised of the measures law-enforcement agencies are taking with regard to Zakayev's visit to Germany". 2004-02-04 14:23 Prosecutor-general's office asks to look into Zakayev's german visit MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 4, 2004. (RIA Novosti) -- The Russian State Duma's foreign-affairs committee asked the Prosecutor-General's Office to investigate Chechen emissary Akhmad Zakayev's recent German visit. Addressing a house session here today, Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the afore-said committee, noted that the deputies wanted to find out all about specific measures being implemented by the Prosecutor- General's Office to extradite Zakayev to Russia. According to Kosachev, house members also intend to use their inter- parliamentary contacts for the sake of clarifying the situation with Zakayev's trip. Zakayev, who is now living in London, visited Berlin January 28-30 at the invitation of Gerd Weiskirchen, foreign-affairs speaker for the German Bundestag's SPD faction. The Chechen-bandit emissary, whose extradition is being demanded by Russia for quite a while now, took part in a public discussion dealing with Chechen peace-process opportunities in the German capital. The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned Zakayev's visit. The trip's organizers aim to cast aspersions on the Russian leadership's efforts to settle the Chechen situation in line with political methods, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Aleksander Yakovenko noted. Contacts between German representatives and an extremely dubious person, who doesn't represent the Chechen nation's interests in any way, don't match the current high level of Russian-German cooperation. The London court refused to extradite the Chechen-separatist emissary to Russia in November 2003. For its own part, the Russian Prosecutor- General's Office indicted Zakayev on 13 counts, including murder, terrorism and hostage-taking. The British Foreign Ministry subsequently announced a decision to grant political asylum to Zakayev.
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