CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Red carpet, silence, crime

RED CARPET, SILENCE, CRIME

Europe will be receiving Vladimir Putin in Paris while Russia’s war against Chechnya goes on, wretched and cruel. Every day young Russian soldiers die, but twenty times as many Chechens die - mostly women and children. Winter is arriving, increasing the despair of a forsaken but unbowed people condemned to roam their ravaged capital, their destroyed villages, their land-mined territory. Chechens face deprivation, bombing, arbitrary roundups, torture and mass executions. Like Kosovo, half the population has fled to refugee camps (Ingushetya), without the basic amenities to sustain them through the winter.

Vladimir Putin will crow about his army’s crusade against "international terrorism". We fear that, in spite of a few quickly forgotten disapproving whispers, silence and appeasement from our representatives will lend strength to his evil intentions ­ the obliteration of Chechnya. We fear that short- sighted considerations will justify the martyrdom of a people in order to celebrate the great oil agreement negotiated by Mr. Prodi - gas for blood, will this be the last utterance of European civilisation?

As part of Europe Russia can call on our friendship but this means our speaking the truth, giving genuine economic assistance rather than effectively lining the pockets of the rich and powerful. Mr. Milosevic finally found that there is a minimum level of civilised behaviour regulating coexistence in Europe ­ no colonial wars, no civilian massacres, no ethnic cleansing. It is time to let Mr. Putin know unambiguously that these limitations hold good for him and his country too.

We have an obligation to speak to the President of Russia even though he was elected thanks to the war and fraud, but we must speak with clarity, without dubious ambiguity, with our eyes open, and hopefully with a modicum of generosity towards the victims - ethics and realism demand it. We call on Jacques Chirac, President of the European Union, we call on the heads of states of the Union, to remind Mr. Putin, publicly and clearly, to respect international conventions and signed resolutions with:

- open access to the area, without delay, to humanitarian assistance and to international observers;
- immediate cease fire;
- negotiations with the elected President of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov.

The survival of an entire people is at stake. There is no statutory limitation for crimes against humanity. And silence kills.