What is the Organisational Committee SOS Chechnya?
What is the Organisational Committee SOS Chechnya?
It is an open and informal grouping of individual citizens as well as representatives of non-governmental civil society organizations. It was established in late 1999 for the purpose of interconnection and coordination of various civil activities protesting against the killing of innocent people and violations of human rights in Chechnya.
The most significant activities organized by members of the Committee SOS Chechnya are as follows:
Demonstrations:
December 10, 1999 – Human rights day
December 30, 1999 – Light for Chechnya
February 9, 2000 – Grozny – a Russian cemetery
April 28, 2000 – A meeting and multireligious service in commemoration of the war victims
Petitions, appeals and open letters:
November 1999 - March 2000 – petition for the defence of innocent victims in Chechnya (8000 signatures collected)
January 2000 – Memorandum of Czech Civil Society Organizations (40 collective signatories)
April 2000 – an open letter to the President, Government and Parliament of the Czech Republic - responded by 15 deputies, 5 senators and 3 ministers
Other activities aimed at the public, journalists and political representatives
February 10, 2000 – panel discussion in the Senate (senators, civil societies’ representatives, journalist J. Štětina)
March 30, 2000 – press conference “The Czech Republic and wars in Chechnya”
May 18, 2001 – opening of the exhibition of pictures and photographs by children of Grozny, including a discussion
Early in 2001 the Organizational Committee SOS Chechnya issued the Memorandum of European Civil Society Organizations on the Situation in Chechnya as an appeal to the Council of Europe. Its purpose was not only to do a collective act of sympathy but also attempt to carry on the civil activities calling for the end of the bloody war in which a huge number of desperate people have been dying and suffering for several years. The next activity, organized by the Committee in cooperation with Prague Watchdog agency, is a meeting in support of Chechen refugees staging a hunger strike in Ingushetia and Poland (July 19 at 14:00 – 17:00, Wenceslas Square, Prague).
Translated by Prague Watchdog
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