Memorandum of European Civil Society Organisations on the Situation in Chechnya
Prague Watchdog reprints the "Memorandum of European Civil Society Organisations on the Situation in Chechnya" recently released by the Organisational Committee SOS Chechnya, the Czech Republic. According to the organisers, the Memorandum is now being distributed to civil society organisations abroad and its further dissemination is most welcome. Further information is available at the committee's e-mail address asoka@ecn.cz where any support to the Memorandum should be addressed as well.
MEMORANDUM of European Civil Society Organisations on the Situation in Chechnya We, inhabitants of Central Europe, are turning to you, our representatives of the Council of Europe, to consider promptly and efficiently the situation in Chechnya. On this territory, more and more isolated from the world around, basic human and civil rights are being ignored and infringed. People are needlessly dying of hunger, cold and serious contagious diseases (such as TB) and lack of medical care. On this war-ruined territory, catastrophic damages to the environment are occurring, with nobody caring either for the renewal or for the stabilisation of life conditions. Chaos reigns and corruption is omnipresent.
Under these conditions, Russian institutions often make difficult or impossible the entry and movement of humanitarian and human-right organisations and their members as well as journalists, international supervisors representing the UNO and others. Russian authorities have thus de facto deprived international subjects of the means to assess the real scope of the damages and humanitarian crisis and to investigate the crimes against humanity that have been and are continuously being committed with impunity.
As European citizens, we are stressing the alarming fact that in this situation the Council of Europe as an international institution is absolutely losing its credibility – standing by silently approving while one of its own members – the Russian federation - violates the elementary human and citizen rights on its own territory and thus ignores generally accepted conventions. Therefore we appeal to the Council of Europe to within the frame of its competences and options implement the following:
- guarantee the right of free entry and movement on the whole territory of Chechnya for humanitarian and human-right organisations and journalists;
- guarantee the continuous presence and support of humanitarian organisations which (alone) contribute to the stabilisation of the conditions in the country;
- guarantee the presence and free movement of international supervisors around the whole territory of Chechnya. In closing this resolution we firmly refer to our common historical memory, where silence in similar situations has always helped aggressors and legitimised despotism.
Signed:
For the Czech Republic – The Organizational Committee SOS Chechnya:
Jana Hradílková, Nová 184, 252 25 Zbuzany, asoka@ecn.cz
Lenka Vítková, Růžová 17, 747 14 Ludgeřovice, l_vitkova@yahoo.com
Organizations:
Děti Kavkazu, Pavla Dobešová, Nad lesním divadlem 1113, Praha 4, 140 00, pdobesova@hotmail.com
Gender studies, o.p.s Petra Hejnová, Gorazdova 20 Praha 2, gender,office@ecn.cz
Profem, Saša Lienau, Gorazdova 20, Praha 2, profem@ecn.cz
Babkova společnost, Milan Cháb, Horní Poustena 40, 407 82, usp@interdata.cz
Multikulturní centrum, Lenka Simerská, Na Poříčí 16, Praha 1, 110 00
ADRA, Rudolf Reitz
Most pro lidská práva, Milan Daniel milan.daniel@worldonline.cz
Společnost pro trvale udržitelný život, Eva Vavroušková, eva.vavrouskova@ecn.cz
NESEHNUTÍ, Milan Štefanec, nesehnuti@centrum.cz
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Individuals:
Jiřina Šiklová, jirina.siklova@ecn.cz
Fedor Gál, fedor@gplusg.cz
Ivan Klíma, iklima@volny.cz
Jaromír Štětina, j.stetina@volny.cz
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