CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

A meeting of sympathy with Chechen hunger strikers

On Thursday, July 19, 2001 between 2 – 5 p.m., next to the statue of St Wenceslas in the Wenceslas Square, there will be a public meeting of sympathy with Chechen refugees in Ingushetia who went on a hunger strike a month ago, protesting against the war and calling for peace talks.

The number of people increases

Chechen refugees in refugee camps Sputnik and Sacita in Ingushetia went on a hunger strike a month ago, demanding the termination of military operations in Chechnya and calling for talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. According to Radio Liberty, three refugees went on the hunger strike on June 14 and since then their number has been growing. On July 11 there were 63 refugees on the hunger strike, among them children at the age of ten to thirteen years. Over twenty hunger strikers had to be hospitalised in hospitals in Ingushetia with the diagnose of overall organism malfunction.

Over the last two months Chechen refugees have been more and more often using protest campaigns as the currently only available way to remind Russian authorities of the atrocities committed on the civilians in Chechnya by Russian troops. The refugees claim that they were made to start the hunger strike by the ever-worsening situation in Chechnya. Not only men, but also women and children have reportedly been detained at the Russian checkpoints during the last few months. Ill-famed “mopping-up operations” carried out by Russian troops, accompanied by robberies, illegal detainment, beating, torture and in some cases even execution of civilians, have become wide-spread.

A wave of sympathy

In late June the President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev said in his interview for Russian news agency Interfax that the demands of the Chechen refugees are justified and that the whole event is “morally supported in all refugee camps”. The President admitted the possibility that the number of hunger strikers will continue to grow. “The refugees understand well the fact that their security can not be guaranteed without termination of the military operations in Chechnya. It has been obvious from the very beginning of the conflict that the situation can not be resolved by force,” said Aushev to Interfax. “The situation of a war will produce more and more Barayevs and Basayevs. Whatever they say, Maskhadov is a legitimately elected President, Chechnya does have its government, it does have its Parliament. So there is actually someone to hold peace talks with,” stressed Aushev.

The protest rally of the Chechen refugees in Ingushetia has recently been supported also by the strong Chechen diaspora abroad. Last week Chechen refugees in about fifteen towns in Poland started a sympathy rally for the hunger striking refugees in Ingushetia and many of them personally joined the hunger strike. Several Chechen families living in refugee camps in the Czech Republic are currently also preparing to start a similar supporting rally.

According to the rally organisers and the Chechen refugees living in the Czech Republic, the mission of the rally is to show the sympathy with the hunger strikers in Ingushetia. Their main demand is to stop the military operations and violence committed by the Russian as well as the Chechen side.

Well-known figures will also be present

Besides the Chechen refugees living in the Czech Republic and the rally organisers – SOS Chechnya Committee and Prague Watchdog – also well-known figures of the social, political and cultural life will be present at the Thursday meeting (for example evangelical minister Miloš Rejchrt, chairwoman of the Freedom Union party Hana Marvanová, sociologist Jiřina Šiklová, bishop Václav Malý). At 4 p.m. statements will be read. For further information please contact Prague Watchdog (e-mail: mail (at) watchdog.cz) or SOS Chechnya spokeswoman Jana Hradílková (e-mail: jana.hradilkova (at) ecn.cz).