Czech activists stage protest before Russian Consulate in Brno on behalf of Chechen refugees (Prague Watchdog) – Members of the Czech NGO “Nesehnuti” and the Czech branch of Amnesty International organized a rally in front of the Russian Consulate in the country's second largest city of Brno on Thursday to protest the arbitrary enforced actions taken against Chechen refugees in Ingushetia.
The rally began rather dramatically with a re-enactment of a symbolic scene showing Russian soldiers evicting a Chechen family from their temporary dwelling and forcibly dragging them back to Chechnya.
Then, by holding a moment of silence for all the Chechen war victims and lighting candles, the activists aligned themselves with the international event “In Memory of Chechen Victims.” This had been undertaken by dozens of human rights organizations primarily based in the territory of the former Soviet Union, on the 9th anniversary of the beginning of the first Chechen war. (More information about the event can be found on the website http://www.hro.org/memory.)
The protest in Brno was also held to call attention to the outrageous decision to halt asylum proceedings for approximately 60 Chechen refugees in the Czech Republic who are in danger of being expelled from the country early next year.
Milan Stefanec of Nesehnuti criticized the Czech authorities' decision to expel the refugees: “These people escaped from a war-torn land, and now the Czech Republic is telling them via the police and Interior Ministry that they must go back home.”
“The fate of Chechens affects our lives far more than we think, despite the apparent remoteness of the country. Among the petitioners who seek asylum in the Czech Republic, Chechen refugees are in the forefront. Yet our authorities, unfortunately, have little sympathy toward the refugees’ difficult situation,” stated Lubor Kysucan, one of the coordinators of Amnesty International.
"It is therefore imperative that we constantly remind people that even though the war has ended, violating the human rights of innocent civilians by the Russian powers-that-be, who often use literally terrorist methods, still continues," asserted Kysucan. (E/T) |
