Conference held in European Parliament about the situation in Chechnya By Ivo Šír
BRUSSELS, Belgium - A conference entitled “Countering Violence and Creating Justice in the Caucasus,” organized by the Green-EFA Group and the Chechen World Congress, was held in the European Parliament building on December 8. There were about 50 people in attendance.
Among the many speakers were Bart Staes, MEP, member of the Cooperation Committee EP-Russia; Deni Teps, chairman of the Chechen World Congress; Mohammad Shishani, former chairman of the aforementioned; Stephan Parmentier, Director of the Legal Institute at the Faculty of Law of the K.U. Leuven; and Bill Bowring, British lawyer from the European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (EHRAC).
According to Stephan Parmentier, the reason for the crisis in Chechnya is the erosion of human rights especially by the Russian units that operate throughout the country who have been and still are unpunished. Therefore, he feels the answer is economic pressure on the wrongdoers.
Bill Bowring represented Karin Moskalenko, attorney of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, because she was refused a visa by the Belgium government. Bowring spoke about three definitive issues concerning human rights violations for which the Russian Federation was found guilty and convicted by ECHR. The accusers -victims of the Russian units in Chechyna - were represented on all three counts by Bowring’s organization, the EHRAC.
Other Chechen issues that were discussed during the conference were specific incidents of violence, the situation regarding refugees throughout Europe and even the recent parliamentary elections that were Moscow-directed.
In closing, Deni Teps, chairman of the Chechen World Congress summarized all of the issues taken up during the meeting. He compared the Chechen situation with the violence in former Yugoslavia, especially in Kosovo, where international forces were engaged on behalf of the civilian population, and attributed the international community’s lack of interest regarding Chechnya chiefly to economic interests in relations with the Russian Federation.
Prague Watchdog's editor Adam Havlín contributed to this report.
Translated by Jeannette Vota. (A,E/T)
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