Calendar of Events - March 2002 (updated)This schedule of major events related to the conflict in Chechnya is continuously updated and completed. Announcements for planned or expected events or any other suggestions are most welcome (e-mail: mail (at) watchdog.cz)
March 4-7, Caucasus
The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama, travels to the Caucasus.
For more information contact Antonio Capinha, Spokesperson, Permanent Delegation of Portugal to the OSCE, tel.: +43-1 585 50 51-3, fax: +43-1 585 50 51 66, e-mail: mail@portdelosce.at
March 5, London
Russian media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who is wanted by Russian authorities and recently started openly opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin, presents at a press conference in London documentary evidence (including a documentary movie describing the bombings in Moscow, Volgodonsk and the failed explosion in Ryazan) to back up his earlier claims that the FSB was behind the wave of the apartment bombings in Russia in 1999, which triggered a new military campaign against Chechnya.
March 12-14 (SUSPENDED)
A two-day world fast for Chechnya, organised by the Transnational Radical Party, takes place from 12 to 14 March, after Mr. Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of the European Parliament, launched a hunger strike on February 21. More information is available on the website of Transnational Radical Party.
March 14, Strasbourg
Bart Staes, chairman of the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, receives three politicians of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, namely Vice-Premier Akhmed Zakayev, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ilyas Akhmadov and Minister of Health Umar Khanbiev.
March 20, Moscow
The Joint Working Group on Chechnya of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Russian State Duma holds its eighth meeting, whose agenda includes a discussion on the human rights situation in the region and the state of progress of a political solution to the conflict. In the afternoon, the meeting should be joined by Chechen representatives, including members of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration and those NGOs from the region that had signed a memorandum on proposals for a political solution to the conflict in Strasbourg in November 2001.
More information is available at the website of the Council of Europe.
March 21, Copenhagen
Public meeting "How to stop Russia's war on Chechnya" takes place at Borups Højskole in Copenhagen, Frederiksholms Kanal 24 (behind the Parliament), at 16:30. Among the participants are Algirdas Endriukaitis, a Lithuanian politician and Chechnya campaigner, who is visiting Denmark for talks with politicians and NGOs on Chechnya between March 18-22, Usman Ferzauli, the Ichkerian Ambassador to Denmark, and Villy Søvndal, a Danish MP for the Socialist People's Party.
More information is available at the website of the Danish Support Committee for Chechnya.
March 22-25, Paris
Seminar "La Tchétchénie entre l'Europe et la Russie" ("Chechnya between Europe and Russia") takes place at Théâtre National de la Colline, 15 rue Malte Brun, Paris.
More information is available at the website of the Comité Tchétchénie de Paris.
March 25-28, St Petersburg
An inter-parliamentary conference on combating terrorism takes place at the Tavrichesky Palace in St Petersburg. The conference, co-organised by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (IPA CIS), will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, PACE President Peter Schieder, Chairman of the Federation Council and IPA CIS Council Sergey Mironov, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Walter Schwimmer, among others.
More information is available at the website of the Council of Europe.
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Ongoing, long-term activities or events:
March 18 - April 26, Geneva, Switzerland
The fifty-eighth session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
The draft report on Chechnya is available here (a PDF document).
More information on the whole session is available at the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights..
January 20 - May 10, the Czech and Slovak Republics
Travelling photograph exhibition "Before the War I Had Toys". Through photos taken by Czech photographer Iva Zímová you can meet young inhabitants of Grozny who suffered during the “anti-terrorist” operation: children who witnessed the bombing of the city, children who saw the killing of their neighbours, children who lost their parents, children who lost their homes and their toys.
Feb. 12 - March 8 - Chomutov
March 22 - April 6 - Žilina
April 22 - May 10 - Brno
For more information see the website of the organiser - Berkat - or send an e-mail at dada@ora.cz.
January 24 - March 17, Germany & France
Performances of Daymokh, a Chechen children traditional dance and music troupe, take in various places around Germany and France (Dusseldorf, Strasbourg, Rennes, Lieges, Lyon, etc.)
See Daymokh´s program of performances and the troupe´s background at the website of Comité Tchétchénie de Paris.
February 21 - August 4, Amsterdam
Photos from Chechnya 1868-2002 - An exhibition of photographs from Chechnya takes place in the Dutch Resistance Museum, Amsterdam.
More information in English is available here.
Compiled by Prague Watchdog.
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