Dmitry Rogozin Accuses European Parliamentarians of Support for Political Extremists in ChechnyaSTRASBOURG, January 23, 2002. /from RIA Novosti correspondent Leonid Kokovich/. Dmitry Rogozin, the Head of the Russian delegation at the PACE session, the Chairman of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs, accused European parliamentarians of the support for political extremists in Chechnya.
Commenting upon the report on the observation of human rights in
Chechnya, Rogozin said that the September 11 tragic events in the USA "did not give any lessons to most parliamentarians who are still ready to support political extremists in Chechnya, making them fighters for freedom".
"If we follow the logic of some European parliamentarians, the
pilots-terrorists who high-jacked passenger airliners and attacked
Washington
and New York, were also fighters for freedom," said Rogozin.
Pointing out that speakers on the Chechen problem at the PACE session insist on a political dialogue with Maskhadov, Rogozin reminded those present of the video tape with the record of meeting between Chechen leader and Osama bin Laden discovered in the USA.
"Well, now Russia has to negotiate with the terrorist number one,"
Rogozin told the European parliamentarians.
The head of the Russian parliamentary delegation called on the European parliamentarians to stop playing with political extremism.
According to Rogozin, "Moscow is ready to conduct political dialogue with those Chechens who are striving for peace and prosperity, with the Chechen intellectuals and diaspora who left Chechnya after the 1991 military coup d'etat." |
