TITLE: Assembly Rapporteurs to visit the Chechen Republic

AUTHOR: The Rapporteurs of the Parliamentary

ORG: CoE: PACE

DATE: January 11, 2001

Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, Lord Judd (United Kingdom, SOC), and Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Rudolf Bindig (Germany, SOC), will be visiting Moscow and the Chechen Republic on a fact-finding mission from 13-18 January 2001. During their stay in the Chechen Republic, from 14 to 17 January, the rapporteurs will visit Grozny, Khankala and Chernokozovo. The delegation will have talks with Viktor Kazantsev, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the southern federal region, Akhmat Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Administration, Vladimir Kalamanov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Chechen Republic and with Council of Europe experts on the spot. They will meet recently appointed Chechen judges as well as military prosecutors and judges dealing with accusations of crimes committed by the armed forces against the civilian population in relation to the conflict. Back in Moscow on the afternoon of 17 January, Lord Judd and Rudolf Bindig will meet with the Minister of Defence, the Minister of the Interior and the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. On Thursday 18, the delegation will hold a press conference at 11 am (Interfax, 2 Pervaia-Tverskaia Iamskaia). The information gathered by the rapporteurs during the visit will be an essential element for the report on the "Conflict in the Chechen Republic: follow-up to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly", which the Political Affairs Committee will adopt on Saturday 20 January 2001 in Strasbourg, as well as for the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. The debate on the "Situation in the Chechen Republic" will be held in Strasbourg on Thursday 25 January. Contact: Francesc Ferrer, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe tel. + 33 3 88 41 32 50, mobile (from 13 to 18 January) + 33 6 70 16 28 50, fax. + 33 3 90 21 41 34 END top