TITLE: Chechen Foreign Minister's Statement

AUTHOR:

PUB: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

DATE: March 1, 2001

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria expresses its deep dissatisfaction with a lack of a proper response from the international community to the continuing Russian brutality against the Chechen people. We deeply regret that members of the world community continue to ignore war crimes and crimes against humanity that are being committed against the citizens of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria by the Russian Federation. Neither the mass grave containing bodies of hundreds of Chechen men, women and children that was discovered near the Russian military headquarters in Khankala last Saturday, nor the indisputable evidence of torture, rape and murders of Chechen civilians in Russian concentration camps reported by journalist Anna Politkovskaya have been given proper attention by the members of the international community or intergovernmental organizations. No impartial investigation would deny that Russian crimes against the Chechen people are systematic and deliberate. Every Russian military location in Chechnya has a concentration camp, where Chechen civilians are tortured and murdered. Every Chechen village and town is subjected to "mopping up" operations of Russian military and Ministry of Inferior troops, where hundreds of local Chechen civilian men and women are detained, tortured and killed. At least, 16 mass graves containing mutilated bodies of Chechen civilians have been found during the last year in Chechnya. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Medicines San Frontiers, Memorial, and other human rights guardians have been repeatedly reporting Russian crimes against the Chechen people. No one should doubt that these crimes are the direct outcome of deliberate policies of Russian political and military leadership. No one should pretend that Russia is or ever will investigate its crimes against the Chechen people, no murderer has ever done so. Only an international investigation will be able to punish those responsible for the war crimes and crimes against humanity that have been and still are being committed against the Chechen people. Punishment for the today's crimes against the Chechen people is the best guarantee for tomorrow's peace and security in and around Chechnya. It is in the interests of all civilised nations to end Russia's impunity in Chechnya. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria urges the United States, the EU, the Council of Europe, the UN, the OSCE, the OIC, and other members and organizations of the world community to initiate an international war crimes tribunal for the Russian crimes against the Chechen people, and to demand an immediate and complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the Chechen soil. Signed Ilyas Akhmadov Foreign Minister END top