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SNA CHECHENPRESS, Letters section, April, 6th 2008
To
the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki-moon
the President of the European Commission, Mr Jose Manuel Barroso
the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr Terry Davis
cc. to
the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro
the Senior Management Group and members of the United Nations
the President of the Council of Europe, Mr Frank-Walter Steinmeier
the President of the European Parliament, Mr Hans Gert Pottering and members of the European Parliament
the Chairman of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, Mr Jan Kubish
the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr Lluis Maria de Puig and the deputies and members of PACE
the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Thomas Hammarberg
the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Luzius Wildhaber and judges of the European Court of Human Rights
Uncensored mass media, human rights and other organisations, and citizens of the world
Respected international politicians, ladies and gentlemen,
I am appealing to you on behalf of those innocent people who have been murdered, injured, tortured to death, or humiliated by cruel and inhuman treatment and degrading punishments; on behalf of refugees deprived of their traditional way of life, habitation, property, and the entire heritage bequeathed to them by their ancestors, reduced to wandering the Earth in a sometimes vain search for protection from prosecution and threats to their lives; on behalf of those who have remained in their ancient Chechen land now occupied by Russian aggressors, and enduring in deadly danger all manner of crimes committed by the aggressors and the imposed, pro-Russian puppet institutions which the Russian military and political agencies have forced by diverse means to operate within the limits of their scenario, which is aimed at the degradation and murder of the entire Chechen people as an ethnic identity, diabolically exploiting for their purposes Chechens themselves.
You, respected ladies and gentlemen, have taken upon yourselves the obligation to protect the world from war and violence against defenceless people. You have created vast organisations for the defence of human rights and the rule of law, and these consume vast material and financial resources. These organisations are, of course, essential. You have not, however, created effective mechanisms for enforcing this protection and so, at best, you subject criminals who themselves have great power and strength to mild criticism without confronting them with the power of the law. This leads to the constant arising of new hotspots, mainly under cover of the “war on terror”, while celebrated criminals enjoy a sense of impunity and even support. This frequently leads to a situation where individuals who command great financial resources and state power obtain fabulous profits from an unrestrained arms race with weapons, most of which are destined to be used against innocent people.
The result is endless suffering and a long trail of blood. You, international politicians, heads of state and of international organisations, thinking people whose names are renowned throughout the world, have assumed the mantle of protecting our planet and its citizens from despotism, injustice and lawlessness and you bear a part of the historical and moral responsibility for this. You also bear part of the responsibility for your silent condoning of an aggressive war unleashed by Russia against the Chechen people, and for failing to force Russia through legal means to accept a legally binding cessation of the war.
Moreover, you have failed even to apply the legally correct terms to the genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the Chechen people which have been and continue to be perpetrated by Russian military and political agencies. You attempt, on the contrary, to ignore the crimes and the criminals and give credence to the myth, concocted long ago by the Russian side when the first war was at its height, of the “stabilisation and restoration of destroyed towns and cities”. You express your satisfaction at this, as if the crimes mentioned above did not exist, and the towns and cities of Chechenia had been destroyed by some kind of natural disaster. You rarely talk of the need for a legally enforceable cessation of the war and restoration of human rights and freedoms in Chechenia, with subsequent reparation of the moral and material losses inflicted.
The UN Commission on Human Rights ceased to monitor the Chechen issue at its meetings in Geneva in 2005 in response to demands from the Russian side, while the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last considered the issue of Chechenia on 25 January 2006. The main reason for this manifestly unjust stance on the Chechen issue is that many countries and individual politicians have become hostages of the Russian Federation in respect of economic, political and other interests. You attempt to excuse to the international community your retreat from humane values built up over centuries by unjustly condoning Russia’s claim to have a right to defend the integrity of “its” territory, lands which from time immemorial were Chechen and which Russia annexed after centuries of aggressive warfare, or to represent it as support for the “war on terror”.
When you talk of Chechen terrorists, you forget that the terrorism was in general provoked by Russian aggression, and that the greater part of it is planned and carried out by Russian military and political agencies, secret services and their agents against the civilian inhabitants of Chechenia, which engenders anti-terror. Unlike Russia, Chechenia has never implemented terrorism as a state policy. It is no longer a secret that, in order to implement their bloody plans against the Chechen people, criminal Russian military and political agencies employ terrorist methods against their own citizens. By now it is widely known that the blowing up of apartment blocks in Moscow and Volgodonsk, the hostage-taking at the Nord-Ost musical, the events in Beslan, and many other terrorist acts were organised, carried out, or provoked by Russia’s intelligence agencies. Alas, you prefer not to probe too deeply into these matters, finding it more expedient to lay the blame for everything on all Chechens in general and thereby excuse your failure to seek a legally binding settlement of the problem of Chechenia.
I call upon you, so far still respected ladies and gentlemen, who represent the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Council of Europe, to revive the procedures for monitoring the Chechen issue, with a clear and unambiguous reflection in the resolutions you adopt of the norms of international and criminal law which have been violated by Russia. I demand with full legal justification that Draft Resolution No. 1 of the Peace and Human Rights international association of 15 June 2007 should be accepted for consideration by the UN, European Court of Human Rights, and the Council of Europe. This was officially and personally accepted from me by Mr Dick Marty. The justification of the 14 points of this document was not legally dismissed by the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Mr Terry Davis, when I met him personally on 7 February 2008 in the presence of six persons. I call upon you to return to monitoring the Chechen issue at sessions of the United Nations, European Court of Human Rights, and the Council of Europe, and to renounce the practice of applying double standards in your approach to the Chechen issue.
On 15 April 2008 at 14.00 hours a sanctioned meeting will be held outside the building of the Council of Europe with the following demands addressed to the UN Commission on Human Rights, the European Parliament, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe:
to resume monitoring the Chechen issue at your forthcoming sessions;
to take the measures which your international obligations require to ensure a legally binding cessation of the war, reparation of material and moral losses caused, restoration of human rights and freedoms which have been grossly violated in Chechenia, and visiting of the appropriate legal consequences on those who are guilty;
to accept for consideration Draft Resolution No. 1.
If these demands are ignored, I have to inform you that from 16 April 2008 onwards protest demonstrations will be held for the foreseeable future outside the Council of Europe, accompanied by collection of signatures on a petition for fulfilment of these demands. All who wish to support my demands can confirm this by sending an e-mail communication to miriprava2007@hotmail.com, or come to the Council of Europe building on Tuesdays at 14.00 hours in order to sign the petition and support the protest demonstration.
I ask that this open protest letter should be uploaded to all available websites in order to defeat any attempt to deny publicity to the protest.
President of the International Peace and Human Rights Association, former Minister of Communications of Chechnya
Said-Emin Ibragimov
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