Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-10-Speech-3-007"
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"en.20020410.1.3-007"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, yesterday we had a very solemn debate here in Parliament about the situation in the Middle East, and I think that the debate on Chechnya deserves the same degree of solemnity. There is an open wound in Europe: in Chechnya, in the Russian Federation.
The President of the Russian Federation is currently visiting a Member State of the European Union. Last night I heard his statement on Chechnya on German television. The Russian Ambassador to the European Union, Mr Likhachev, and the President of the Committee for Foreign Affairs in the Duma, Dimitri Rogozin, called to see me last week in Brussels to inform me about the situation. I am pleased that our debate on Chechnya has also provided an opportunity for them to contact our group.
Clearly we have to fight terrorism, but we must not do so in such a way that this has a disproportionate impact on the human rights and lives of the people in Chechnya, of civilians who want to live in peace.
If a study from the US State Department dated 4 March, statements from
an organisation which we esteem greatly because of its commitment – and the organisation Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York, all say that the Russian soldiers have hardly any respect for human life, then this has to set the alarm bells ringing.
If the Duma representative for Chechnya, Aslambek Aslakhanov, says – and this shows that Russia is also on the road to democracy, and we do of course recognise this – that 80% of the aid which Russia provides for Chechnya is not even reaching the people, then this has to set the alarm bells ringing.
If Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, says that the economic, social and cultural situation in Chechnya is very grave, despite some progress – which we have of course also noted – then this has to set the alarm bells ringing. These are descriptions of the situation by organisations and high-profile leaders who know more about what is happening than we do. But it is our duty, as Members of the European Parliament, to debate these massive violations of human rights which are taking place in Russia and therefore in Europe, in Chechnya, for as long as they continue to be a reality.
We therefore call for a ceasefire and a political solution. Those Russian soldiers who have no respect for civilian lives, who have scant regard for human dignity and human life, should not only be criticised for their actions in political statements in Moscow; we call for them also to be brought before the courts and for judgment to be passed on them, because if not the violations of human rights will just go on and on.
We also call on Russia to open up Chechnya to observers – to an even greater extent than it has done so far – and also to work with organisations in the European Union. The President-in-Office of the Council and also the Commissioner referred to this and generally speaking we are of the same mind. In addition, we in the European Parliament should ask our delegation and the corresponding delegation in the Duma – and Parliament should as it were give the go-ahead for this – to establish a well-ordered procedure for attending to Chechnya properly on an ongoing basis.
As members of the European People's Party, as European Democrats, we say that security in Europe, on our continent, in the twenty-first century will depend on our having a democratic ...
Soon – as we of course already decided on 16 March – we should send a European Parliament delegation to Chechnya and that region. For my part I would very much welcome it if you, Commissioner, were personally to travel there to speak to those affected on the ground.
Finally, we need to cooperate closely with Lord Judd of the Council of Europe, who is of course very involved in working on this problem, and overall we need a political solution. Allow me, in conclusion, to say the following: I have visited all of the republics of the former Soviet Union, including Tatarstan. Tatarstan, the capital of which is Kazan, has a high degree of autonomy, indeed the greatest degree of autonomy in the Russian Federation. Why is it not possible for Chechnya to have something comparable?
The representatives of Chechnya, who were here two months ago, appeared to have lost all hope; they were depressed and their concern and despair were palpable. It is our duty as the European Parliament to give hope to those who want to live in peace in Chechnya – within the Russian Federation, but with autonomous status of some kind – and to act as an advocate for human rights on this continent and throughout the world, including in Chechnya.
... European Union, which is capable of taking action and committed to upholding human rights, and on our having a democratic Russia, which is capable of taking action and committed to upholding human rights, and on both – the European Union and Russia – working together as partners. We want to have a strategic partnership of this kind because it is important for the future of our continent.
We must not remain silent, however, when human rights are violated, and of all people, we in the European Parliament must not remain silent. Some observers are saying that more people are dying in Chechnya than in the Middle East. Our group believes that a Chechen life is of equal value to the life of a citizen of the United States or a citizen of the European Union ...
… and that the life of a Muslim in Chechnya is of equal value to the life of a Christian, a Jew, a Palestinian, a Hindu, a Buddhist or a person of no belief.
Human rights – and it is particularly because we are Europeans that this matters to us – are indivisible the world over."@en1
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