Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-16-Speech-4-128"
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"en.20030116.9.4-128"2
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"Mr President, for the third time in history, a systematic attempt at genocide is taking place in Chechnya. It is being committed by the Russian colonial power in order to safeguard its strategic interests and resources. The fact that this is camouflaged as a war on terrorism – even if there is terrorism there – is simply a cynical distortion of reality. This is why it is important that there should be unfettered access to the war region so that the facts can be presented.
We are currently witnessing a situation in which the Russian power is doing its utmost to ensure that this war fades from sight behind a wall of silence. First of all, the Commission has so far been unwilling to visit the region. We have discussed the matter time and again with Commissioner Nielson and urged him to visit the region. It may be that some influence has already been brought to bear behind the scenes here. Then we said that we as a Parliament wanted to visit the region. Our parliamentary delegation was then prevented from travelling to the crisis region for a variety of completely threadbare reasons. This was not just deplorable, to paraphrase the mild criticism voiced in the resolution before us. It was a scandal. We are supposed to have a partnership with Russia. That means that just as our partner Russia has the right and the opportunity to travel anywhere in the EU to gather first–hand information, we expect to have the same free and unimpeded access in Russia's sphere of influence at any time, in line with all the international conventions which Russia has signed, not least in the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
The third attempt to construct a wall of silence around Chechnya was the ending of the OSCE mission and the ejection of an international organisation which had made a major contribution to ending the previous Chechen war through a negotiated settlement. It was, after all, under the OSCE's supervision, that President Maskhadov was elected, and, as he is the only representative to have been elected democratically to date, we cannot deny him dialogue. Then a German delegation led by Norbert Blüm, the well–respected former German minister, was thrown out as well.
Mr President, I find this absolutely scandalous, and I think we should be speaking a clearer language here than we have done so far. We must make it clear to the Russians that this cannot continue. We want to shine light into the darkness and we want an end to this war."@en1
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