56th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights
Open debate on the High Commissioner's report on the situation in Chechnya

Oral statement by the
Transnational Radical Party

Delivered on 11 April 2000 by
Akhyad Idigov



Mr Chairman,

I am speaking on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party, at this opportunity provided by the High Commissioner's recent visit to Russia and the Chechen Republic-Ichkeria.

With Ms Robinson's visit, the full extent of Russia's violations of international law in this region of Europe became clear to the whole world. The long duration - since 1991 - and massive scale of this process have taken on a dangerous character. For reason of their ethnic origin, Chechens are being persecuted throughout the Russian Federation, and on the territory of Chechnya they are quite simply being killed without trial, in the bombardment of towns and villages by heavy weaponry.

Russia, worthy successor to the Soviet Union, continues the bloody epic it began in Afghanistan, passing through Lithuania, Karabakh, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Fergana, Georgia, Tajikistan, Moldova, Abkhazia, Ingushetia, Chechnya… This list could continue, if no action is taken at the international level to put it to an end.

Since 1991, the international community has remained silent, allowing lawlessness to prevail in this area of the world. How many more innocent victims must perish? How many more tears must be shed by children and women who have lost their homes and families? Chechen refugees are deprived even of the right to refugee status, as well as freedom of movement everywhere, including in Europe.

The indiscriminate war and ethnic cleansing directed against the Chechen people by Russia can only be described in terms of genocide. There must be an appropriate reaction by the international community.

Mr Chairman,
The Chechen people's right to self-determination is an important element of any stability and peace in the Caucasus. We cannot avoid this key question, which lies behind Russia's every action against the Chechen Republic-Ichkeria and its people.

Since 1991, in accordance with international law, laws of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, and the declaration on state sovereignty of 12 June 1990, Chechnya made use of its right to form its own state, as did other newly independent post-Soviet countries.

This was aimed at providing, through the international community, security for the Chechen people, denied by Russia for 400 years, by means of periodic deportations and wars every 40-50 years. This right of the Chechen people is still being denied here today, and, if this continues, it can only lead to the complete annihilation of the Chechen people.

It must be noted that on 12 May 1997, following the last Russo-Chechen war of 1994-96, Russia signed a peace and coexistence treaty with the Chechen Republic-Ichkeria, whose main principle was the establishment of relations on the basis of international law. Russia immediately broke the terms of the agreement, blocking Chechnya off from the rest of the world and creating the conditions for the development of the situation we see today.

The Russian authorities did their utmost to cultivate fear among the peoples living within their borders, to justify war against the Chechen people, to win the 2000 presidential elections, and also to block the economic interests of western countries attempting to bypass Moscow.

Mr Chairman,
In order to attain peace, it is essential that negotiations begin, under strict international monitoring as a guarantor for agreements reached. Negotiations can only be effective with the authorities legally elected in 1997 under the leadership of President Aslan Maskhadov. Any other means would not express the will of the Chechen people and would be doomed to failure.