Anti-war demo tells Bush: save Chechnya from Russian "terror"


AFP

Tbilisi. Chechen refugees demonstrated Tuesday in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to ask visiting US President George W. Bush to save Chechnya from Russian "terror". About 50 people, mostly members of Georgia's small Chechen diaspora, or refugees, gathered at the police cordon set up in central Tbilisi, where Bush was meeting with President Mikhail Saakashvili. "Peace against Kremlin terror," one placard said. "America save Chechnya and Russia from the Kremlin," read another placard. Khizri Aldamov, one of the diaspora leaders, told AFP: "Our refugees and poor people would like to tell Bush that we are not terrorists and that the terrorists sit in Moscow." Russia has been fighting separatist rebels in Chechnya, which is on the mountainous border with Georgia, for much of the last 10 years. Moscow says the conflict is part of an international war against terrorism. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the crackdown.