Brussels, 5 February 2004. In a long article published today Prava attacked the 145 MEPs who have signed the international appeal in support of the Peace Plan presented by the Chechen government for the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya.

According to Pravda, “taken up with a great many other problems, the members of the Duma have still not commented on this impertinent interference in the internal affairs of Russia”.

Pravda then attacked the German authorities for having allowed Akhmed Zakaiev, the Chechen Minister of Culture, to take part in a meeting in Berlin organised by the Social Democratic Party spokesman for foreign affairs. And after recalling the international arrest warrant issued by Russia against Zakaiev, Pravda failed to mention the fact that courts in Copenhagen and London have ruled Russia’s application for his extradition to be completely unfounded, while Great Britain has granted him political asylum.

Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Radical Member of the European Parliament, on the 18th day of his hunger strike for Chechnya:

“Pravda has certainly not abandoned its old methods. It simply fails to remember the Peace Treaty signed by President Yeltsin and President Maskhadov, quite clearly valid in terms of international law, and above all fails to remember the extremely serious violations of the international Conventions that Russia is committing in Chechnya. A much more serious matter than ‘interference in internal affairs’, even admitting that the concept has ever meant anything other than a ‘licence to kill undisturbed within one’s own borders’.”


You can support the Peace Plan for an interim United Nations administration by signing the international appeal at: www.radicalparty.org