Brussels, 4 February 2004. Dear Olivier, I am writing to you with the deepest feelings: I am enormously grateful to you for the devotion with which you have drawn the world's attention to the tragedy of the Chechen people and to my own personal situation. However, now I must plead with you to stop your hunger strike. The struggle for justice for our people is bound to take quite a long time yet and we cannot afford to lose even one man of good will. Given the obstacles that we still face, it is imperative that you and all who would seek a fair resolution of the Chechen problem band together and use all of their intellectual capacities to convince the key decision makers to take courageous steps.

So, dear Olivier, I ask you to stop punishing your body and bring your intellect to bear once again on the Chechen problem.

You friend Ilyas Akhmadov, Foreign Minister of the Chechen Republic Ichkeriya


OLIVIER DUPUIS REACHES THE 17TH DAY OF HIS HUNGER STRIKE

On 18 January MEP Olivier Dupuis, a member of the Transnational Radical Party, began a hunger strike in order to urge the authorities of the European Union and of the Member States finally to address the question of the Chechen genocide from a political and humanitarian point of view. He is calling in particular for support for the Peace Plan presented by the Maskhadov government for the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya, for hospitality for wounded Chechen children in hospitals in the EU, and for a “white list” to allow members of the government of President Maskhadov to reside and circulate freely throughout the territory of the Union.

The appeal in support of the Peace Plan can be signed on-line at www.radicalparty.org