Brussels, 20 February 2003. According to some independent Russian sources at the beginning of January the Russian military and paramilitary forces have carried out a "zachistka" action in the Chechen town of Argun; more than one hundred men were detained. A couple of days later, eighteen corpses were thrown out of the Russian check-point building, 32 people disappeared at all, the rest except of six were released for ransom -- all beaten and tortured -- and the last six were taken to Argun-river and have been blown up with a dynamite bar.
On the other end the Russian authorities are dismantling all refugee camps in Ingushetia and sending the refugees back to Chechnya where they will be exposed to such hideous violations and will risk their freedom and their lives, until the international community decide to force the Russian Federation to put an end to these atrocities and finally open genuine negotiations with the legitimate government of President Mashkadov on the future status of Chechnya.
Question from Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and Member of the European Parliament, to the Commission:
“What kind of information does the Commission have concerning the hideous crime perpetrated by Russian military and paramilitary forces in the town of Argun and what was its reaction? What political and diplomatic initiatives does the Commission intend to take vis-à-vis the Russian authorities who while dismantling the refugee camps in Ingushetia forcing the Chechen people to go back to Chechnya are simultaneously carrying out such criminal actions as the one realised in Argun ? Could the Commission draft a proposal for a joint action aiming at the realisation of an extraordinary operation - along the lines of the action taken for Bosnia and Kosovo - to receive all Chechen refugees whose lives and integrity would be threatened if they were to go back to Chechnya ?”
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