|
President of the Peace and Human Rights International
Association
Former Communications
Minister of Chechnya
Said-Emin Ibragimov
20 August 2007
URGENT OPEN
LETTER
To:
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
Members of the UN
European Commission Chairman Jose Manuel Barroso
Members of the EU
Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis
Members of the Council of Europe
Foreign Ministers of EU Member States
European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering
Members of the European Parliament
PACE Chairman Rene van der Linden
Members of PACE
Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammerberg
Council of Europe Special Rapporteur Dick Marty
Heads of States and Governments
Human Rights Activists
Public Organisations, Political Parties, the Mass Media
The General Public
On the eve of the 61st session of the UN Human
Rights Commission, the Russian Federation (Russia) in the person of the deputy
minister of foreign affairs, Yuriy Fedotov, warned the EU and USA that it would
no longer be acceptable to discuss the problems of Chechnya. Consideration of
the Chechen question was practically suspended after the adoption of PACE
Resolution No 1479 and Recommendation No 1733 (which, once again, were ignored)
on 25 January 2006. This is mainly the result of Russia’s pressure on the
international community, aimed at avoiding responsibility for crimes already
committed, and of the fact that Russia has several times already unofficially
declared an “end” to the war in Chechnya, without any legal basis or peace
agreement, in order to manipulate the situation.
Experience shows that such statements and any fall in
military activity are used when a new phase is to begin in the murder scenario
of the Chechen people. The inflamed situation in the Caucasus and the
artificially provoked internal Chechen conflict give grounds to think that
Russian military and political forces are turning a new page in the cruel
scenario with an eye on the political events of spring 2008 (Russian
presidential elections).
This course of events gives good reason to think that the
military and political forces of the Russian Federation (Russia), guilty of the
most heinous crimes against the Chechen people, have worked out tactics and a
strategy to avoid the punishment they deserve, while international organisations
give their unofficial agreement.
Over the 16 years of my human rights activity I have
regularly asked many international organisations to examine the Chechen question
from the legal point of view. This reasonable request has a logical and legal
point and corresponds to the international obligations of the UN, European Union
and Council of Europe, which were created to ensure peace and security and to
defend human rights and freedoms. In the hope of finding the true reason and
essence of the tragic events in Chechnya and to attain a real end to the war and
the restoration of human rights and freedoms, I have organised and held numerous
peace actions: conferences, meetings with well-known politicians, peace marches
which have covered more than 4,000 km altogether, and much else. When these
events did not produce the desired results, I held hunger strikes to protest at
the failure of the aforementioned organisations to meet their international
obligations: in Turkey in 1995 and 2000, in Denmark in 1996 and France
(Strasbourg) in 2001, 2002 and 2005-06, 185 days in all. But my main request –
that the Chechen question be considered from the legal point of view – remained
unsatisfied. During this time I received many responses from influential
international politicians. But no-one has yet given a direct answer to the
question: will the Chechen question be considered from the point of view of the
universal principles of international law?
While the UN, European Union, Council of Europe and other
international organisations adopt comparatively soft resolutions and
recommendations on the Chechen question, which contain no legally argued
definitions of what is happening, kidnapping and murder, torture and
extrajudicial punishments continue in Chechnya; part of the population is forced
to flee the republic and those who remain at home are forced to become traitors.
The latest unilateral declaration of a “cease-fire and stabilisation”, without
any legal basis, allows the Russian Federation’s (Russia’s) military and
political forces to manipulate the situation and with impunity to continue their
scenario of murdering the Chechen people. No Chechens, whatever their political
position or wherever they live, be it in Moscow or other regions of Russia or
Chechnya itself, have any legal or other guarantees of security in the
“artificially created war on terrorism”. No-one can say who will be the next
victims of this inhuman scenario: those who continue the fight against their
potential executioners or those who have forgiven the murders of their fathers,
mothers, brothers, sisters, friends and relations and joined the other side in
the hope of saving their lives and who are helping to complete the scenario of
the total destruction of the Chechen people, amongst whose number they could yet
turn out to be.
Since the resolutions, recommendations and other half-hearted
steps taken by the aforementioned organisations during the course of the Russian
Federation’s (Russia’s) war against the Chechen people have not resolved the
core problems, I consider the urgent examination of the Chechen question from
the legal point of view to be vital, not only for the Chechen people but also
for the people of Russia and the international community. Such an approach would
provide the opportunity to stop the war in Chechnya, to bring the guilty to
justice, and prevent new tragedies on the basis of the failure to apply
international law. In order to make a practical move towards this I think it
necessary to examine and give a clear juridical definition of which of the
following legal norms are justified and which are illegal:
The Russian Federation
(Russian) president’s decrees No 2137 of 30 November 1994, No 2166 of 9 December
1994 and Russian Federation government instruction No 1360 of 9 December 1994,
which formed the basis of the Russian Federation’s (Russia’s) war against the
Chechen people.
By what legal norms can
the invasion of Chechnya by Russia’s armed forces, with its well-known
consequences, be considered illegal or justified.
Did both these instances
and further actions violate the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Russia),
in particular Article 82, Point 1 – the president’s oath to respect and protect
human rights and freedoms; Article 15, Point 4; Article 17, Point 1; Article 20,
Point 1; Article 45, Point 1; Article 80, Point 2 and other articles of the
Constitution?
Do the UN, EU, Council of
Europe and other organisations subject to the universal system of international
law recognise or not the Russian Federation’s (Russia’s) aggression (from the
Latin aggressio – attack) against the Chechen people?
Do the aforementioned organisations recognise or legally
justify the Russian Federation’s (Russia’s) actions which violate their
international obligations, specifically:
Article 2 of Section 1,
Point 1, partially Points 1, 2, 3 of Article 1, Part 1, Points 1, 2, 3 of
Article 6, Part 3 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of
1966;
Articles 1-10 of Section
1 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;
Article 3, common to four
Geneva conventions that are the main treaties forming the basis of international
humanitarian law;
Part 1, Articles 1-6 of
the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment;
The Convention on the
Rights of the Child, in particular Point 1, Article 38;
Obligations undertaken by
the Russian Federation (Russia) when it joined the Council of Europe and
reinforced by Conclusion No 193 of 29 January 1996.
Do the aforementioned organisations recognise or not:
that the murder or
wounding of hundreds of thousands of civilians, the destruction of towns and
villages and of historical and cultural monuments, the colossal damage to the
environment and health of the population of Chechnya, the huge number of
refugees and forced migrants and many other inhuman actions of the Russian
Federation (Russia) in Chechnya constitute genocide in Chechnya, a crime against
humanity and war crime?
Recognising that juridical examination of the Chechen
question, with the legal consequences that will entail, will be a turning point
in the concrete resolution of the Chechen question and the stabilisation of the
Caucasus and will serve as a precedent to prevent similar scenarios in other
parts of the world,
I, Said-Emin Ibragimov, declare a five-day warning hunger
strike from 1 to 5 September 2007, calling on the UN, EU and Council
of Europe to decide to:
EXAMINE THE CHECHEN QUESTION FROM THE LEGAL POINT OF VIEW.
If this LEGAL demand is ignored, the hunger strike will have
no time limit and will continue from 6 September 2007 (Independence Day of the
Chechen Republic of Ichkeria), as was announced in the Open Letter of 16 April
2007. As soon as one of the aforementioned organisations takes a decision to
examine the Chechen question from the legal point of view, the hunger strike
will be stopped.
If no such decision is taken, I place responsibility for the
consequences of the hunger strike and the deaths of innocent people in Chechnya
on the organisations and individuals who ignore their international obligations
to protect human rights and freedoms and deny the Chechen people a fair, legal
resolution of the Chechen question.
President of the Peace and Human Rights International
Association
Former Communications Minister of Chechnya, Said-Emin
Ibragimov
20 August 2007
Strasbourg
| 
