Negotiations – the only way out

An International Seminar on Chechnya was arranged in the Finnish House of Parliament, Helsinki, January 21st. The seminar was arranged by the Green group in the European Parliament and in the Finnish Parliament, the Finish-Chechnya Society and the Finnish PEN. Many MEP’s from various countries attended the seminar, as well as representatives of the Memorial Human Rights Center in Russia and the well-known journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was represented by Ms. Eminat Saijeva, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Akhiad Idigov, chairman of the Chechen Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Ousman Ferzauli, the Chechen Ambassador to Scandinavia and Finland.

The purpose of the Seminar was to enlighten recent developments in Chechnya and to discuss possible solutions for stopping the huge humanitarian catastrophe going on in the region. The participants were unanimous that the solution can only be found in negotiations between the parties in the conflict, and one major participant must be the Chechen government of President Maskhadov. The Finnish MEP Satu Hassi stressed in her speech that there are still not internal pressures strong enough towards the Russian government to start such negotiations. Thus, this pressure must be created outside Russia and this issue should become a more prominent part of the relations between the European Union and Russia.

Henrik Lax, a MEP of the Swedish Party in Finland, went a step forward – now it’s time for the Sleeping Beauty to wake up. The European Union must be prepared to confront Russia, the killing in Chechnya can’t continue any longer. The United Nations is paralyzed by the Security Council and the Council or Europe is an ideal organization, not a real one. Thus, the only hope is in achieving strict actions from the European Union, and also «peace enforcement» should be an option.

The Russian guests at the seminar, Svetlana Gannushkina and Anna Politkovskaya, presented a wide view of the violations of human rights both in Russia and in Chechnya. Among symptomatic events was mentioned the fabrication of a terrorist case against Zara Murtazalieva, a 21 year old Chechen student in Moscow. She was recently convicted to 10 years in jail after a trial that didn’t fulfill the most basic juridical requirements in a civilized court system. During the Seminar the participants also got fresh information about the raid of FSB against the office of a Russian-Chechnian friendship organization in Nichnyi Novgorod, which took place at the day of the seminar. The organization is accused for supporting terrorism after publishing an interview with Ahmed Zakajev, in which Zakajev mainly spoke about the need for negotiations in order to stop the conflict. Ms Gannushkina even asked the participants how it’s possible that any people from the West will attend the 60 year celebration of the ending of Second World War, as the celebration will take place in a true fascist state.

Mr. Andreas Gross, Reporter for PACE on the situation in Chechnya, got heavy criticism by the Chechen representatives upon the politics of the Council of Europe. Mr. Gross defended his idea about the round table discussions around Chechnya, and wished a wide participation in this process. Unfortunately, two days after the seminar it became true that this round table will just be an abnormity without any prospects of success. The round table will consist only of representative of the Russian puppet government in Chechnya, but Russia did not allow any representative of the Maskhadov government to attend. As Mr. Ferzauli stated, there can’t be a peace without co-operation with the Chechen resistance forces, such an idea is meaningless and ridiculous.

Ahmed Zakayev was supposed to attend the Seminar in Helsinki. However, the Finnish Minister of Justice could not guarantee him free entranc, so Mr. Zakayev decided not to join the meeting. Heidi Hautala, Chairman of the Green Parliamentary Group in Finland and one of the arrangers of the Seminar was astonished – the same minister had two years ago given such a guarantee to the notorious butcher of Tiananmen, Li Peng.