On the question of «elections» on the territory of occupied Chechnya

Message to the citizens of sovereign Chechnya

Dear friends, brothers and sisters!

For the last four centuries the Chechen people has been on the verge of disappearance, and the authorities from Moscow have always been a real threat in this context. The problem of providing safety for our people was the primary task for all generations of Chechens in connection with this. History knows of seven deportations and numerous wars, in which our ancestors as well as today's generation took part in the defense struggle against the aggression by the Kremlin.  At the international level, rules which all peoples and states of the world are obliged to follow appeared after World War II. And no country, including the modern RF-Russia, has dared to distance itself openly from international law.  

The Chechen people, using this moment and acting within the framework of the law, conducted a referendum (General National Congress of the Chechen People) on 25 November, 1990, where the will of the Chechen people was declared to form a sovereign and independent state with democratic rule of law. Subsequently, on 27 October, 1991, in accordance with international law, our nation elected its authorities - the President and the Parliament of the country. This event was witnessed by observers from almost 30 countries. The legal process of the formation of the Chechen state authority was completed on 12 March, 1992, by the adoption of the Constitution of the country.  The leadership of the Chechen state and our nation never participated in the affairs of the new RF-Russia, and we have no relationship to it, although the new Kremlin asserts otherwise in order to justify its crime against humanity, the occupation of our country and the genocide of the Chechen people.   

Moscow is acting cynically! And our resistance against the aggression must have a political component, whose task it will be to expose Moscow's real face to the whole world community. We need political maturity to defend the initially chosen way and not to swerve from it one single step.  After the holding of the first free elections in Chechnya on 27 October, 1991, the next elections took place on 27 January, 1997, based on the Constitution of the ChR Ichkeria. These elections were observed by representatives from more than 100 countries of the world, as well as by the OSCE. In their conclusion they recognized that elections had taken place. This constitutes also the main recognition of the existence of a Chechen state. There haven't been free elections on the territory of the Chechen state since then, and this fact has been confirmed at the international level by the refusal to recognize any elections on the territory of occupied Chechnya.  

All elections have been abolished on the territory of the Chechen state until its complete liberation from the foreign troops of the RF-Russia and the creation of conditions for the free expression of the will of the Chechen people. (Decision of the Parliament of the ChRI No. 5 on 27 October, 2000).  The imitation of elections conducted on our territory is an attempt by the Kremlin to impose its will on our people by force. An authority cannot be considered legitimate, if it is not elected in a free expression of the will of the voters on the basis of the Constitution of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, accepted on 12 March, 1992. The illegal assumption of power on the territory of the ChR Ichkeria is a very serious crime (Chapter 2, paragraph 2 of the Constitution).  

Chechen refugees in Europe have expressed that they do not accept the Kremlin farce of elections to the parliament of Chechnya, planned for 27 November, 2005. The protest march and meeting in front of the palace of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 November, 2005, stated: We are against illegal elections on the territory of occupied Chechnya. And this was, undoubtedly, a reflection of the free will of the entire Chechen people.  The latest imitation of elections will not have any legal force, just like all previous illegal falsifications in the form of a "referendum" and "presidential elections" on the territory of occupied Chechnya. All actions by the occupiers and their puppets are in conflict with prevailing international law and with the Constitution of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria. And this right of the Chechen people cannot be abolished by anyone. On this issue all of us must stand together in a united front.  

Ahyad Idigov

Chairman of the Committee on External Relations of the Parliament of the

Chechen Republic Ichkeria