Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-17-Speech-3-140"
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"en.19991117.5.3-140"2
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"Ladies and gentlemen, I have had the opportunity in the last few days to speak both with the Russians, in the person of Mr Rishkov from the Duma, and with Mr Achmadov from the Chechens. The overall picture which emerges is incredibly complicated. The Russians want to successfully conclude this military intervention using full force, whatever it costs. They deny that there are civilian fatalities. They say that the Chechen refugees, more than 300,000, are not facing a difficult situation. More and more, Russian politicians are using the Chechen conflict as an instrument of electoral campaign; and with some success. 95% of the Russian population support the war in Chechnya.
However, it is also true that Russia is claiming in principle that the entire Chechen population are terrorists and as a European Parliament we cannot and must not accept this. We therefore demand political dialogue and a political solution and commit ourselves to the means of pressure we have at our disposal, even the blocking of new TACIS projects or the refusal to provide food aid to Russia. Humanitarian aid yes, democratic projects yes, but nothing more! Even though we acknowledge that the debate and negotiations on Russian non-compliance with trade agreements and the steel agreement will then become extremely difficult for the European Union, terrorism cannot, and must not, be waged against an entire population using military might.
In this regard, an entirely different discussion, indeed an entirely different issue comes to the fore: The European Parliament has always made it clear in all its resolutions that Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation. I cannot quite understand therefore how an appointed Chechen Foreign Minister who, under international law, should not even exist, can hold an official discussion with the President of the European Parliament.
I consider this to be an extremely difficult decision. I agree that the groups should have access to information, and I was very grateful that I was able to speak on this matter with Mr Achmadov, but in the past there have not been official appointments of this type in this House. This is a very unusual occurrence."@en1
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