(GDF/IFEX) – The following is a 16 November 1999 GDF appeal to media organisations and others for Chechnya refugee assistance: November 16, 1999 Based on journalists’ reports from the Caucasian theatre of operations and findings of HRO special missions (see: www.poli.ru/index-dossier/refugees), and also taking into account current Russian information policy, we have to state with […]
(GDF/IFEX) – The following is a 16 November 1999 GDF appeal to media
organisations and others for Chechnya refugee assistance:
November 16, 1999
Based on journalists’ reports from the Caucasian theatre of operations and
findings of HRO special missions (see:
www.poli.ru/index-dossier/refugees), and also taking into account current
Russian information policy, we have to state with regret that neither public
opinion nor public institutions in today’s Russia are capable of exerting
any considerable influence on the country’s leadership in order to bring
Russian policy in the Caucasian region in compliance with civilized
standards and principles of unconditional protection of interests and the
very lives of Russian citizens.
We therefore turn to international organizations, Russian and foreign media
with the request to share our concern and take the necessary measures
proposed by us in order to bring official international institutions to help
effectively protect Russian citizens against actions of government
authorities.
1. Russian citizens who have become refugees as result of government
actions, by the very fact of their existence state their doubts that
government institutions are being guided in their actions by citizens’
actual interests.
Government institutions’ inability (or unwillingness) to correct their
current policy to provide for necessary protection of refugees and their
interests basically confirms that the government does not take the real
interests of that group into account, which de facto removes refugees from
the national jurisdiction and turns them into a subject of international
law.
Such a conclusion can hardly meet with a positive response from the Russian
authorities, since it rejects point blank their attempts to present the
problem as internal only and consequently not subject to international
interference.
2. We believe that this issue should be discussed by the international
community, including legal experts, political scientists, sociologists,
journalists, etc.
The Kosovo precedent and the international community’s actual stance
(however controversial the evaluation of the related use of force may be)
have already internationalized the otherwise internal refugee problem.
The fact that the Chechen refugees problem is still being regarded as
domestic is only due to Chechnya’s geographic location causing refugees to
be pressed out into the Russian territory and rush around within the state
borders trying to get to safety and protection.
Today, the international community could act to help achieve an
international solution of the problem. We believe that the following steps
should be taken:
a) Joint efforts involving a contiguous state (Georgia, in this case) should
be coordinated to set up refugee camps on its territory fully provided for
by international organizations until the refugees are able to effectively
return to their respective places of residence;
b) Russian escort for those refugees desiring to seek shelter at such
international camps (in particular, while en route via Ossetia towards the
border between Russia and Georgia frontier) should be insistently negotiated
for.
c) International financial organizations should try to bring Russia by way
of negotiations to accept a share (possibly the biggest) of the cost
involved in maintaining such refugee camps (perhaps partially using loans to
cover the expense).
We are convinced that only determined steps in this direction could
jumpstart effective and efficient actions by Russian authorities to protect
the interests of refugees, and result in development of a consistent policy
aimed at securing citizens’ safety in the military operations area and
enabling international organizations and their representatives to
participate in resolving the extremely complicated problem of protecting
Russian citizens from the government’s arbitrary actions.
A. Simonov,
President,
Glasnost Defence Foundation
N. Nim,
Chief Editor
Index/Dos’e na Tzensuru
tel-fax (095) 201-50-86
e-mail: index-dossier@polit.ru
