SNA CHECHENPRESS, Current Affairs Section, 19/03/09
As previously reported, a Conference on Chechnya was held in the European Parliament on 17 March. The conference was chaired by a European MP Tadeush Mazoevski. Members of the European Popular Party in charge of organising the conference who included among others the former president of Lithuania Vitautas Landsbergis came to the conclusion that the only way to achieve a final settlement of the Chechen conflict is by granting independence to Chechnya. In order to achieve this goal the participating MPs are planning to set up a special parliamentary group ‘For the Chechen people’s right to self-determination’. As previously reported the head of the ChRI Foreign Ministry Usman Ferzauli made a presentation at the conference on behalf of the ChRI Government. The Chechenpress are in the process of setting up an interview with Mr.Ferzauli.
Apart from the Euro MPs the conference was attended by the ChRI MPs headed by the ChRI Palriamentary Chairman Zhaloudi Saralyapov. The conference organizers had invited delegations to represent the Chechen diasporas in Germany, France, Austria and Belgium. A prominent human rights activist, head of the International Association ‘Peace and human rights’ Said-Emin Ibragimov made a short presentation at the conference. The Chechenpress are in the process of setting up an interview with Ibragimov. The ChRI Honorary Consul in Norway Ivar Amundsen also spoke at the conference. His speech will be shortly published on our website together with the speeches of other participants. Rubati Mitsaeva represented the International ‘Association for the Freedom of Speech’. A presentation on the subject of the ChRI government’s legitimacy was made by a famous expert in international law Mikhal Mashal, who stated, in particular, that ‘the present ChRI government possesses greater legitimacy than the French government under General De Gaulle at the time of the Second World War’.
The conference was attended by representatives of European NGOs who support the idea of Ichkeriya’s independence as well as members of the media. After the conference concluded its work, its Chechen participants led by the Head of the Department for Links with the Vainakh Diaspora Visita Ibragimova held a general meeting to discuss the draft Address to the European Parliament.
Before the start of the conference its participants had a chance to see a photo exhibition put together by the Polish delegation headed by the ChRI Honorary Consul in Poland Adam Borovsky which bore testimony to the mass violations of human rights in Chechnya. In addition, a special bulletin in English entitled ‘A final resolution of the Chechen issue’ was produced for the conference. All these visual documents were assembled in order to ‘convince the international community by using concrete examples that the Chechen problem is still unresolved’. ‘Our Polish friends and independent human rights activists who witnessed many of the events in Chechnya with their own eyes have helped us to assemble these documents’, - said Usman Ferzauli to the media.
The conference lasted several hours. The discussion at the end of the conference came to a unanimous conclusion that ‘the final resolution of the Chechen issue would be possible only if Chechnya were granted freedom’. In order to achieve this goal European MPs decided to set up a special parliamentary group which would ‘advocate the Chechen people’s right to self-determination’. The group’s founding conference will take place after the new elections to the European Parliament.
http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/content/2009/03/24/main01.shtml
