Pesaro, 16 November 2003 - The visit to Italy of Umar Khanbiev, Health Minister of the Chechen government of Aslan Maskhadov and Member of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party, ended yesterday with two public meetings in the Marches, the first in Fano and the second in Pesaro. The meetings were organised by several local Catholic groups, co-ordinated by Francesco Montanari (Associazione Fuoritempo) and the Radical activist Matteo Anniballi. Speakers at the meetings included Sergio Franceschetti of the IPSIA (Istituto Pace Sviluppo Innovazione delle Acli), the Radical MEPs Olivier Dupuis and Benedetto della Vedova, and Carmelo Palma, Radical Member of the Regional Council of Piedmont.
Presenting the volume “Chechnya: nella morsa dell’impero” (Guerini e Associati), Olivier Dupuis explained that the internationalisation of the Chechen question and the proposal for an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya should also be seen in the context of the evolution of the European institutions, and of the prospect of EU membership for the Caucasian states, especially Georgia, Azerbaijan and also, as soon as it becomes possible, Chechnya. Without the anchor provided by the EU, continued Dupuis, these countries - as the serious situation in Georgia has already demonstrated - have no real chance of withstanding the policies of pressure and “re-Russification” pursued in an increasingly menacing manner by the Putin administration.
After a moving reconstruction of the siege of Grozny in 2000 and 2001, Umar Khanbiev underlined that the Peace Plan of the Chechen government in favour of the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya already effectively constitutes a compromise on the part of the Chechens, giving up the demand for immediate independence and entrusting the process to international negotiations conducted under the aegis of the United Nations. On the subject of the recent elections, claimed by the Kremlin to be a democratic “confirmation” of the pro-Russian Kadirov, Khanbiev denounced the arbitrary and purely “scenographic” nature of a vote which respected neither the Russian nor the Chechen constitution, which was not recognised or validated by the international community, and which simply confirmed the military rule of the Russian forces of occupation.
(via chechnya-sl)
1 comment:
That's very interesting. Dupuis has been keen for Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia to join the EU, and has often campaigned to give the Chechnyan war a higher profile.
Baku Today reported last week that the EU's special envoy to Azerbaijan has been making noises about that country's accession to the "European family". With these initiatives from both Parliament and Commission, one can look beyond Turkey and begin to see the outlines of a major new expansion of the EU.
Regards,
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