IHF Announces Year of Joint Actions Against War in Chechnya :: Charter'97 :: News

Representatives of the Russian and foreign human rights organizations upheld the initiative of the International Helsinki Federation to announce this year as the year of joint actions against war in Chechnya. The human rights defenders said that on Friday during a press-conference in Moscow.

Apart from the Russian human rights defenders, there were also present their colleagues from Poland, Norway, Kenya and other countries. The leader of the International Helsinki Federation Aaron Roads cited a list of Russia’s war crimes in Chechnya:

- The Russian government is already used to such criticism. It no longer accounts for its actions in Chechnya. Relations with close neighbors: Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Central European countries are also being built by Russia on the permanent infringement of international commitments. Nobody but Russians themselves can change the state of affairs for the better.

The chairwoman of the Union of the committees of soldiers’ mothers Valentina Melnikova recalls that the government has fully stripped of funding the structures, which are searching for the missing military on the territory of Chechnya. It goes without saying, of course, that nobody really cares about the Chechen nationals, who vanished there.