Conference "Peaceful and Legal Resolution of the Chechen Problem"

The international conference "Peaceful and Legal Resolution of the Chechen Problem" addressed a special open appeal to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President of the European Parliament Pat Cox and President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Peter Schieder.

The appeal on the implicit duty of international organizations to stop violence and killings in Chechnya and to start peace talks

Conference participants hold that:

• The last war waged by Russia in Chechnya has been lasting for already five years. It has deep historical background. Chechnya has never signed a treaty on its joining the Russian Federation.
• Russia's war in Chechnya in 1994 and 1999 must be considered the violation of the Chechen people's right of self-determination.
• Russia is still committing cruel acts of violence and destruction of the Chechens, but the great powers and international organizations connive at the illegal actions of Russia.
• The referendum of 2003 and the election of the president arranged by Russia in Chechnya do not meet elementary international norms. They are fictitious, aimed at legitimating violent acts of the war of annihilation.
• Russia disgraces the Chechen people by race, and it is not ready to settle the problems by means of equitable talks with Chechnya.

We urge the United Nations, in the first place, as well as the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe:

• to immediately take the initiative in declaring a truce in Chechnya and starting talks with activists of the Chechen Resistance movement;
• to invite Aslan Maskhadov to state his position to your organizations.

On behalf of the conference

Stanislovas Buskevicius
Chairman of the Group for Inter-Parliamentary Relations
of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania
with the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

Algirdas Endriukaitis
Secretary General of the International Group
of Parliamentarians on the Problem of Chechnya