NGO head calls on participants to raise Chechnya issue at G8 summit
Chechnya Peace Forum Director Ivar Amundsen has written to the heads of state of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States requesting that they raise with President Putin during the G8 summit the ongoing violations of human rights in Chechnya. In his letter, posted on June 6 on chechenpress.info, Amundsen condemned the current "tyranny of fear and repression" under pro-Moscow Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. He argued that the last elections in Chechnya recognized by the international community as legal and valid took place in 1997, and argued that "only legal and democratic elections can put an end to horrifying war crimes and create conditions for the Chechen people to live in peace." He asked the seven heads of state to express support for the appeal, which he initiated, by over 100 political and cultural figures to President Putin, published in the British daily "The Independent" on May 7, to put an end to reprisals and war crimes in Chechnya (see "RFE/RL Newsline," May 7, 2007). Amundsen concluded by adducing the murders of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former Russian security agent Aleksandr Litvinenko as evidence that the growing authoritarianism of the ruling Russian regime poses a threat to the entire international community. LF // Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. RFE/RL
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