Petition to promote ceasefire and commencement of negotiations in Chechnya

We protest the Russian government's genocidal policies in Chechnya and ask you to exert all possible influence in bringing peace to the Chechen land.

Since the beginning of the conflict in September 1999, the Russian government has become directly or indirectly responsible for the following violations of human rights, international law, and war crimes:

• Falsifying terrorist acts exploding its own people and then blaming the Chechens (this is stressed by many observers on the basis of the following facts:
  1) The rubbles after the explosions were quickly "cleaned up" without any detailed investigation (obviously to ensure that the real criminals are not found out);
  2) A KGB agent captured by the Chechen secret service acknowledged that he himself participated in putting bombs in some regions and was aware of KGB's operation in Moscow;
  3) Finally, the Russian secret service itself announced on Jan. 27, 1999, that among suspects of the bombings there were no "ethnic Chechens" (trying to recover credibility).
• Indiscriminate bombing of civilian territories
• Leveling the entire villages and cities
• Refusing to provide refugees with food (despite the fact that most of it is provided by International agencies)
• Forcing refugees to return to the war zone
• Detention of all Chechen males between the ages of 10 & 60, without any legal basis therefore
• Murders of civilians, mostly the elderly and women (Alkhan-Yurt tragedy, as well many others including those that resulted from indiscriminate use of aviation and artillery)
• Rape of Chechen women in occupied territories
• Establishing concentration camps (one of them is reported in Naoor region of Chechnya, in which children 10-15 years old are being kept in a former zone for the imprisoned)
• Denial of international organizations' access to imprisoned Chechens
• Torture of captivated Chechen fighters (there have been numerous reports on it)
• Preventing journalists' coverage of the conflict (probable reason: to hide atrocities done all around Chechnya)
• Intimidating and detaining journalists without any legal basis

Still, we point out that if the Russian government succeeds in its genocide in Chechnya, persecutions against other minorities are going to be boosted. An indication of this has been given by the Russian officials who called for amending authority-delegation treaties with, for example, Republics of Tatarstan and Bashqortostan, and depriving these and other republic of their special status acknowledged in 1994 and thereafter. Therefore, the war in Chechnya also determines the direction of Russia's inter-ethnic policy in general, with a threat of deprivation of all minorities from their status of republics and converting them into Russian provinces.

Given this, we decisively protest the Russian government's genocidal policy and actions in Chechnya and demand that the Russian government immediately declares ceasefire and starts peaceful negotiations with the elected President of Chechen Republic, Mr. Aslan Maskhadov.

To this end, we ask for your initiation and support of suspension (until the war in Chechnya is peacefully resolved) of the Russian Federation from the Council of Europe, as well as suspension of all kinds of financial aid (save for funds directed on the development of democracy), including so called "debt restructuring" (which has no difference from giving new financial aid). At the same time, we ask for your initiation and support of relief missions to provide for the necessary aid to an estimated 200,000 Chechen refugees, most of whom have lived in unheated tents (if not worse) in the midst of a 10-30 cm cover of snow for two winters. We also ask for initiation of an international investigation of the claim that the Chechen parliament's speaker, Ruslan Alikhajiyev, was murdered while he was in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, as well as for international organizations' and attorneys's access to still imprisoned Chechens, including Momadi Saidayev. We demand release from prisons and concentration camps of all Chechens who have not been found guilty by a court judgement within a legal time span, as well as freedom of media coverage (both domestic and foreign) on the territory of the Chechen republic. Finally, we ask for establishment of an international committee on the territory of the Chechen republic to which Chechens would be able to file for help in finding missing persons (which are reported to total as much as 18,000). Generally, we ask for international community's sanctions to ensure that the government of the Russian Federation stops committing any of the above-listed violations, and agrees to start negotiations with the legitimately elected government of Mr. Aslan Maskhadov.