NEWS AND VIEWS

AHRU protests the Russian war on Chechnya in letters to presidents

NEWARK, N.J. - Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine (AHRU) sent letters in mid-November 1999 to Presidents Bill Clinton and Leonid Kuchma to protest Russia's war on Chechnya, citing violations of basic human rights and calling upon the international community to influence Russia to negotiate a peaceful settlement.

To President Clinton, AHRU wrote, "The United States has been giving financial assistance to Russia in order to ease its economic crisis, but the Russians, in turn, are diverting their resources to wage war against the Chechens, thus destabilizing the Caucasus region. We do not believe that American money and international loans should be used for such nefarious purposes. This does not sit well with Americans and other people of good will."

The letter to President Clinton cited international bodies such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) noting that: "Their task has been to intervene and deal with such egregious situations. When explosives and chemical agents are now being used to eliminate opposition it is no longer an internal Russian matter as has been claimed by them. Muted international reaction and passivity by the West regarding the Chechen situation is baffling."

In its letter to President Kuchma AHRU called upon Ukraine, as a member of the United Nations Security Council, "to stop the unbridled killings in Chechnya and to protest Russia's genocidal policies against the Chechens, and to demand enforcement of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe treaty (CFE).

"Where is the outcry from the nations of Eastern Europe and former republics of the USSR, including Ukraine, against the violations of the agreed-upon limit of troops on Russia's borders as outlined by the CFE treaty? The international community cannot afford to be passive onlookers - especially Russia's neighbors. They ought to intervene by protesting the continuation of genocide and Russian brutality," AHRU stated.

It is reported that there are up to 100,000 Russian troops amassed in Chechnya. The CFE treaty, signed by Russia and other European nations, permits no more that 5,000 troops at another country's borders.

In 1997 AHRU had written to leading policy-makers in Washington: "The treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) contains measures that keep expansion-minded countries from infringing on the territorial rights of less powerful independent states in Europe ... We urge that you hold fast to the terms of the worked-out CFE terms in order that it be fair and meaningful to all signatory countries."

In response to the first war in Chechnya, AHRU wrote to U.S. administration and congressional members in March 1995: "We call for an end to the indiscriminate bombing of civilians by the Russian military ... and other gross violations of human rights ... We join the initiative of the U.S. Helsinki Commission in its attempt to bring the war in Chechnya to a peaceful resolution."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 9, 2000, No. 2, Vol. LXVIII

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