Appeal for international conference on Chechnya
Appeal to human rights organizations., the world community

Source: IA DAYMOKH (Contact E-mail:ushurma@list.ru)
http://www.daymohk.info/rus/index.php?mode=1&element=4948

30.12.2003

A Chechen fund, IA DAYMOKH has appealed to the world community to hold a conference on Chechnya "to curb the genocide of the Chechen people by the Russian aggressors". In the appeal, carried by the Chechen web site Daymohk on 27 December, the fund urged foreign governments and human rights activists to support "the demand for the recognition of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria by the international community". The following are excerpts from the report by Chechen news agency Daymohk web site; subheadings have been inserted editorially;

Appeal to public, human rights organizations, the world community
It would be quite fair to describe Russia as an enforced entity. Initially, its territory did not exceed 420,000 square kilometers, but now it occupies more than 20 million square kilometers due to the extermination of small ethnic groups and its scorched-earth policy. The bloodiest predatory military actions have been carried out by the Russian empire in the North Caucasus.

[Passage omitted: recap of the situation with Chechnya in the 19th century]
The Chechen people have been standing up for their right to national self-determination for many centuries. In the late 20th century, when the Soviet Union fell apart, the latest rise of the national liberation movement took place in Chechnya. The national congress of the Chechen people in November 1990, attended by more than a thousand delegates from across the Chechen-Ingush Republic, as well as by representatives of Chechen ethnic communities from Russia, former Soviet republics and "far abroad", by the overwhelming majority of votes declared independence of the Chechen Republic. The event was held in strict conformity with international law and the UN charter, as well as the constitutions of the Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics [RSFSR] and USSR dated 26 April 1990 (which contained sections "On delimitation of powers between constituent parts of the union of Soviet Socialist Republics"), and the RSFSR declaration "On national sovereignty". The then legitimate legislative body of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Supreme Council of the republic, legislatively declared the act "On national sovereignty of the Chechen-Ingush Republic", which later was approved by the Supreme Council of the RSFSR - the supreme Russian legislative body at the time. On 27 October 1991, under the supervision of 26 foreign observers and in the presence of representatives of 38 countries of the world, the campaign in which supreme bodies of the representative and executive bodies of the new Chechen Republic was completed without any significant critical remarks.

By free ballot and in compliance with all democratic norms, the Chechen people elected their president (90.1 per cent [of votes]) and parliament (72 per cent). As of 1 November 1991, the Chechen Republic has been de jure declared an independent state in appropriate documents: the decree of the president of the Chechen Republic and resolution of the parliament of the Chechen Republic. On 12 March 1992, the Chechen Republic adopted its constitution, whereas Russian leaders at that time were still in the process of designing the new [constituent] agreement on the formation of the Russian Federation from its former colonial administrative-territorial units, which later proved to be a mere disguise, and the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which was adopted as late as December 1993.

So, with the adoption and enactment of the constitution of the Chechen Republic in 1991, the Chechen people, already for the second time in the 20th century alone, have restored their statehood that was violated as a result of forcible suppression by the Russian imperial policies of the mountainous republic, which was recognized by Western states, including Germany and Turkey. It has to be especially emphasized that the mountainous republic was annexed in 1921 by Bolshevist Russia, which was not recognized by any country at the time. The right of the Russian empire to own and govern Chechnya was based solely on aggression and has not been legally envisaged by any document, and even in essential terms of the USSR legal basis - after the October coup by Bolsheviks in 1917 - did not accede to the RSFSR.

Chechen people "resolutely" strive for national independence
As to the current situation, it demonstrates once again the resolute strive of the Chechen people for national independence. Moreover, the Chechen state, which exists for the second decade now, proved its viability. Article 1 of the constitution of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria reads as follows: "The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is a sovereign democratic lawful state which is created through self-determination of the Chechen people", and it thereby confirms it being an international legal entity. Over the last 10 years, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria has been recognized by Georgia and Afghanistan [as published], which has been legally documented by their governments and recognized by the international community at the moment of recognition. After the forcible signing in Moscow on 30 March 1992 of the "new federal agreement", which asserted (declared) the new colonial status of the peoples of Russia and creation of the new state - "Russian Federation - Russia" - the RSFSR ceased to exist. It has to be noted that not only did the Chechen Republic decline to sign that agreement, but the issue has never even been put on the agenda at negotiations with delegations from the Russian Federation. Thus, both de jure and de facto, the Chechen Republic is in no way a constituent part of the Russian Federation, still less - since that time, and it has never acceded to the Russian Federation voluntarily. By 7 July 1992, the Russian armed forces and the last soldier of the empire have left the Chechen Republic. At that moment, the Chechen Republic was the only place on the territory of the former Soviet Union and socialist countries which was free of the Russian troops, which also reaffirmed the de-facto recognition of independence of the Chechen Republic even by Russia itself.

"Main" reasons for continued Russian-Chechen war

The main reasons for the continuation of the Russian-Chechen war:
1. Total disregard by the international community, and by the leading countries in particular, for fundamental norms and provisions of international law, as well as gross violation by the UN of its own Charter upholding the legitimate right of nations to self-determination, which resulted in the latest annexation of the legitimate Chechen state (the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) and in genocide of the Chechen people by Russia.

2. The Russian policy of recovering former colonial territories of the Russian Empire by use of force. In the way of implementation of this programme comes the Chechen people, who have been putting up resistance for centuries and who defy the slavish mindset. Since the Chechen state regained its independence, Russia has already carried out the second open aggression against the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the last 10 years. [The first one] was in 1994-96, when a half-a-million-strong Russian force tried to "restore constitutional order" in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. And, after the break in 1997-99 (for making preparations for the second attempt) - in 1999, under the pretext for conducting the so-called "antiterrorist operation", Russia overrun Chechnya with a million-strong army, which outnumbered the Chechen armed forces thousands of times, and exceeded them millions of times in firepower.

Some 20 per cent of Chechen population killed in two wars
For centuries, the mighty Russian state has been physically exterminating the Chechen people, their historical and cultural heritage. Friedrich Bodenstadt (Frankfurt, 1855) wrote that Russia has been waging a war against the Chechens for centuries, but has never managed to defeat them once and for all. The history of Russia is strewn with one conquest campaign after another, but no campaign has ever brought anything but imaginary "victories". The genocide of the Chechen people has been continuing even during the so-called peacetime, between the wars, and manifested itself in a total blockade of Chechnya in all spheres of the people's and state's life - the economy, culture, history, health care, education and so forth. But now more than 60 per cent of residential buildings are destroyed in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and more than 90 per cent - in the capital city Grozny. The number of civilian casualties in the two wars amounts to 230,000 people - more than 20 per cent of the entire ethnic Chechen population. More than 50,000 children were orphaned, and more than 10,000 were disabled. There were 1.5 million Chechens in the 18th century. By the end of the bloody 100-year-long Russian-Chechen war of 18th-19th centuries in 1861, the number of Chechens dropped to 140,000. During the years of deportation (1944-57), the number of Chechens dropped again, this time by 50-70 percent by the most modest estimates.

The world's attitude to Chechen issue "glaringly" at variance with international principles
The attitude of the international community to what the Russian empire has been doing to the Chechen people for 450 years now, is glaringly at variance with the principles which are declared in international law and which should apply to the Chechen people as well. Using international law as a guideline, the Chechens are struggling to exercise their legitimate right to freedom and independence in practice, whereas some other peoples have obtained this right with the dissolution of the Soviet Union although they hitherto did not strive for national independence and feared to even mention it. Unfortunately, the reality of the modern world is such that even though international organizations do pay attention to a certain extent to violations of human rights in some countries, crimes that Russia perpetrates in Chechnya against the rights of peoples and nations in general are with increasing frequency accepted without even formal condemnation, and at times are encouraged.

In these circumstances, holding a special international conference under the UN aegis, with the participation of international social and human rights organizations and independent lawyers would be a truly positive step, a useful example for the whole world. It is precisely at such a conference that the situation in Chechnya could finally be resolved in strict compliance with international law.

Worldwide Chechen Fund plea for help
The leadership of the Noy Worldwide Chechen Fund appeals to international human rights organizations, statesmen and political activists with the request to support the following initiative:
1. To hold an international conference on Chechnya and international law to provide assistance in applying international legal mechanisms to curb the genocide of the Chechen people by the Russian aggressors in Chechnya, and to substantiate the need for the recognition of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which is a duty of the international community and the only condition for halting the ancient Chechen people's total extermination.

2. To provide assistance to the diplomatic corps of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria outside Chechnya in starting a campaign of collecting signatures in partnership with social and human rights organizations and the Chechen communities abroad in support of the demand for the recognition of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria by the international community.
[Signed] A. Malsagov, president of the Noy Worldwide Chechen Fund, Chairman of the economic committee of the Parliament of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria of the first convocation.