Centre-right leader calls for Patten mission to Chechnya

Date: 14/03/02

By David Cronin and Laurence Frost

EXTERNAL relations chief Chris Patten should visit Chechnya to assess the extent of human rights violations in the breakaway republic, the leader of the European Parliament's biggest political group has urged.

Hans-Gert Pöttering, head of the European People's Party (EPP), said conflicting reports about the actions of Russian troops made such a visit crucial.

While human rights activists claim that Kremlin forces have carried out summary executions and other abuses against civilians, a recent Council of Europe report notes 'tangible improvements' in the state.

The German conservative said despite differing signals, 'the political and humanitarian situation in Chechnya remains very critical'.

He shared fears that the world's reaction to 11 September was allowing human rights violations to go unnoticed or unchallenged: 'I'm very much concerned that as a result of the whole anti-terrorism discussion we're seeing a drift in the way we react when things go wrong in different states,' he added.

Pöttering's intervention came against the backdrop of claims by MEPs in the Green-EFA Alliance that the president of the Parliament, Pat Cox, tried to block the visit of three Chechen separatist leaders to address members in Strasbourg today (14 March).

'The hearing's going to happen whatever the president of the Parliament thinks about it,' said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, president of the Green-EFA group.

He added that a decision by the major parties on Monday to reject a planned resolution which called for human rights to be respected in the region was 'scandalously short-sighted'.

The former revolutionary student leader argued that scrapping the resolution would leave a planned official Parliamentary delegation to Moscow in a much weaker position.

'It's our role today to strengthen our delegation so they can raise the real problems going on in Chechnya,' said Cohn-Bendit.

'We can't condemn human rights abuses in Afghanistan or anywhere else without condemning those in Russia.'

Cox's spokeswoman, Alison Suttie, insisted the Greens had got it wrong. 'Pat Cox hasn't intervened one way or the other,' she said.

The majority of conservative and Socialist MEPs had argued the Parliament should wait for its delegation's report before acting on growing reports of abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya.

• MEP Olivier Dupuis has ended his 19-day fast held to protest against Russia's treatment of Chechen civilians. Before ending his hunger strike, the Italian radical condemned the decision not to issue a resolution on Chechnya, calling the Parliament a 'hostage to Stalinists who are tough on the weak and weak on the tough'.

'To postpone a debate on a tragedy that has, in the space of a few years, already caused over 200,000 deaths and 400,000 refugees in a population of little over one million is not worthy of a democratic Parliament,' he added.

External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten should visit Chechnya to assess the extent of human rights violations in the breakaway republic, Hans-Gert Pöttering, head of the European People's Party (EPP) has urged.