From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 4/14/2005 1:13 PM
Chechen Minister Addresses UN Human Rights Body

The General Representative Abroad of the Chechen Government took the floor in Geneva denouncing human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Umar Khanbiev was born in 1955 in Kyrgyzstan where his parents lived in exile. In 1960 the Khanbiev family returned to Chechnya. In 1979 Mr. Khanbiev specialised in medical surgery. During the first war in 1995, he was appointed Minister of Health of the government of the independence movement. From October 1999 until January 2000, during the four months of the siege of Grozny, he conducted 5003 operations. Mr. Khanbiev first performed the operations, mainly amputations, in his hospital (Grozny 2nd Maternity); during the ongoing of the siege he continued his work in cellars or makeshift shelters. He witnessed first hand the use and effect of prohibited weapons as stated in the Geneva Convention.

On 2 February 2000, Russian forces arrested Mr. Khanbiev. He was tortured in the filtration camps of Tolstoi-lourt and Goudermes, yet freed after fifteen days. He currently lives in exile near Paris. Mr. Khanbiev tours European capitals to promote a political solution to resolve the conflict in Chechnya and advocates the peace plan of the Mashkadov Government, which he represents. Beside this effort he provides medical care to Chechen refugees in Baku.

In 2001 and 2004, Mr. Khanbiev addressed the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. In March 2004, the President of the European Parliament Mr. Pat Cox received him in the aftermath of the vote by the European Parliament, during which he pleaded to the Commission and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy to study the Akhmadov Plan.

 

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-first Session, 14 March – 22 April 2005
Item 14: SPECIFIC GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS

Oral Statement by Mr. Umar Khanbiev, Transnational Radical Party

I speak on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party. After six years of conflict the situation of the Chechen people is more serious than ever, as they continue to suffer large-scale human rights violations, and with the number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) rising alarmingly, as well as a worrying pattern of disappearances recently denounced by Human Rights Watch which has recorded over 5,000 cases.

Acts committed against the civilian population have forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and abandon their livelihoods. The current figure put the number at around 300,000 and is rising daily. In Ingushetia alone, there are presently 70,000 displaced Chechens, living in tent camps or spontaneous settlements under fierce winter weather. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has criticised Ingush authorities for forcing Chechen refugees to return to their war-ravaged areas. A UN spokesman recently stated that: "UNCHR strongly objects to the aggressive and unacceptable manner in which IDPs from the camp are treated". According to the Global IDP Project, the authorities of the Russian Federation continue to deprive the victims of displacement in the northern Caucasus of adequate protection. Since 1999, the priority of the federal authorities has been to contain the displacement crisis in Chechnya, by denying IDP’s access to safety elsewhere and even pressuring IDPs to return there from neighbouring Ingushetia, where most had found temporary refuge. As a result, about 60 per cent of the 340,000 IDPs in the Russian Federation are located in Chechnya, despite widespread insecurity and destitution.
Mr. Chairperson, the situation is gravely threatened by the absence of prospects for a political solution to the conflict and the spreading of violence in the region. The killing of legally elected Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov by Russian special forces in March 2005, may further aggravate the situation and worsen the condition for vulnerable groups and individuals within the region. In this relation it is important to recognise that the political line of the current Chechen leader, Abdul-Halim Sadulaev, represents a continuation of what Mashkadov was advocating, that is the search of a peaceful solution to the conflict, by opening negotiations to bring an end to the war and to solve the mounting problem of refugees. Without a solution on the political level, there will be few opportunities to address and resolve the issue of refugees, IDPs, as well as the general situation of human rights violations.
Mr. Chairperson, TRP is aware of the visit of High Commissioner Arbour’s visit to the Russian Federation earlier this year, and welcomes the fact that she was invited by the Russian authorities to visit Northern Caucasus, including Chechnya. We also welcome Mrs. Arbour’s reiteration of her willingness to support initiatives aimed at strengthening the respect for human rights in the region and her assertion that – and I quote – “the reconstruction of such regions as Chechnya will be critical both to restoring the dignity of its peoples and also in ending the violence.” We call upon the Commission to take serious note of the human rights situation of the Chechen people, and appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take urgent measures commensurate with the extreme gravity of the situation.

I thank you, Mr. Chairperson.

http://www.unpo.org/news_detail.php?arg=14&par=2322