| - We think - state the participants of the Fifth
Meeting of the All-Russia Democratic Assembly - that both citizens
living in Chechnya at present and also all citizens who had to leave
the republic after 1991, irrespective of their present place of
residence and nationality, should be allowed to participate in the
referendum on the adoption of the Constitution of the Chechen Republic.
The Democratic Assembly expresses its concerns over the detention
of two well-known human rights activists in Chechnya - Sulmbek
Tashtamirov and Imran Ezhiyev - who conducted propaganda against
the referendum and whose location is unknown at present.
The beginning of the peace process in Chechnya should include
the following:
- The parties fighting in Chechnya agree to a cease-fire and
conclude a truce and begin negotiations without any preliminary
conditions to determine the principles and stages for implementing
the peace process in Chechnya.
- The next stage of political regulation of the crisis in Chechnya
could be a peace conference involving all the opposing and interested
parties.
In the vote for the statement, the YABLOKO party, the Russian
Joint Social-Democratic Party, the Republican Party and Leonid
Batkin acting as an individual participant, abstained.
Explaining at a press conference the position of the YABLOKO
party, Deputy Head of the Party Igor
Artemyev said that: "In general we support the adopted
statement, but we think that a peaceful conference must be chaired
by the President of Russia, as this is the only way to guarantee
that the decisions adopted at the conference are real and will
be implemented".
The Democratic Assembly is a forum which began its work in June
2001 and is convened at least once every six months. About 20
of the biggest democratic political and civil organisations, as
well as individual participants, take part in the Democratic Assembly.
See also:
Democratic
Assembly
War
in Chechnya
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