On June 20th, about 40 Chechen men, women and children, began a hunger strike in a field near the "Bella" refugee camp just outside the town of Ordzhonikidzevskaya on the Ingushetia-Chechnya border. Ten of the hunger strikers have been taken to hospital. There are now about 35 still on the border. They have been joined by the Russian human rights journalist A.M. Luboslavsky, editor of the bi-monthly "For Human Rights" magazine. On July 2nd a Russian psychologist, Ludmila Pavlyuchenko, who is co-chair of the Union of Women of the Don, joined the group to give counselling.The hunger strikers include the Chechen poet Umalt Umazhev. Recently wounded by a landmine, his leg has become gangrenous. MSF (Medecins sans Frontieres) doctors have seen him response to an appeal from the two Russians but they only have basic first aid provisions and stated that they did not have the money to provide the necessary antibiotic treatments.The hunger strikers have written an appeal, which we include below. They demand an end to the atrocities committed in Chechnya, primarily by the troops of the Russian Federation and its various commands, and the special forces of the FSB. They demand an end to the violations of human rights and an end to the war. Elena Bonner, Chair of the Sakharov Foundation, has spoken for negotiations between the Russian leaders and the Chechen government elected in 1997, led by President Maskhadov. This election was supervised and recognized by the OSCE. President Maskhadov was recognized as the lawfully elected leader of the Chechen government by President Yeltsin when they met in Moscow in 1997 and signed their peace agreement.The Russian Federation is a member of the Council of Europe and is signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights. In spite of the evidence and testimonies placed before the Russian government by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Russian human rights organizations, and many journalists in the Russian and European news media, the Russian government still denies the validity of their eyewitness reports. Not one prosecution has been made, apart from the well publicized case of the Russian general who raped a Chechen woman. As Elena Bonner stated in her testimony before the US Congress on June 5th, "the genocide continues".Our campaign supports the demands of the hunger strikers. We urge every NGO, like MSF, to be given all possible support to help Umalt Umazhev and his fellow citizens. We call on the European media to visit the hunger strikers and publicize their courage, their appeal, and give them real hope for an end to the terrible suffering of the Chechen people.We call on the European governments to end their collaboration with the atrocious war of the Russian government against Chechen civilians and children; to place the issue of the cessation of war and peace for Chechnya before all the bodies of the United Nations.We salute the immense efforts of those Russian journalists who risk their lives to publicize the truth. We call on all citizens and human rights movements in Europe to give support to the Sakharov Foundation, to Memorial, to the Russian humanitarian groups, and to the work of the Russian National Committee to End the War and Make Peace in the Chechen Republic.Please, all of you who read our statement, respond to the Appeal of the hunger strikers which we include below.signed: Vanessa Redgrave, Corin Redgrave and Akhiad IdigovFounding Supporters: Lord Ahmed of Rotherham; Elena Bonner, Sakharov Foundation; Jeremy Corbyn MP; Dr. Dmitri Furman, Sakharov Foundation; Gunter Grдss; Lord Hattersley of Sparkbrook; Akhiad Idigov, Chairman of the Commission for Foreign Affairs, Chechen Parliament; Jack Lang, President of the Commission for Foreign Affairs, National Assembly, France; Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP; Muslim Council of Britain;Johm Pilger; Corin Redgrave; Vanessa Redgrave
Appeal of the Chechen hunger strikers in Ingushetia
Rise up great country,Set out on the road to peace!Appeal to the Russian peopleDear Citizens of Russia,You are the only force that can stop the shameful, hellish war in Chechnya. You mothers, wives, sisters, children - children of unyielding generals - only you can do this. Why are your husbands and brothers killing innocent people, why are they torturing and abusing 12 - 13 year old children and even starting to "pick out" 10 year olds, why do they rape Chechen women and girls? Why are you yourselves readily supplying cannon fodder to generals who are being honoured and awarded with the title of "Hero" by the Russian Government and Putin himself? What is this madness, citizens? Wake up, open your eyes, come to your senses. Protest against bloodshed, violence, war. Do not give up your men to die or at best waste their youth. Let God and Sense help you!
Call to Russian Mothers
(to wake up, to come to their senses)There's a river of blood flowing, there's a war onStop and think who it's for
A soldier in this war doesn't know what he's dying for
His own people turn out to be to blame.
Let the man who decided to blame the people
For living in a wolf's lair
Be cursed by God
And stained with his own blood.
It's time to stop those who are inhuman from cursing our land
The whole people cannot be bandits
Their only fault is that they want to live
Although they live in subhuman conditions.Rise up you mothers of the World
Turn towards Chechnya's mothers
Get together in one family
To tame the shameful warWhenever someone dies, Chechen or Russian,
A mother will be crying somewhere
And the generals will never come
To console that mother's grief.
It's time for you to face the truth
There are tears of a mother flowing
They have no colour or nationality
They are tinged with human bloodRise up you mothers of the World
Turn towards Chechnya's mothers
Get together in one family
To tame the shameful war.Umalt Umazhev - Chechen poet (b. 1964)from the village of Yermolovka