Olivier Dupui

We, Europarliamentarians, announce our disenchantment at the court ruling relieving colonel Budanov of legal responsibility for his crime. I believe that we should have had at least declared our indignation in the extreme at such a decision by the court. We can only regret that we are unable to visit Chechnya, as entry into Chechnya has for the fourth time in a row been denied to us; for two years now, the delegation of the European Parliament has failed to find a way to reach Chechnya.

We are making mistakes, mixing up terms and losing one position after another. We are forgetting that in the period from 1940-1945 our country actively opposed the occupant, and these acts of resistance were directed against the symbols of the occupation, against Vichy, against Quisling, and those who collaborated with the occupant. Today an attack on the government building in Grozny has taken place, something I personally, being an advocate of non-violence, would never undertake to do, but it is just the same an act of resistance. And now we judge the Chechens, who are fighting against pro-Moscow collaborators, by calling these acts of resistance terrorist acts. This building was the nest of all those who worked for the FSB. This building was a strategic target for the Chechen fighters and for the entire Chechen resistance. We have gotten completely lost in the terminology. Today we use one single word - "terrorism" - to refer to everything.

All of this is very grave, as grave and mistaken, as calling simultaneously for a political resolution to the Chechen conflict, on the one hand, and on the other hand, supporting the idea of carrying out a referendum organized by the occupants. A similar anomaly is reflected in giving support for holding political talks, while at the same time denying Chechen parliamentarians and members of the Chechen government the opportunity to visit the European parliament and meet with political leaders from our countries within the confines of the European Parliament, in the European Commission and European Council. We continue to say that this is impossible, knowing full well that article 14, paragraph 3, which allows us to come up with "black lists" of Yugoslavs or Belorussians, also allows us to create a "white list" of those Chechen politicians with whom we would like to meet and conduct talks. If we want to talk about politics, we should carry a political dialogue with political leaders. By refusing to engage in such a dialogue, we in fact become accomplices to genocide. It is high time for the European Parliament to wake up. Otherwise, the disgrace we brought on ourselves during the events in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo will repeat itself. I think we have already paid a high enough price for our past mistakes.