Russia takes over presidency of the Ministerial Committee

As a crucial test for the credibility and independence of the Council of Europe the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) described the taking over of the chair by Russia on 15th May. It is precisely that state which is taking on the leadership of this organ in which dreadful crimes against humanity are being committed or supported, which tolerates increasing racism and which is making war crimes in other countries possible through extensive arms shipments. Notwithstanding the international protests, the genocide in Chechnya is continuing. Russia is supporting with extensive arms shipments to the Sudanese government the genocide against the black African population in West Sudan/Darfur and is also blocking a peace initiative for the survivors of this genocide in the Security Council. In addition the Russian government is refusing to give the impoverished indigenous communities in Siberia civil and nationality rights and is tolerating in its own country the increasing acts of violence against Africans and Caucasians. The GfbV as a human rights organisation with "participant status at the Council of Europe" addressed a paper to the 45 foreign ministers of the Council and called on them to maintain by their criticism of Russia their independence and credibility through pluckily naming the violation of human rights in Russia and precisely there. The foreign ministers of the member states of the Council of Europe take up, one after the other, for six months the chair in the Council of Ministers. The alphabetical order in which this takes place is governed by the names of the countries in English: from Albania with A to the United Kingdom with U. Portugal gave over the chair in the ministerial committee officially on 17th November to Rumania. This then passed on to Russia on 14th May. The GfbV pointed out in its paper the following blatant human rights problems in the Russian Federation: The war in Chechnya In spite of protests from many parts of the world, the Russian army has since 1999 been conducting a second war of persecution and destruction against the Chechnyan people in the north Caucasus. Since 1994 some 200,000 people have been killed, i.e. about 20% of the small Chechnyan nation. Tens of thousands of children have become invalids and orphans. Thousands of Chechnyans have been incarcerated in so-called filtration camps, have been held in holes in the ground and systematically tortured. Hundreds of thousands had to flee in the winter of 1999/2000 from the carpet bombing above all of the capital, Grosny. In so-called cleansing operations in Chechnyan villages and towns army units have been allowed to murder, rape, abduct and plunder. Thousands of Chechnyans have been dragged away in recent years and for the most part they have not been seen again. Meanwhile the Russian government has established a system in Chechnya, in which Chechnyan militia commit crimes against their own people. Disregard of the minority rights of indigenous Russian people There are In the Russian Federation some 200,000 members of 43 indigenous communities. The minority rights of these people, which are also held in the European Minorities Charter, are often callously disregarded and sacrificed to commercial profit. They live in precisely the place where Russia´s wealth in oil and gas comes from - in Siberia. After decades of Soviet domination and the exploitation of resources, which have led to the life expectation of the indigenous people being ten years under the Russian average, new mining projects and the planned privatisation of forests and water could mean the end of the traditional way of life of most of the indigenous peoples. Increased racism inside the Russian Federation In recent years the number of racially motivated acts of violence in the Russian Federation has increased steadily. In the year 2005 over 100 persons were attacked, 14 of them were murdered and 92 injured. Since the beginning of the year 2006 nine people have been murdered in Moscow and 35 beaten up. In St Petersburg two people have been killed and 17 injured. There are now reported to be more than 50,000 skinheads in Russia. They target people who do not look Russian or who have a darker skin and also youth groups from the left. These crimes are not prosecuted or punished in an appropriate manner by the Russian authorities. Blockage policies in the UN Security Council in genocides, e.g. in the Sudan Time and again it is the Russian Federation and China which with their power of veto block initiatives in the UN Security Council. The most blatant example of this is the international reaction to the genocide in Darfur in West Sudan. For the Sudan Russia is the main provider of arms. Between 2001 and 2004 Russia carried out exports of arms to that country to the value of 549 million US dollars. This makes up 77% of all arms deliveries to the Sudan. The Sudan bought mainly MIG fighters, which are employed in bomb attacks on villages and refugee camps in Darfur. The number of persons falling victim to the genocide in Darfur since 2003 is approximately 400,000.