Passport for Freedom awarded to chechen foreign minister Ilyas Akhmadov
Brussels, 20 June 2003. Michel Rocard, the Chairman of the EP Committee on Culture
and former Prime Minister of France (PSE), Walter Veltroni, MEP and Mayor of
Rome (PSE), Graham Watson, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, and Francis Wurtz, presidents
of the liberal, green, and United Left parliamentary groups, and the MEPs Bernd
Posselt, Ari Vatanen and Jas Gawronski (PPE-DE), Harlem Désir and Glyn
Ford (PSE), Fodé Sylla (GUE), Gianfranco Dell'Alba and Benedetto Della
Vedova (Radicals), and Reinhold Messner (Greens) have countersigned the passport
for freedom of Ilyas Akhmadov, proposed by Olivier Dupuis (Radical).
Mr Akhmadov has been Minister for Foreign Affairs in the legitimate government of President Aslam Maskhadov since 1999. For more than a year he has been in the United States, without a passport and without resident status, unable to travel and thus to carry out his ministerial duties. On 25 June the American courts will rule on his application for resident status. If his application is accepted, he will be able once again to travel freely, and to resume his duties.
Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament, Radical
"The ruling of the American court is all the more important in that Mr Akhmadov recently put forward a new peace plan involving the establishment of an interim United Nations Administration in Chechnya based on the withdrawal of the Russian forces and the disarmament of all the Chechen forces. At the end of this transitional period, the people of Chechnya will be called on to decide on their own future. By deciding to award the passport for freedom to Mr Akhmadov, the Members of the European Parliament also want to invite the governments of the democratic countries, in particular the United States and the member states of the European Union, to be consistent with their official position, according to which the Chechen tragedy can only be overcome by means of a political solution. If this were really their position, these governments should guarantee Mr Akhmadov full freedom of movement so that he can defend and promote the Chechen position, and above all his plan for peace and democracy in Chechnya, in all the relevant seats."
Note. Passports for Freedom are awarded by Members of the European Parliament to people whose safety and freedom are threatened as a result of their actions in favour of human rights and of the respect of the fundamental freedoms.
Mr Akhmadov has been Minister for Foreign Affairs in the legitimate government of President Aslam Maskhadov since 1999. For more than a year he has been in the United States, without a passport and without resident status, unable to travel and thus to carry out his ministerial duties. On 25 June the American courts will rule on his application for resident status. If his application is accepted, he will be able once again to travel freely, and to resume his duties.
Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament, Radical
"The ruling of the American court is all the more important in that Mr Akhmadov recently put forward a new peace plan involving the establishment of an interim United Nations Administration in Chechnya based on the withdrawal of the Russian forces and the disarmament of all the Chechen forces. At the end of this transitional period, the people of Chechnya will be called on to decide on their own future. By deciding to award the passport for freedom to Mr Akhmadov, the Members of the European Parliament also want to invite the governments of the democratic countries, in particular the United States and the member states of the European Union, to be consistent with their official position, according to which the Chechen tragedy can only be overcome by means of a political solution. If this were really their position, these governments should guarantee Mr Akhmadov full freedom of movement so that he can defend and promote the Chechen position, and above all his plan for peace and democracy in Chechnya, in all the relevant seats."
Note. Passports for Freedom are awarded by Members of the European Parliament to people whose safety and freedom are threatened as a result of their actions in favour of human rights and of the respect of the fundamental freedoms.
