23 April 2004

A delegation composed of Mr. Oumar Khanbiev, Minister of Health Chechnya, official representative abroad of President Mashkadov, Mr. Olivier Dupuis, Radical, Member of the European Parliament and Mr. Marino Busdachin, General Secretary of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) met with the Netherlands Commission for Foreign Affairs led by President Prof. Dr. De Haan. They discussed the human rights situation and the proposal for an Interim UN administration in Chechnya. Following this meeting a press conference was held at 'Nieuws Poort' in The Hague.

Oumar Khanbiev: A Biography

Minister of Health of the Aslan Mashkadov Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

Umar Khanbiev was born in 1955 in Kyrgyzstan where his parents lived in exile. In 1960 the Khanbiev family returned to Chechnya. In 1979 Mr. Khanbiev specialised in medical surgery. During the first war in 1995, he was appointed Minister of Health of the government of the independence movement. From October 1999 until January 2000, during the four months of the siege of Grozny, he conducted 5003 operations. Mr. Khanbiev first performed the operations, mainly amputations, in his hospital (Grozny 2nd Maternity); during the ongoing of the siege he continued his work in cellars or makeshift shelters. He witnessed first hand the use and effect of prohibited weapons as stated in the Geneva Convention.

On 2 February 2000, Russian forces arrested Mr. Khanbiev. He was tortured in the filtration camps of Tolstoi-lourt and Goudermes, yet freed after fifteen days. He currently lives in exile near Paris. Mr. Khanbiev tours European capitals to promote a political solution to resolve the conflict in Chechnya and advocates the peace plan of the Mashkadov Government, which he represents. Beside this effort he provides medical care to Chechen refugees in Baku.

In 2001 and 2004, Mr. Khanbiev addressed the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. In March 2004, the President of the European Parliament Mr. Pat Cox received him in the aftermath of the vote by the European Parliament, during which he pleaded to the Commission and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy to study the Akhmadov Plan.

Fact sheet Chechnya

The second Chechen war broke out in September 1999 in the wake of the invasion of Dagestan and a series of bombings, attributed to Chechen separatist movements and “terrorists”. The Russians alleged that the Chechen government had ties to these groups and terrorists. Following a series of military provocations aimed at undermining the Chechen government elected in 1997 and led by Aslan Mashkadov, the Kremlin launched the second war.

In 2002 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB) took over from the army as the main body heading up the operation in Chechnya. Russian government claimed that the situation was normalized.
In March 2003 Russian authorities organized a constitutional referendum, which approved a constitution establishing Chechnya as an autonomous Republic within the Russian Federation. International monitors have seriously doubted the legitimacy of this outcome.

Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-appointed Head of Administration, was declared the winner of the presidential election in October 2003. No international observers had taken part to his election and the independent Russian and Chechen human rights observers reported t of manipulating with the end results and with voter turnout numbers. Serious opposition candidates where denied participation in the elections on the accusation of being terrorists.
In addition to this Russian appointed government, the 1997 elected government is still in place, although not recognized by any other state.

The Chechen Foreign Minister, Ilyas Akhmadov launched a peace plan on March 18th 2003 aiming to transform Chechnya into a democratic and peaceful state via a transitional period of several years of an international administration.

Selected pictures:

M. Busdachin (General Secretary UNPO) and O. Khanbiev (Chechen Minister of Health) at the Nieuws Poort press conference, The Hague

M. Busdachin (General Secretary UNPO) and O. Khanbiev (Chechen Minister of Health) at the Nieuws Poort press conference, The Hague

Khanbiev at the press conference at Nieuws Poort, The Hague

Meeting with the Netherlands Commission for Foreign Affairs led by President Prof. Dr. De Haan

From left to right: M. Busdachin (General Secretary UNPO), O. Khanbiev (Chechen Minster of Health, G. Santema-Savrotskaya (Translator)

M. Busdachin (General Secretary of the UNPO) at the Nieuws Poort press conference, The Hague