David McDuff
02-17-2004, 03:55 PM
RUSSIA: DEMOCRACY ON THE MARCH!
Brussels, 17 February 2004. The Moscow City Council today banned the demonstration to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen people on the orders of Stalin on 23 February 1944. The demonstration has been organised by the Transnational Radical Party, the Movement for Human Rights, the Action Committee against the war in Chechnya, the Andrei Sakharov Centre, the Russian Radicals and the Club against the war. Without giving any reasons, the Moscow city authorities informed Andrei Rodionov, Nikolai Khramov and Lev Ponomarev of the decision not to allow the demonstration.
Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament, Radical:
"For those who still need to reflect further on the way Russia is developing, this new attack on a fundamental right - the right to demonstrate - may help them finally to gauge the progress of the Rule of Law and democracy in Russia since Mr Putin came to power in 1999. There is not a single sector of public life in Russia (not to mention what is happening in Chechnya) - the judicial system, the freedom of expression, the freedom of the press, the freedom of association or, as in this case, the right to demonstrate - in which there has not been an escalation of clear violations of the fundamental rights recognised by the Russian Constitution and by the principal international Conventions, and consequently a constant erosion of the Rule of Law."
www.radicalparty.org
=====
Olivier Dupuis
Member of the European Parliament
http://www.radicalparty.org/
tel. +32 2 284 7198
fax +32 2 284 9198
Brussels, 17 February 2004. The Moscow City Council today banned the demonstration to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen people on the orders of Stalin on 23 February 1944. The demonstration has been organised by the Transnational Radical Party, the Movement for Human Rights, the Action Committee against the war in Chechnya, the Andrei Sakharov Centre, the Russian Radicals and the Club against the war. Without giving any reasons, the Moscow city authorities informed Andrei Rodionov, Nikolai Khramov and Lev Ponomarev of the decision not to allow the demonstration.
Statement by Olivier Dupuis, Member of the European Parliament, Radical:
"For those who still need to reflect further on the way Russia is developing, this new attack on a fundamental right - the right to demonstrate - may help them finally to gauge the progress of the Rule of Law and democracy in Russia since Mr Putin came to power in 1999. There is not a single sector of public life in Russia (not to mention what is happening in Chechnya) - the judicial system, the freedom of expression, the freedom of the press, the freedom of association or, as in this case, the right to demonstrate - in which there has not been an escalation of clear violations of the fundamental rights recognised by the Russian Constitution and by the principal international Conventions, and consequently a constant erosion of the Rule of Law."
www.radicalparty.org
=====
Olivier Dupuis
Member of the European Parliament
http://www.radicalparty.org/
tel. +32 2 284 7198
fax +32 2 284 9198