Chechens Complete ‘March for the Supremacy of Law and Justice’ at UN HQ in Geneva

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 6 – Exactly a month ago, on the 23^rd anniversary of the liberation of Grozny by Ichkerian forces, a group of Chechen activists began a “march for the supremacy of law and justice” at the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg. Today, on the 28^th anniversary of Chechnya’s independence day, they completed it at UN headquarters in Geneva. 

            (For background on the march and references to what coverage there has been of this effort, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/08/chechen-activists-marching-from.html.)

            At the start of the march which has sought to raise international awareness about the crimes of the Russian state against the Chechen people, the group issued a resolution making the following demands of that body (thechechenpress.com/developments/15169-v-strasburge-startoval-marsh-za-verkhovenstvo-prava-i-spravedlivosti.html).

            The marchers issued a call for the international community to

“Recognize the escalation of Russia’s war and the invasion of Russian armed forces into the territory of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria in 1994 and 1999 as acts of aggression.

“Carry out an objective investigation to identify the crimes of Russian: the murder of 250,000 peaceful citizens of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria including 42,000 children.

“Recognize as acts of genocide, crimes against humanity and military crimes the intentional bombing of peaceful cities and villages, mass murder and wounding of peaceful people, torture, extra-judicial executions, and many other crimes of the Russian armed forces committed against the Chechen people at the orders of the highest leadership of Russia headed by V. Putin.

And ‘to send its CONCLUSION about the recognition by the Council of Europe of Russia’s crimes to the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court.”

            At the meeting in Geneva, they issued an expanded version of this appeal making the same points and presented it to officials at the United Nation. For the text of that message in Russian, English and Turkish, see thechechenpress.com/news/15213-obrashchenie-predsedatelyu-generalnoj-assamblei-oon-gosp-antoniu-guterresh.html.

            Sadly but not surprisingly, the march received no coverage in the Russian media and little in Western outlets. Indeed, the Chechen cause received more attention while the march was taking place because of another Russian crime against the Chechens – the murder of a Chechen activist in Germany by Russian agents.

            For three examples of such coverage, see washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/a-russian-passport-a-russian-murder/2019/09/08/bb232c24-cf52-11e9-87fa-8501a456c003_story.html?noredirect=on, theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/30/of-chechen-dissident-suspect-linked-to-russian-security-services and nytimes.com/2019/08/27/world/europe/berlin-murder-russia.html.