Brussels, 09/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - Lista Bonino MEP Olivier Dupuis, who entered the twentieth day of his hunger strike to persuade the EU to seek a solution to problems in Chechnya, has written an open letter to Joschka Fischer reminding him of his "brave positions" over Kosovo, "when it was a question of invoking mediation rights to stop the killing", and inviting him to look at the plan prepared by "the government of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov".
Mr Dupuis also commented on the "new and terrible terrorist attack in the Moscow underground" (see EUROPE of 7 February, p.3), saying: it is "the nth manifestation of the objective alliance between those in Moscow who continue to strive for a violent, military normalisation of the Chechen issue and the irresponsible people in Chechnya who have become the prisoners of a 'hero-apocalyptic' vision of their own personal or group destiny, outside of any consideration for the future of their country". Mr Dupuis repeated his call not to abandon the "moderate and western-friendly Chechen leadership of the Maskhadov government" to its fate. The MEP criticised the reaction to the Moscow attack of Vladimir Putin, "the leader of a State which presents itself as democratic", and who talks about the "liquidation of terrorists", and, even before the legal inquiry has started, "names the presumed perpetrator". Mr Dupuis also spoke out against "those within the European Union and America who continue to give certificates of authenticity to the so-called fight against terrorism of President Putin" (referring to "Messrs Blair, Berlusconi, Chirac and Schröder".