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Former Ichkerian Official Denied Refugee Status
The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (German abbreviation BAMF) has denied former deputy prime minister of Ichkeria Apti Bisultanov political refugee status, saying that he is suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He will not be turned over to Russia, however, since BAMF thinks he is threatened with torture and inhumane treatment here. Bisultanov, 48, has lived in Germany since 2002, formally for medical treatment.
Ichkerian president Aslan Maskhadov appointed Bisultanov deputy prime minister for social issues in 1999. Before that, he had been better known as a poet and editor of a children's magazine. The German office's claims against Bisultanov are connected with the second Chechen campaign in 1999, when about 40,000 residents were blocked in the city by federal forces. The federal side accused Chechen separatists of using the civilian population as a living shield.
Bisultanov is among the Ichkerians that Russia has repeatedly demanded be extradited, according to BAMF. However, Valery Kuznetsov, Prosecutor of Chechnya, told Kommersant yesterday that he knew of no cases in which Bisultanov was a suspect. His name is not in the Interpol database either.
The German-Caucasian community distributed an statement to German authorities yesterday, which said, in part, “No specific evidence that Mr. Bisultanov violated human rights has been presented, and Russian authorities have not appealed to the Federal Republic of Germany for his extradition. We declare our solidarity with Apti Bisultanov and demand that he be named a political refugee under article 16 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.” Among the signers of the statement was Nobel Prize winning author Gunter Grass.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 27, 2007
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