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CIA Secret Prisons and Chechnya at PACE
At yesterday's PACE session, Swiss Senator Dick Marty presented the results of his investigation of secret CIA prisons, in which torture was used. In that report, he mentioned that similar Russian prisons had existed in Grozny and Tsentoroe, Chechnya. Even Akhmed Zakaev came to Strasbourg to hear the report. Members of the Russian delegation reacted differently to his presence. Some ignored him, while others demanded to know how a person wanted by Interpol could enter the building.
Marty spent several years investigating CIA prisons. This was the third report he had given at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on the topic. Marty mentioned Poland and Romania as the most active collaborators with the CIA, and mentioned Macedonia, Italy, Germany and Bosnia in addition. Polish and Romanian senators denounced the report heatedly. Polish Senator Krzysztof Zaremba criticized Marty's report for containing so little about Chechnya.
The Russian delegation reacted calmly to the whole thing. “It has become a tradition at the PACE,” chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov. commented.
The only thing to disturb that calm was the presence of Akhmed Zakaev at the session. While the Russian members ignored him on the spot, Leonid Slutsky, deputy head of the delegation, told journalists that he intended to sort out with French authorities how someone wanted by Interpol managed to get there. Later, Margelov told Kommersant that Zakaev was there by private invitation and as a private individual. Zakaev told Kommersant that he came in the official capacity of foreign minister of Ichkeria, but he is not wanted by Interpol. As of yesterday, Russia had made no official enquiries into the issue.
Zakaev met with several members of the PACE who were concerned with Chechnya. Marty confirmed that, when he has completed his investigation of CIA prisons, he will prepare another report about conditions in Chechnya.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 28, 2007
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