31 May 2004 11:53
PACE rapporteurs meet with Duma speaker
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) - State Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov met with rapporteurs from the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe (PACE) who arrived in Moscow to study the situation in Chechnya, head of the Duma's
international affairs committee Konstantin Kosachev told Interfax.
He said that Andreas Gross, the Political Affairs Committee rapporteur from Sweden, and Rudolf Bindig, the Legal
Affairs and Human Rights Committee's rapporteur from Germany, have arrived in Moscow.
Kosachev said that there was a preliminary agreement that both
rapporteurs would come to Russia in late August after the Chechen
Kosachev said that a session of the politics commission was held last week where "an attempt was made to
introduce the issue of Chechnya to the agenda of PACE's June session as a so-called urgent issue without waiting
for the conclusions the rapporteurs will make following their visit to Russia."
Kosachev said that the Russian PACE delegation, which he headed, managed to prevent this. He said that Russian
parliamentarians demanded that the rapporteurs visit Russia to familiarize themselves with the process of resolving the
situation in Chechnya, and present their reports at the September PACE session.
presidential elections.
Kosachev said that both rapporteurs will meet with representatives of the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor
General's office and with the Russian human rights commissioner. After that, they will depart to Chechnya next
week. They will also visit Ingushetia to study the situation surrounding refugees from Chechnya. [RU EUROPE EEU ASIA MIL
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[Interfax] |
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