No Danish Groups in Chechnya
Ramzan Kadyrov was elected as the head of the United Russia party for the republic of Chechnya. Yesterday Kadyrov pushed the legislature that prohibits any Danish non-profits from entering Chechnya and working on its territory. The bill was approved today.
It is very sarcastic, because it’s the Danish non-profits which do real work in Chechnya. Russian government is busy laundering money and European Union is busy talking about the human rights abuse in Chechnya. Danish groups have been helping to the thousands of civilians and refugees. Now they are banned from this Russian Muslim state, as a result of the Mohammed cartoons in the Western European press.
Comments
Yep, this is the real tragedy of things when people don't think. I didn't know the Danes were so involved in Chechnya, but to augment your point, Norway is (was?) a very trusted interational arbitor (the earlier ME peace process). It's like the famous ripple effect. The inital splash might take all of the attention, but the weaker and weaker waves travel further away from the centre and upset some finely balanced relationships.
I have little doubt that this will be looked back in future as a european failure. The Europeans laughed at US behaviour towards Moslems, but they've done the same (and they conveniently forget the 'little' war in Algeria which they kept stumm about 10 whole years before 9/11). Who are the hypocrites again?
Posted by: Aleks | February 7, 2006 4:14 PM