Moscow, January 5, 1995

Up to the moment the actions of Russian troops in Chechnya have turned into senseless and severe bloodshed that is not comparable to anything known in the modern history of our country. There is no need to set forth the details - they have been covered by mass media of the whole world.

Repeated appeals of public associations and representatives of intellectual elite of Russia to stop fighting and to turn to looking for political methods of solving the conflict are left unanswered. Despite severe condemnation of the Chechen adventure was voiced by most political parties, practically by all the Russian press and by three-fourths of the population (according to sociological polls) has not caused any visible corrections in the Government actions.

Nor Government or President have not apparently been embarrassed by the fact that among the political figures supporting their Chechen policy, proved to be only not unknown Vladimir Zhirinovski and a few figures of this sort from ultra right-wing extremists.

Moreover, the numerous losses of the Russian army during the recent few days, with the incomparability of the fighting parties taken into account, are equal to catastrophical military loss - and it has not stopped military actions. Generals and ministers, as always, are ready to fight up to the last soldier is dead, not to say about civilians.

Barbaric violence is accompanied with a massive misinformation, rude and genuine lie about the events going on in Chechnya. At the same time the authorities try not to prevent or restrain the dissemination of the trustworthy information and to introduce the censorship in the press, radio or television.

All of this makes us believe that the Chechen war is only preclusion to the assault on the freedom and human rights in the Russia as a whole. The crash of the young Russian democracy and introduction of the authoritarian military regime would mean the tragedy for all people of this country and a serious menace to the rest mankind.

All this do not allow to consider the Chechen conflict as an internal issue of the Russian Federation. When all the possibilities for our voices to be heard by the own Government are exhausted, we are making an appeal to the world community, and above all, to human rights and humanitarian public organizations.

We call on you to get involved, in the very active manner, in the struggle of the Russian people against the shamed slaughter, created by our Government in Chechnya. The human rights and anti-war movements have a wide arsenal of means for such a struggle - ranged from petitions, pickets and meetings before embassies to the actions of boycott.

Missions to the area of the conflict if undertaken by sufficient number of independent international monitors who represent authoritative Western organizations would, undoubtedly, contribute to the stoppage of the most harsh and massive violations of human rights. We call on you to organize, as soon as possible, such missions and demand that they are to be let to Chechnya.

We also appeal to you to use all your influence on political figures and Government of your countries so that they would use leverage of effective influence on the President and the Government of Russia. Our general goal should be immediate and complete stoppage of military actions in Chechnya.

We appeal to the humanitarian organizations and charity foundations. Hundreds of thousand people of Chechnya and neighboring regions of the North Caucasus are deprived of shelters. Hundreds of Russian soldiers, among which there are seriously wounded, are captured by the formation of General Dudayev. We appeal to you to provide humanitarian aid to all these people - food, warm clothes, medicines, money. Of course, it international aid should be transported and distributed under the control of monitors representing organizations-sponsors.

Our condemnation of the Chechen adventure of the Russian authorities do not mean that we share this or that political and juridical estimate of the status of the Chechen Republic and its attitude to the Russian Federation. The members of our organizations have very different points of view or have none. Nevertheless, we are unanimous in one: military actions in Chechnya must be stopped immediately. Otherwise, Russia will have nor the right or possibility to claim for its place in the community of civilized and democratic states.

MEMORIAL Society

Moscow Helsinki Group

Soldiers' Mothers Committee

Moscow Center for Prison Reform

Human rights newspaper "Express-Chronicle"

The Right to Life and Civil Dignity Society

Helsinki Civil Assembly

Voters' Club of the Academy of Science

GLASNOST Foundation

International Non-violence Society

Movement Without Frontiers

The Society for the Promotion of Human Rights in Central Asia

The Society for the Promotion of Human Right in Uzbekistan

The Society of Convicted Businessmen

Informational Human Rights Center (Yekaterinburg)

Coordinating Council for the Assistance to Refugees and Forced Migrants

Order for Mercy and Social Protection