FEBRUARY 23: THE DAY OF THE SOVIET ARMY, THE DAY OF THE GENOCIDE OF CHECHENS - THE ANTI-WAR, ANTIMILITARIST MANIFESTATION OF THE RADICALS AT THE PUSHKIN SQUARE IN MOSCOW.

LAUNCHING OF THE POST-CARD CAMPAIGN TO PROTEST AGAINST THE CHECHEN WAR

PRESS RELEASE

MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 23, 2001

Today a rally against the Chechen war was conducted in Moscow by the Radical Party and the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA). About three hundred people gathered at the Pushkin square listening to Mozart's "Requiem", under flags of the Radical Party with the profile of Ghandi and anti-war slogans.

The rally was opened with the speech of Anna Zaytseva, the ARA's treasurer. Then following persons addressed the meeting: Nikolay Khramov, coordinator of Russian radicals; Alexandr Tkachenko, director of Russian PEN-center; Ida Kuklina, secretary of the Union of committees of soldiers' mothers of Russia; Valeria Novodvorskaya, leader of the Democratic Union of Russia; Andrey Rodionov, conscientious objector, deputy of the secretary of the ARA; Madina Magomadova, chairperson of the organization "Women of Chechnya"; Boris Stomakhin, representative of Russian Movement for the independence of Chechnya; Victor Popkov, human rights nonviolent activist.

A post-card campaign "Chechen war is a shame to my country" was launched at the rally: a campaign to send to the president Putin post-cards to protest against the Chechen war, with the demand to implement immediately cease-fire, to begin negotiations of the president Putin with the president Maskhadov, to provide without delay the necessary conditions to the international humanitarian organizations and journalists to work in Chechnya and Ingushetia, to investigate immediately all crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Chechnya by Russian military forces.

Andrey Rodionov in his speech called young Russian citizens to conscientiously object while the army is waging a criminal war in Chechnya and burned down his call-up papers he had received yesterday.

The participants of the rally lighted candles to remember all victims of the Chechen expulsion of February 23, 1944, to remember all those who were killed by the regime and who are being killed today.

The rally was over the same way as it began: with the sounds of Mozart's "Requiem".

The photos of the rally are available in the Internet at the website of the Radical Party: www.radicalparty.org/russia.

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