2005 ORDINARY SESSION

(Third part)

REPORT
Twentieth sitting

Wednesday 22 June 2005 at 10 a.m.

Mr HERKEL (Estonia). "I must start by complimenting both rapporteurs and the staff of the Monitoring Committee. I want to praise particularly the explanatory memorandum, which is a profound and valuable document about the current situation in Russia and is very comprehensive. At the same time, it is regrettable that the normal practice of having at least one report on the monitored country every two years was not adhered to. That is not so much a criticism as a recognition of our general inability to deal with all Russia?s problems.

The phrase in the explanatory memorandum ?due to the size of the Russian Federation? explains why that is so. The territory of the Russian Federation covers 11 time zones. The explanation is also paradoxical ? Russia is a large country and one of the most important in the world, and assisting democratic development in Russia is extremely important. My main point is that Russia, with all its 11 time zones, with all its different regions and republics, has only one report. The Republic of Tatarstan, the Republic of Mari El and the Republic of Komi are also worthy of detailed monitoring or special reports. Must the situation be as catastrophic as that in Chechnya for it to receive the special attention of the Assembly?

I want to give special mention to the situation in Mari El. The presidential elections there were very problematic, but the international organisations did not observe those elections. At the end of May, there were violent ethnically motivated attacks by skinheads against Mari people in Yoshkar-Ola, the capital of Mari El. That issue was raised in the Parliamentary Assembly by Mr Sasi who initiated a motion. A resolution had already been adopted by the European Parliament. That is an old problem but a new topic for Europe. Some colleagues are still asking, ?What is Mari El? Where is the republic of Mari? We have never heard about this nation or its problems.? There are a lot of small peoples in the Russian Federation, and the rights of such peoples are not protected.

I want to emphasise particularly the situation of indigenous peoples mentioned in the explanatory memorandum. Their situation, in their own historical territory, is sometimes desperate. For example, since 1989, the number of Fenno-Ugric peoples in the Russian Federation has decreased from 3.3 million to 2.7 million.

There are other issues such as problems with freedom of the press, the judicial system and human rights violations in Chechnya, including the murder of the elected president. I call on Russian colleagues not to diminish the importance of such problems but to work together to solve them."