The United States should be working to facilitate peace in Chechnya, not to encourage the Kremlin to further its brutal campaign against the Chechen people. There is simply no excuse, Mr. President, for the Secretary of State to refuse even to meet with Mr. Akhmadov. Any meeting to discuss the democratically-elected government of Chechnya's legitimate peace proposal would not constitute a de facto recognition of Chechen independence. In our meeting, Mr. Akhmadov and I also discussed the atrocities that Russian forces are committing against the Chechen population. He shared with me a grim picture of life in Chechnya under the repeated and indiscriminate assault by the Russian military.
Countless families continue to be bombed out of their homes.
For too long, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have refused to use their power and influence to pressure the Kremlin into genuine negotiations to end the bloody conflict in Chechnya which already has cost countless thousands of lives of men, women, and children. Aside from empty rhetoric, the Administration has not lifted even a finger to make clear the outrage of the United States at the atrocities committed by Russian forces against innocent Chechen civilians. Worse still, the Administration has even legitimized Russia's military campaign in Chechnya with public declarations comparing this conflict to the Civil War in the United States. For this reason, I submit this amendment to the Defense appropriations bill. It calls upon the Kremlin to cease immediately its military operations in Chechnya.