It is time to end four centuries of bloodshed and destruction. Therefore, I appeal to leaders of the seven world's top industrialized nations to press Russia to come to peace with Chechnya. As the US president prepared to travel to Moscow from Europe Saturday, American Muslim Assistance signed a letter today, urging President Clinton to bring up with Russian President Putin issues of human rights violations by Russia in Chechnya. The U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva was an opportunity to have pressed the Government of Russia to end its consistent practice of gross abuses of human rights against civilians by establishing a formal international commission of inquiry to gather documentation with which those responsible might have been held to account. We are particularly concerned about the plight of those persons being held in so-called filtration camps.
Eyewitness testimonies indicate that torture and ill treatment is routine and rampant.
The failure to date of the Russian authorities to permit regular visits to the camps by human rights and humanitarian organizations is an outrage, and permits the continued torture of prisoners there. We respectfully urge you, at a minimum, to indicate that the United States will promote a formal international investigation of war crimes in Chechnya if Russia does not immediately permit access to all detention sites for representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and commence a credible and independent investigation of its forces' conduct itself. The situation in the Caucasus has erupted into a full-scale war between Russia and the Muslim peoples of Chechnya. As Muslims we pray for a peaceful resolution to this crisis through negotiation and open discussion. We hope all sides in the conflict are able to restrain themselves from aggression and will work for a solution that will alleviate the crisis in the Caucasus completely.