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YOUR
VALOR SAVED OUR LIVES - APPEAL TO THE MASS MEDIA
As
we have learned from reliable sources, as well as from secret FSB
documents, the Russian leadership planned to have an information
blocade in place before launching full-scale military
operations
in the Chechen Republic. It was to ensure that the Chechen
people could be annihilated without interference. Unfortunately,
the FSB's plan was realized. But not in full. Thanks
to the courage and the valor of foreign journalists, what was
hidden was revealed, and as a result many of the Chechen
people were saved. Now that military operations have resumed in Chechnya,
and Russia is ready to use any means, to pay any price, to
get revenge for its defeat in the war of 1994-96, foreign journalists
are again a stumbling block for the Russian leadership.
In
this connection, the threats addressed to foreign journalists by
high officials of the Russian Foreign Ministry are especially
alarming, in that they lead one to conclude that there are
plans to use a new type of weapon of mass destruction in Chechnya
- a chemical, bacteriological,
or even a tactical nuclear weapon.
Talk about the possible use of tactical nuclear weaponry has
frequently surfaced in the Russian media, and prominent politicians
and military men have discussed it.
What
has particularly aroused our concern and alarm is the fact that
the statements of Russian leaders have now been echoed by
the United States Government, which has warned American foreign
correspondents of the danger they are in when they visit Chechnya
in particular, and the North Caucasus in general. As we know,
even in the past the Chechen Republic and the North Caucasus
were not a great place for foreign correspondents, but we
still do not understand what at this particular time has
inspired top officials in Russia and the United States to intimidate
them with warnings and threats.
Given
the situation, we, the journalists of the Caucasus, again address
the representatives of the mass media: The absence of foreign journalists has
made it possible for the Russian
leadership to step up the war again and to carry out a mass genocide of the
Chechen people. At this stage of the war, the absence of foreign journalists
makes it possible for the Russian leadership to employ, without interference,
hitherto unused
weapons of mass destruction, which could lead to the total disappearance of the
Chechens as an ethnic group.
Therefore
we urge foreign journalists not to leave the Chechen Republic or the North
Caucasus, under any pretext.
Journalists!
Do not let yourselves be small change in politicians' dirty hands; do not allow
anyone to confuse your profession, that of the truth-teller, with the oldest
profession; do not
sell yourselves.
On
the eve of the new millennium we must declare that the courage and truthfulness
of journalists will save mankind, an inseparable part of which is the Chechen
people! May the ALMIGHTY preserve you!
Maeirbek Taramov
On
behalf of Journalists of the Caucasus
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