[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Page 29014]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



       SENATE RESOLUTION 223--CONDEMNING THE VIOLENCE IN CHECHYNA

  Mr. HELMS (for himself, Mr. Biden, Mr. Wellstone, and Mr. Lugar) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 223

       Whereas, since September 1999, the Russian Federation has 
     conducted a military operation against Chechnya that has 
     resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and 
     the displacement of more than 200,000 people;
       Whereas the Russian armed forces is launching repeated 
     bombing attacks on the capital city of Grozny;
       Whereas the recent conflict in Chechnya represents a 
     continuation of the use of military force by Russia in 1994-
     1996, which caused the deaths of approximately 100,000 
     citizens of Russia;
       Whereas neither the use of force in 1994-1996, nor the 
     current use of force in Chechnya enhances the prospects for a 
     peaceful resolution of the status of Chechnya;
       Whereas the United States condemns terrorism in all forms, 
     including the bombing attacks of apartment buildings in 
     Moscow and Volgodonsk in the summer of 1999;
       Whereas the appropriate manner to combat terrorist attacks 
     is not through the use of indiscriminate force against 
     civilians;
       Whereas on November 4, 1999, Elena Bonner, Chairman of the 
     Andrei Sakharov Foundation, testified before the Committee on 
     Foreign Relations of the Senate that ``carpet bombing and 
     shelling of cities, villages, and refugee convoys attempting 
     to escape the war zone constitute a grave violation of the 
     Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian 
     Persons in Time of War and the Additional Protocols and 
     demonstrate the Russian government's complete disregard for 
     these extremely important international agreements'';
       Whereas the United States believes that the recent 
     targeting of ethnic minorities by local Russian officials, 
     including blanket detentions and expulsions, calls into 
     question the commitment of the Government of Russia to 
     pluralism in the process of democratic reform in that 
     country;
       Whereas the Government of Russia has limited media access 
     to and coverage of the conflict in Chechnya to preserve 
     Russian popular support for the military operation;
       Whereas the Government of Russia has openly violated its 
     commitments under the Flank Document to the Treaty on 
     Conventional Armed Forces in Europe with its deployments of 
     military equipment in and around Chechnya; and
       Whereas the conduct of the Russian armed forces in Chechnya 
     threatens to destabilize the southern part of the Russian 
     Federation as well as the region of the Caucasus as a whole: 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) condemns the use of indiscriminate force by the Russian 
     armed forces against civilians in Chechnya;
       (2) urges the Russian Federation--
       (A) to assist those persons who have been displaced from 
     Chechnya as a result of the conflict; and
       (B) to allow representatives of the international community 
     access to the internally displaced persons for humanitarian 
     relief; and
       (3) calls upon Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime 
     Minister Vladimir Putin to devote every effort, including the 
     use of third-party mediation, to the peaceful resolution of 
     the conflict in Chechnya.

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