Posted on 01/26/2004 11:18:34 AM PST by RussianConservative
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin used a Moscow visit on Friday to call for an end to the war in Chechnya.
"Everyone perceives the urgency of finding a solution to put an end to this long suffering. Chechnya has been in a situation of open war for too many years, with its many dramas and its risks to throwing the situation in its neighboring countries, from Turkey to Iran, out of balance," de Villepin told students at the Moscow Foreign Affairs Institute.
"Here as elsewhere, there cannot be a durable solution that relies on a simple security strategy. Only a just political process and striving for peace can lead to that, and end the suffering of civilian populations."
He said France favored the return of humanitarian organizations and media representatives "as a permanent presence" in Chechnya.
At a joint news conference later in the day, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov reiterated Russia's stance that the military conflict in Chechnya was an anti-terrorist operation.
"There is no war in the Chechen republic -- there is a fight against international terrorism," Ivanov said. "A very complicated process of political settlement is being conducted against the background of fighting international terrorism."
De Villepin arrived in Moscow late Thursday for talks on cooperation between Russia and the European Union, and other issues including Afghanistan, the Middle East crisis and Iraq.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said on the eve of de Villepin's visit that the talks would also touch on preparations for a March meeting of a Russian-French council on security. The two countries also have bilateral working groups on terrorism and weapons proliferation that are to meet soon, he said.
In a separate development, Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov on Friday accused Turkish nongovernmental organizations of aiding Chechen rebels, and said some unnamed foreign governments were doing too little to stop funds, weapons and new cadres from reaching terrorists.
"We are still concerned about the activity on Turkish territory of a series of nongovernmental organizations and individuals who according to our information are continuing to provide political, material and other support to terrorists operating in Chechnya," Trubnikov said.
He said that Moscow had frequently raised the issue with Turkish authorities.
De Villepin and Ivanov on Friday called for an international conference to discuss rebuilding Iraq amid efforts to establish a sovereign government in the country by midyear, Reuters reported.
They said progress on reconstruction was possible only once full Iraqi sovereignty was restored but offered few details of an agenda or time frame.
We are the world, we are the chilldrun.
"He said France favored the return of humanitarian organizations and media representatives "as a permanent presence" in Chechnya."
And where you when Saddam was building his graves of mass decimation?
Uh, by the way frenchie, guess you didn't happen to hear about the innocent civilians taken hostage by the Islamic Chechnyan terrorists in a Russian theater.
What is with you frogs? Bad is good?
We could always let the Germans have the place. Again. Less the Security Council vote and the French nuclear forces, of course.
We've got German troops serving with us in Iraq. I wouldn't count them out just yet, despite the mumblings of some of their leadership. We've had precious little to brag about in that respect over the last 10 years ourselves.
-archy-/-
Feel free, RussianConservative, to wipe the petulant smile off de Villepin's face. I'm not too up on all the Chechnya business . . . but I figure being on opposite sides of the French ain't the wrong way to go if one is looking for the truth.
They say that in the US on Sunday the thirty-eighth AFL-NFL Championship game will be played in American football. Those Russian units will be North of the Terek River by the time that game enters the fourth quarter or they will be in default.
Should that happen then Shamil Basayev will become a very well known figure in this world. A one-legged man carrying but a single suitcase may look like George C Scott in his pre-Patton days but Guy Owens would not mistake him for the Flim-Flam Man...
Then again a technical specialist might tell you that the majority of AFL-NFL Championship games had Quarterbacks from Alabama as the MVP... Technical is as technical does -- 2000 degrees and partly cloudy quite the dust storm...
Dry is good and wind is better...
Moroz:
Among others, there are two people who that can tell you a good deal about what happened at Rinas Airport per your query:
The Congressman (one of the legendary Handfull of America's Best) ran the airport for a bit during the war after he and his KDOM buddies decamped from the province. He was last seen in Sierra Leone doing that UN thing by day and his specialty by night. He is a bit reticent these days but having recently heard from the campaign of Mr D's old buddy at the University of North Carolina State, John Edwards, requesting dirt on Wesley Clark, he has shed some inhibitions about telling what he knows.
Expect more of these details to filter out if the General has to be taken down a few more pegs in the weeks to come. American election politics increasingly must become Balkanised so that all men (and women) can be free..
The second person is Mr D's old flag football buddy ABC News Washington Cameraman Fletcher Johnson. "Fletch" shot the NIGHTLINE footage of one of the "official" Apache losses going down at Rinas. Alas this footage has been sealed for "National Security" reasons for awhile now.
He is still a few years short of having 20 in and may he hesitant as a union employee to jeopardise his situation. Once he retires he may be willing to be more forthcoming about what he saw...
There are plenty more but this is a start if you really want to know what happened...
Wraith:
Excellent innings of late old man! Nothing like an LBW from a fast bowler...
Do you know the English writer David Cornwell (Le Carre)? In reviewing his latest work, Absolute Friends Mr D writes that the story's denouement brought back eery reminders of the Racak operation. He mentions the pre-operation planning had many similarities to the one in the book.
General Clark running for President probably represents the last clear chance people will have to uncover this hoax before it is relegated to the dustbin of history. People who don't know anything about Kosovo do know something is fundamentally flawed with Clark -- they are receptive to learning what they can about his "glorious" campaign.
John Edwards a very smart man for an old country lawyer from Raleigh, NC...
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
Hay D, when you done with bong, refill it and pass it. Oh and call Tom Clancy, your fantasy sooo out of control...oh, Sunday you proved to be so full of shiete that you are....no one forget your little BS...but then again, all you is is little BS.
If the Congressman is who I think he is, last I heard, he was doing the OSCE thing in Liberia. His good buddy JPK doing the UN thing also in Liberia. (Those two work in tandem these days it seems.) So I guess I'm wrong about who the Congressman is :(
War under false pretense and whom does the bell toll for now? Do you remember when it all started? As of late a little deja vu to one that cost quite a bit. This time it was decided to send a friendly NVA gunboat.....
US frigate takes Stars and Stripes back to Vietnam By Alex Spillius, South East Asia Correspondent (Filed: 20/11/2003) Nearly 30 years after the United States fled its Saigon embassy in panic, an American warship flying the Vietnamese flag alongside the Stars and Stripes arrived yesterday in what is now Ho Chi Minh City. The Vandegrift, a guided missile frigate with a crew of more than 200, was escorted up the Saigon River by a Vietnamese patrol boat for the first such visit since the end of the war.
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