Congress 2002 documents
(Ohrid, 17-24th September 2002.)

Resolution on Grigory Pasko, Russia, submitted by the American, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish Centres

The Assembly of Delegates of International PEN, meeting in Ohrid on 17-24th September 2002, addressing itself to the Government of the Russian Federation;

Alarmed by the fact that the Russian journalist Grigory Pasko - after having been acquitted of treason by the Military Court of the Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok - was convicted of treason in December 2001 and sentenced to four years' imprisonment for allegedly leaking information to Japanese news outlets about the Russian Pacific Fleet's dumping of nuclear waste into the Sea of Japan;

Appalled that the Military Collegium of the Russian Supreme Court cancelled the Vladivostok court's verdict and ordered a new trial;

Shocked by the appeal court decision to uphold the December 2001 decision and by the fact that Grigory Pasko is not due to be freed until his sentence expires in April 2004;

Reminds the Russian authorities that the Russian Supreme Court itself has stated that Ministry of Defence Decree 055 used to convict and imprison Grigory Pasko is not a normative legal act and thus his imprisonment has no legal foundation;

Points out the breach of Grigory Pasko's right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed under Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the Russian Federation is a party;

Therefore urges that the Grigory Pasko be immediately and unconditionally released.

Resolution on Russia

The Assembly of Delegates of International P.E.N meeting at its 68th Congress, held in Ohrid, Macedonia, 17th to 24th September 2002:

Notes the escalation in Russia of threats to freedom of speech as well as to free access to information as guaranteed by the Russian Constitution;

Deplores the victimization of Russian writers and journalists who in the performance of their profession and in their struggle to realize their right as guaranteed by both international and Russian law find themselves brought before arbitrary court hearings, including writers Vladimir Sorokin and Bayan Shirianov, NTV employee Anton Titov and publisher Alexander Ivanov (Ad-Marginem Publishing House);

Regrets the use of legal and economic levers as a means of limiting the freedom of expression of independent journalists;

Holds as incompatible with the Russian authorities' stated aim to promote civil society the systematic ousting of opposition newspapers, TV channels and radio-frequencies for obviously political and ideological reasons;

Deems it deplorable that the competent governmental bodies in Russia ignore the repeated appeals made to them by both Russian and international human rights organizations and writers, journalists and other professionals striving to secure real guarantees for freedom of speech;

Calls upon all governments and public figures whose cooperation is sought by the Russian authorities to make this conditional upon the latter's observance of the civil and political rights guaranteed by both international and national law;

Expresses the hope that the Russian authorities and President Putin
personally do not turn a deaf ear to these appeals and thus undermine the long-stated and hard-won aim of a free and democratic Russia.

Resolution on the conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic

The Assembly of Delegates of International PEN, meeting at its 68th Congress in Ohrid, Macedonia, 17th - 24th September 2002:

Reasserts all previous Resolutions related to the issue;

Once more directs general attention to the inadmissible violations of human rights to free access to information as (with no state of emergency or martial law proclaimed in the territory) Russian and foreign journalists are subjected to restrictions and violence in the zone of military operations;

Considers that the ongoing war against the Chechen people approaches the definition of 'genocide' as defined by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1951), Article II of which states that '…genocide means … acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group…';

Furthermore:

Appalled by the disastrous condition of thousands of refugees from Chechnya and the neighbouring regions who are deprived of their homes and the right to return for many years.

Concerned at the meagre possibilities for survival of Chechen literature and culture under these conditions, and at the severe restrictions on the right to freedom of expression in Russia itself, manifested by several deplorable actions taken against Russian media;

Alarmed by the threats to the lives of Chechen writers and of other Chechens who have sought refuge from the war in Moscow and elsewhere in the Russian Federation, referring particularly to the case of Chechen writer Islamjan Elsanov, who fled Moscow in April 2002 following harassment by state and local authorities and who has been granted asylum in Norway;

Also alarmed by the fact that the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (a reporter on Novaya Gazeta and the author of A Dirty War), who has reported on the abuses taking place in Chechnya, was forced to flee Moscow (temporarily) after having been threatened for further articles critical of the Russian forces' activities in Chechnya, and who remains under threat:

Calls upon the President and the Government of the Russian Federation to start immediate negotiations with the lawful authorities of the Chechen Republic under its President Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected during elections recognized as correct and lawful both by the Russian authorities and by international observers, with the aim of finding a peaceful political solution for the ongoing conflict;

Further calls upon government and non-government organizations in all countries to exert constant pressure upon the Russian authorities and urge that they search for a way out of this long-lasting bloodbath and curb immediately the violence irrespective of its perpetrators;

And urges the Russian authorities to grant Anna Politkovskaya freedom of movement and the right to freedom of expression guaranteed her by the international human rights conventions to which Russia is party .