31 October 2007, 12:57
Kon-Bendit: we cannot help residents of Northern Caucasus because we are banned free entrance to the Russian Federation
The problems created by Russian authorities for entering Russia and the ones connected with the freedom of travel inside the country are depriving the western public figures of a chance to render their help to residents of Northern Caucasus.
Daniel Kon-Bendit, head of the "green" faction in the European Parliament, has announced the fact in his answer to the question of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent during the press conference held in the Moscow hotel "Katerina".
"The best thing we can do now to improve the situation with human rights in Northern Caucasus is to gather information and make it public. It's difficult to improve the situation, since we cannot freely travel over here," said Daniel Kon-Bendit, the famous "Red Danni", one of the leaders of the students' "revolution" in Paris in 1968.
The "Novaya Gazeta" informs that Anna-Mari Gelen, an employee of the nongovernmental human rights organization "Pax Christi Internationali", was detained on October 28 at "Domodedovo" Airport. She arrived to Moscow from Brussels for taking part as an interpreter in the roundtable planned to be held on October 31 on the freedom of press and speech in Russia.
When Anna-Mari Gelen was passing her passport control, she was withdrawn from the queue and told that she had been prohibited from visiting Russia for five years. No reason was given, she was just told that "she herself understands why."
In Ms Gelen's opinion, she was detained because of her work in the foreign human rights organization that is engaged, in particular, in Chechnya's problems.
We remind you that the conference planned for October 28-31 was cancelled since deputies of the European Parliament were not allowed to enter the Russian Federation. The RF's Embassy in Brussels gave no explanations on the fact of rejecting deputies' visas.
Author: Vyacheslav Feraposhkin, CK correspondent
