State Duma Committee on International Affairs 23 January 1995 To PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION To Chairman of the State Duma B N YELTSIN I P Rybkin Esteemed Boris Nikolayevich From January 30 to February 4 in Strasbourg France the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe PACE will convene its meeting of the 46th session At this meeting it was intended to consider the issue of Russia joining this influential European organization Currently by decision of three main PACE Commissions this issue has been removed from the session's agenda The reason is - accusation against the Russian federal forces of massive and cruel violations of human rights in the Chechen Republic in the process of carrying out of military operations In order to develop a position for the Russian parliamentary delegation to the PACE session it is absolutely necessary for us to have clear concrete answers supported by documents to the questions that our PACE colleagues put to us 1 What is in the opinion of the federal authorities the legal basis for using of army units in the resolution of the Chechen conflict 2 Who gave the order for aerial bombardment of Grozny and other cities of the Chechen Republic 3 What is the real situation according to documents and fact with the President of Russian Federation's decision to stop bombardment on December 24 1994 and if they were not stopped who bears responsibility for the continuation 4 How many military and civilians died and were wounded in the course of this operation 5 What destruction resulted from the military actions in Grozny and in the Chechen Republic as a whole 6 Precisely which of Dudaev's armed formations were disarmed in the course of the operation and which are currently active 7 What are in concrete facts the human rights violations a on the part of the federal troops and other Russian services b on the part of Dudaev's armed formations 8 Have V S Chernomyrdin and Dudaev's representatives Imaev Abubukarov achieved a ceasefire agreement without preliminary conditions by 18 00 on January 18 and if it was achieved why was it not realized 9 What is the factual situation with the refugees in connection with the Chechen crisis What does the government intend to do to resolve this problem What resources will be needed for this and from which parts of the budget will they come 10 What is the assessment with concrete facts of the situation with human rights in the Chechen Republic in the three-year period preceding the start of military actions 11 How does the President explain the failure to appear by the government members responsible for the conduct of the operation in Chechnya at the meetings of the RF Federal Assembly devoted to consideration of this problem Have those actions been cleared with their immediate superiors Unfortunately we still have not received clear answers to these questions We ask you to give us all possible assistance in obtaining answers to these questions In order to clarify the details of the official position of the executive on this issue we would be ready to meet with you and with the head of the Russian government on the eve of the departure of the Russian Federal Assembly Delegation to the 46th session of the PACE Head of the permanent delegation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to PACE Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs V P Lukin Translated by Svetlana Savranskaya for the National Security Archive Source State Archive of the Russian Federation GARF Fond 10100 Opis 2 delo 131 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu