Stop the deportation of Chechnyan refugees from genocide!

Stalin – Putin – Schröder – Schünemann

Uwe Schünemann. Germany’s most inhuman minister of the interior

As one of the most inhuman German politicians the General Secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples, Tilman Zülch, described the Lower Saxon Minister of the Interior, Uwe Schünemann, (CDU). „No one else so far has called for a change in the legislation for foreigners, requiring that 3000 suspects be fitted with electronic foot-ties, and no one else has so far demanded that the separation of parents and children from the age of 15 should be a basic principle of the treatment of refugees in our country. Both demands of the Lower Saxon Minister of the Interior illustrate the inhumanity of his politics and the mercilessness of his deportation tactics.”

62 years ago today Joseph Stalin deported the peoples of the Chechnyans and the Ingush collectively to central Asia. This resulted in the death of one third of these closely related Caucasus peoples, above all of children and elderly people. Today the Putin government is continuing this policy. It has been responsible for the death of some 80,000 Chechnyans since 1999. Thousands more have been killed by Russian soldiers.

It is sad enough that the recent red-green government supported this Russian policy of carrying out the progressive genocide of the Chechnyan people. One of the peaks of this policy of the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder was the sending of a delegation of the secret service (BND) to the totally destroyed Chechnyan capital Grosny, when thousands lay dead or dying in the cellars of the city.

Schünemann is continuing this policy. Thus for example he deported on 17th January 2006 a Chechnyan refugee from Lower Saxony. Although his life was in danger and he had suffered a severe injury to his back as a result of mishandling in Russian custody, he was deported. „Now he is living illegally in his native country in constant fear of being arrested and spending no two nights in the same house”, reported the GfbV East European correspondent, Sarah Reinke.

Like many other Chechnyans who have fled to Lower Saxony a solitary young woman is threatened with deportation. She was raped by Russian soldiers, is being treated at a psychiatric clinic following an attempt at suicide and has a brother, who was also held in a hole in the ground, tortured and raped. It was only by payment of a ransom that his family could save his life.

The Society for Threatened Peoples can continue this list of terrible fates. We warn the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Lower Saxony, the parliamentary party of the CDU, the state government and the universally popular Prime Minister, Christian Wulf: „A great deal of inhumanity towards refugees may be considered desirable by a solid core of your voters. But the great majority of your voters will not stand for this injustice and brutality at the next elections. We call for humanity for Chechnyan refugees, who are threatened by danger to life and limb. They need above all security from deportations into the Chechnyan war zone.”