Conference in Italy states necessity to develop contacts with Northern Caucasus

As stated by Massimo Bonfatti, head of the public volunteer association "World in Motion", at the conference held in Italy, it is necessary to convey to journalists and public figures from different countries the present realities of Northern Caucasus, to tell the truth about the wars in Chechnya; we need readiness of people from different parties to stop military confrontation; and it is also necessary to disclose the default information about the Beslan tragedy.

As previously reported by the "Caucasian Knot", on April 7-14, a conference "War and Peace", dedicated to tolerance in Northern Caucasus, took place in Italy. The conference discussed problems of Beslan, the attitude of the veterans of Chechen wars to the modern Caucasus and its residents, and much more. The conference was held in the city of Carmagnola, near Turin, on April 7-14, by the international association "World in Motion".

The head of the conference Massimo Bonfatti told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent who was present at the conference in Italy about the projects relating to environmental and cultural aspects of peacekeeping. One of the projects of the association "World in Motion" assumes bringing children from the Prigorodny District of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and from Chechnya for rehabilitation to Italy.

"This is not my main job; I'm a volunteer, like everyone in our movement; generally I work in a hospital. Our association focuses mainly on the problems of the former Soviet Union countries. We are dealing with the problems of Chernobyl and the problems of tolerance and peace in Northern Caucasus. I recently had a meeting with the Minister of External Relations of North Ossetia about the project 'Factory of Peace'. We want kids from Ingushetia, Ossetia and Chechnya to spend their time together in Italy, so that they could learn more about the world, see Rome and other cities of the world," said Mr Bonfatti, according to whom people in Italy know very little about Northern Caucasus.

"We want to invite schoolchildren aged 10-12 from one of Italian schools to make friends by correspondence with their peers from schools in the Prigorodny District of Ossetia. This Italian school will be tentatively from Venice, where the principal of one of the schools got interested in this project. We want children from Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya to open the world and Europe, and the children from Italy to learn about Northern Caucasus," said Massimo Bonfatti.

He added that recently he visited Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and handed over a letter from the Mayor of the Italian city of Vercelli, located not far from Turin and Milan in northern Italy, to his counterpart in Grozny. According to his story, this Italian city is ready to become a sister city of Grozny. A delegation from the Chechen Republic is going to visit Italy this year and officially sign the necessary documents and agreements.

The "World in Motion" deals with the countries of the former Soviet Union and holds such conferences two times a year. The current event was attended by Professor of the Florence University Angelo Barakka; Lisa Clark, president of the international movement of "Peacemakers"; Arkady Babchenko, a veteran of Chechen wars and a military journalist of the Russian "Novaya Gazeta"; Ella Kesaeva, founder of the Committee "Voice of Beslan", and political and public figures from Italy and Europe.

Journalist Arkady Babchenko answered the questions of the audience and spoke about his experiences at the two wars in Chechnya. "In 1996, I was recruited to Chechnya as a soldier. In 2000, I signed a contract with the Army and went to the second Chechen war as a contract serviceman. Then, I went in for military journalist; and already in that capacity I was at the Russian-Georgian war. Last time I came back from war this summer after being at the ethnic massacre in Kyrgyzstan. As to the first war in Chechnya, we were 18-19-year-old guys then; Yeltsin, Dudaev, independence war in Chechnya - we didn't understand all that. We were drafted to defend our homeland. We got into tanks and went to defend homeland. When Russian army was brought to Chechnya, very few people knew at all what they were doing there," said the journalist.

"Motivation came later, when personal relationships started, when people began to die, your friends and acquaintances; one single motive appeared - revenge. The people on both sides awakened their hatred. Then, it went on growing as a snowball; now it is so high that I don't know if there is a way out of this situation at all," said Arkady Babchenko.

Ella Kesaeva, the founder of the Committee "Voice of Beslan", said, when speaking at the conference, that the investigation into the Beslan tragedy in 2004 was not objective and failed to answer all the questions. According to her story, there is no need to invent anything new - it is just necessary "to conduct an objective investigation and punish those responsible." "We have to state that Russia has no will to fight terrorism," she said.