#8 - JRL 7068
NEW YORK HOSTS "CHECHNYA. INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM. A THORNY PATH TO PEACE" EXHIBITION

NEW YORK, February 19, 2003. /from RIA Novosti correspondent Dmitry Klimentov/. An exhibition called "Chechnya. International Terrorism. A Thorny Path to Peace" has opened at the Russian Consulate General in New York. It is called upon to destroy Western stereotypes about Chechnya, inform the foreign public on both the invigorating positive process of bringing back peace to the republic and the remaining obstacles on the way to stability.

"For the first time the exhibition reveals the evolution of the Chechen drama since 1991 when extremists violently disrupted the constitutional process in Chechnya and ousted the legitimate authorities," Spokesman for the Russian President on Human Rights in Chechnya Abdul-Hakim Sultygov said in an opening speech.

According to him, the 150 featured photographs convincingly illustrate that the roots of the crisis lie not in the "relations between Chechnya and Russia, but in the relations between criminals and the Chechen population." "The photographs show the evolution of the bandit regime and its so-called self-proclaimed governing bodies, its degradation into a system of infringement on the rights and liberties of over a million Chechens, a hideous degeneration of separatists into explicitly terrorist organizations, the establishment of terrorist dictatorship, and the foundation of international terrorist bases in Chechnya," Sutygov stressed.

Following the New York show the collection will travel to Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Brussels and maybe Israel.