Til danske skak-journalister

Dansk Skak Union nævner i en meget kort pressemeddelelse, at Peter Heine Nielsen, Steffen
Pedersen, Nina Høiberg og Evgenia Peicheva-Hansen indenfor den seneste uge har meldt afbud til
OL i Elista.

Da dette har medvirket til, at Dansk Skak Union har valgt at trække begge hold til OL, finder
Peter Heine Nielsen og undertegnede det derfor naturligt og rimeligt, at de danske
skak-journalister også får en begrundelse for afbuddene. 

Jeg sender derfor vores officielle afbud til Dansk Skak Union.

På vegne af os begge,

Steffen Pedersen

PS: Ønskes der yderligere uddybelse eller kommentarer er man velkommen til at kontakte os.
Peter Heine Nielsen, tlf. 86248863, e-mail: heine@post7.tele.dk
Steffen Pedersen, tlf. 65907209, e-mail: stpeders@post6.tele.dk

***

Dansk Skak Union
Fomand Søren Bech Hansen

8. august 1998

Vedrørende: OL

Grundet den senere tids polemik omkring FIDE-præsident Kirsan Iljumzhinov og afholdelsen af OL
i Elista, har undertegnede, Peter Heine Nielsen og Steffen Pedersen, efter lang tids
overvejelse besluttet at trække os fra det danske OL-hold.

Rygter om, at Kirsan Iljumzhinov skulle være indblandet i mordkomplottet på
oppositionsjournalisten Larisa Yudina samt antydninger om, at finansieringen af OL-byen er
tilvejebragt via ulovlige skatter og anden økonomisk svindel, har gjort, at vi finder det
moralsk forkert at deltage. Vi er fuldt bevidste om, at intet konkret er fundet bevist, og
derfor er beslutningen i høj grad taget ud fra en redegørelse fra Glasnost Defence Foundation,
som er vedhæftet dette brev. 

Redegørelsen er af Anden Sekretær ved den danske ambassade i Moskva, Mikael S. Christensen,
fundet meget troværdig.

Med venlig hilsen



GM Peter Heine Nielsen (Århus)



IM Steffen Pedersen (Odense)

***
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
GLASNOST
DEFENSE FOUNDATION
4 Zubovsky blvd., Suite 432
Moscow   119021  RUSSIA
Phone: (095) 201.44.20, 201.32.42
Fax: (095) 201.49.47
E-mail: simonov@fond91.msk.ru
http://www.internews.ras.ru/GDF
yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Attention: Heads of National Chess Federations - FIDE members
Leading world chess players - members of National Olympic teams

Ladies and gentlemen!

This is an appeal on behalf of the human rights activists on the eve of
the 1998 World Chess Olympic Games which are to take place in Elista,
Republic of Kalmykia.
We consider it our duty to explain to you where you are invited to, at
whose expense the festival is being held and what a blunder may turn out
your participation there.
Elista is a capital of the Kalmyk Republic, a small part of Russia with
extremely poor people and extremely rich president - the very Kirsan
Ilumzhinov who was chosen by chess bureaucrats as Campomanes's
successor.
Chess City where you will stay and play has been constructed on money
obtained by violations of all conceivable state and human laws. We have
reasons to believe that the construction project has been carried out on
money withdrawn from different state credits provided for Kalmykia's
industrial and agricultural development. Money was given for this
construction by the Kalmyk women and children who were robbed twice -
they allegedly voluntarily rejected their state child allowances for
this purpose.
You will eat and drink on money received by a racket; - President
Ilumzhinov's private fund which is funded by an unlawful tribute by all
the companies being registered in Kalmykia's offshore zone.
While looking through Chess City's windows at the adjacent Amber Pond
you should know that several months ago a mutilated woman's body was
found in this very pond - the body of the only Kalmyk opposition
newspaper's editor-in-chief. She regularly published materials revealing
the ways in which this unjust money was obtained. Probably during the
Chess Olympic Games her murderers will be put on trial. But they are
most likely only the executors. The court would hardly manage to find
out the person who had hired the murderers because he has so many
protectors among high ranking Russian officials.
Your arrival to Elista will be taken by the locals, obedient to the
President's press, as a highest acknowledgment of the Kalmyk people's
merits before the world chess brotherhood and even before the mankind -
they like pompous language in Elista. At every step you can see the
portraits of the President together with outstanding citizens of the
world - starting with the Russian patriarch up to the Pope. The people
will be told that your arrival is a great Kalmykia breakthrough towards
international loans, investments, world wide active business
partnership. But Kalmykia has nothing for sale even its famous wool
manufacturing has been almost destroyed by now. Your arrival is simply
being used as a vivid manifestation of the Kalmyk and Chess President's
ambitions.
The winners will get prizes. But these prizes are paid by unlawful
extortion from the Kalmyk people - every citizen of the Republic is
obliged to make a financial contribution to the Chess Olympic Games.
Would you like to live, to eat, to win this way?
All these facts on the Kalmyk elite's crimes, on basic human rights
violations in Kalmykia are derived from the Russian media publications.
But not only Russian journalists who reveal these facts: we can refer to
the publications of Inga Suffron (Philadelphia Inquirer), John Morrison
(Reuters) , Eva Conant (Fox TV, USA) and many others.
We have no moral right to request that you refuse to  participate in
the  Chess Festival. But under present circumstances it's not obvious
what is worse - to waive the festival or to waive your conscience? 
Anyway you have the right to know where you are going to, who your host
will be and that tears and poverty are the real cost of this festival.

Sincerely,

Alexei Simonov, Glasnost Defense Foundation
Larisa Bogoraz
Valery Abramkin, Public Center for Criminal Law Reforms
Ludmila Alekseeva, Moscow Helsinki Group
Mara Poljakova, Independent Council of Legal Experts
Elena Grishina, Human Rights Information Center
Mikhail Arutyunov, International Human Rights Assembly
Rustem Maksudov, Center +Judicial and Legal Reform;
Sergei Kovalev, State Duma Deputy
Oleg Panfilov, Glasnost Defense Foundation
Maria Simonova, Glasnost Defense Foundation
Valentin Gefner, +Memorial; Russian Human Rights Center
Alexei Smirnov, Moscow Human Rights Center
Valery Borschov, State Duma Deputy

***

> Fra: Royal Danish Embassy 
> Til: heine@post7.tele.dk
> Emne: Situationen i Kalmykien
> Dato: 7. august 1998 09:55
> 
> Kare Peter Heine Nielsen,
> 
> Tak for din mail g.d. vedr. skakmesterskaberne i Kalmykien.  Den
> organisation, som du har modtaget oplysninger fra - "Glasnost Defense
> Foundation" - er en af de mest anerkendte
menneskerettighedsorganisationer i
> Moskva. Underskriverne af brevet er de mest fremtradende
> menneskerettighedsforkampere i Rusland.
> 
> Jeg har ikke selv et detaljeret kendskab til situationen i Kalmykien, men
ma
> desvaerre sige, at indholdet i brevet fra Glasnost Defense Foundation
ikke
> overrasker mig, og at det desvarre nok kommer meget tat pa sandheden.
> Kalmykien er en region i det sydlige Rusland tat pa de urolige
> nordkaukasisiske republikker. Mange af de russiske regioner er ledet af
> enevaldige guvernorer eller prasidenter, og forholdene i den ikke sa
kendte
> Kalmykien region er utvivlsomt kritisable.
> 
> Ambassaden vil ikke direkte frarade deltagelse i skakmesterskaberne. Jeg
er
> overbevist om, at jeres sikkerhed vil blive garanteret af prasidenten.
> Samtidig har jeg stor forstaelse for din skepsis over for at blive
misbrugt
> til PR for prasidenten i Kalmykien. Selv om elendigheden nok vil blive
> skjult for jer, eksisterer den uden for hotellet. Det er der ikke tvivl
om.
> 
> Du ma sammen med resten af det danske landshold vurdere om oplysningerne
fra
> Glasnost Defense Foundation gor deltagelse uforsvarlig. Oplysningernes
> trovardighed kan du desvarre godt regne med.
> 
> 
> Med venlig hilsen
> 
> 
> Michael S. Christensen
> Anden Sekretar
> 
> 
> 
> ==============================================
> 
> The Royal Danish Embassy
> Prechistensky Pereulok 9
> 119 034  Moscow
> Russia
> Tel.: (007 095) 201 22 27/32
> Fax: (007 095) 201 53 57 / 201 22 95
> E-mail: dkembmos@glasnet.ru

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