The Newsletter of the Socio-Ecological Union A Center for Coordination and Information

Moscow, Russia -- Issue 4 (38), February, 2003

MORE NEWS IN ENGLISH FROM SEU-TERRITORY are available on Ecoport - green news project English version at http://www.seu.ru/news_en/npa.php

NEW!!!
CURRENT FOREST NEWS FROM SEU TERRITORY are now available at www.forest.ru/eng/news

IN THIS ISSUE: 

CHARGES AGAINST FARID TUKHBATULLIN ARE FORWARDED TO PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

PRESS TOUR TO BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA RESULTS

YUKOS-COMPANY DIVIDEND at the COST of NATIONAL PARK?

EUROPEAN COMMISSION ISSUES CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENT ON FUNDING NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS IN RUSSIA

  Ecodefense received response from the head office of EC in Moscow which says no new Russian reactors presently funded or discussed. At the same time, Euratom - European Union agency - attempt to obtain 2 billion Euro to finance construction of new reactor construction in Russia.
  Today Ecodefense received statement from the Delegation of the European Commission in Russia responding concerns of environmentalists over possible funding for new nuclear reactors in Russia. Richard Wright, Head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Russia, said: "We have noted that the terms and conditions for possible EU financing for nuclear power plants are unacceptable to Russia... the EU stands ready to consider providing financing in the future once Russia would be able to meet these conditions." On February 4, 2003, Ecodefense issued statement condemning European Commission and its agency Euratom for its plan including completion of several nuclear reactors in Russia, including Kursk-5 unit - the same to Chernobyl reactor which exploded in 1986 and caused largest nuclear accident in humankind history.
  "Ecodefense greets present EC practice which, according to Head of EC Delegation in Moscow, does not include funding for new nuclear reactors in Russia. But it's absolutely unacceptable that EC provides opportunity to Russia to obtain funds for new reactors in the future", said Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman for Ecodefense, Russian environmental group.
  "EC must close down all schemes allowing financing of new nuclear reactors, especially Euratom", Slivyak added.
  On February 4, 2003, Ecodefense issued statement saying proposal to extract 2 billion Euro for Euratom projects is currently under discussion in European Union. List of Euratom projects, which may be financed in case new funds given to agency, included several Russian nuclear reactors that officially under construction but frozen for lack of funds. Kursk-5, Chernobyl type reactor, is in this list. At the same time, European Union financing the process of closure of the same reactors in Lithuania and Ukraine.
  Kursk-5 construction was started in the end of 1985, but later frozen because lack of funds. Present level of completion is nearly 60%. Kursk nuclear plant located in approximately 500 km south of Moscow, four Chernobyl type units (RBMK-1000) currently in operation. Kursk-5 is the only RBMK reactor planned for completion anywhere across the world.

  For more info contact: 2784642, 7766281, 7766546, Vladimir Slivyak, Alisa Nikulina, e-mail: ecodefense@online.ru URL: www.antiatom.ru

CHARGES AGAINST FARID TUKHBATULLIN ARE FORWARDED TO PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

  The Ministry of National Security (MNS) of Turkmenistan have finished investigation into the case of Farid Tukhbatullin, the member of the International Socio-ecological Union, and the activist of Dashoguza environmental club. It became known that 20th January the indictment was submitted for approval to the office of public prosecutor.
  In December 2002 Tukhbatullin was accused of offence provided by article 210 part 1 and article 214 part 1 of the Criminal Code of Turkmenistan. The article 210 part 1 provides punishment up to 2 years of correctional labour or up to 3 years of imprisonment for "non-disclosure of information known for sure about imminent crime, grave or very grave". The article 214 part 1 provides punishment up to 2 years of imprisonment or correctional labour for "crossing of guarded state boundary of Turkmenistan without appropriate documents and sanction".
  The MNS investigator Vladimir Khidjuk has accused the environmentalist of that, he ostensibly "possessing the information about the planned action against the president of Turkmenistan from the direction of the group of B.Shikhmuradov, has not informed the relevant authorities of Turkmenistan for verification of the data and prevention of intentions planned by B.Shikhmuradov". Ostensibly, Farid have heard of the imminent attempt at the President of Turkmenistan on the human rights conference in Moscow in November, 2002.
  In his testimony Tukhbatullin denies that the speeches on the conference contained any information about preparing attempt. The audio tape of the conference, which "Memorial" Human Rights Centre has handed over to the defense, also testifies that the participants of the conference did not say anything about preparing revolution.
  The second accusation preferred to Tukhbatullin is concerned to his trip to Uzbekistan at September 29, 2001. Seeing off the relatives, he has gone away to Urgench through "Dashoguza" check-point and then returned home this very day. According to the version of investigators, when Tukhbatullin had been returning home he has illegally crossed the state border outside of the check-point. Tukhbatullin himself categorically denies this accusation. He said that at departure from Turkmenistan his passport data were written down into a special journal, besides he received on the check-point a registration coupon, which he has passed back at the same post. For unknown reason the data on his returning were not entered into registration journal.
  Tukhbatullin insists on his own innocence since the first day of his detention, notwithstanding the attempts of the duty attorney of the Ministry of National Security to persuade him "to plead guilty and to repent". Since January 2003 Timur Misrikhanov - another lawyer, employed by the relatives of the environmentalist - conducts his defense.
  For the month since the moment of arrest of Tukhbatullin the investigator of the Ministry of National Security did not permit him to receive parcels and to meet with relatives. The request for meeting with Tukhbatullin, directed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan by the Centre of OSCE in Ashkhabad was also left without answer. Only 21st January the authority permitted to hand over food, clothes and books to Tukhbatullin.
  It is expected that the trial on Tukhbatullin's case will be held in February. The local sources do not exclude, however, that this obviously trumped-up case can be returned for further examination.
  Several human right defenders from abroad have informed that they are ready to arrive in Turkmenistan and to testimony in court. But it is not clear, whether Turkmen authorities to permit participation of foreign citizens in legal proceedings.
  More about Farid Tukhbatullin case, as well as adresses for the letters of support are at www.seu.ru/projects/eng/farid
  We ask you to keep sending your letters -they may halp to set innocent man free!

PRESS TOUR TO BELOVEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA RESULTS

  By Irina Levshina in Minsk (BRS No. 02, 31-Jan-03)

  A delegation of journalists who visited the Belovezhsky national park in Belarus on January 29 were confronted with sharply conflicting accounts of why one of the oldest forests in Europe is suddenly disappearing.
  Since 1998 the forest, which straddles Poland and Belarus, has been subject to a mass felling of trees on the latter's side of the border. The Minsk government claims the centuries-old trees have been struck by hurricanes and mass infestations of beetles. Ecologists and scholars assert that healthy trees are being felled to earn hard currency.
  Dubbed the "lungs of Europe" for its huge size and variety of trees, the Belovezhsky virgin forest is home to over 300 species of animal, including the bison - its mascot. Seventy-five hectares of the forest lie in Belarus, the remaining 55 in Poland.
  Until recently, the Minsk government had been regarded as a responsible guardian of this unique natural reserve. In 1992, the forest was placed on UNESCO's international cultural and natural heritage list and received a special certificate from the Council of Europe.
  In 1998, a sawmill complex was erected in the town of Kamenyuki, which lies within the forest. Brought in from Germany by the presidential administration, the facility was supposedly intended to chop down sick or damaged trees. The general director of the park, Evgeny Smoktunovich, protested vigorously at the arrival of the mill.
  In 2001, he was dismissed and his deputy, Georgy Kozulko, was also promptly fired. In May, President Lukashenko appointed a new general director. Lauded in official circles as a skilled economic administrator, Nikolai Bambiza was already a bogeyman for ecologists, having presided over the felling of ancient oaks in the Pripyat national park during his tenure as director there.
  Once Bambiza took charge, the mill began actively functioning, but like many activities directed by the presidential administration, work at the forest is conducted in total secrecy. No one knows where the Belovezhsky timber goes, or how much the state charges for it.
  Kozulko has told journalists that in the period from spring 2002 alone, hundreds "of old, completely healthy and genetically valuable trees" were felled. "Even permanent areas which have been used for several decades for scientific monitoring were cleared. These areas are of enormous value for science and were certified by UNESCO."
  He added that he has numerous documents proving violations of existing legislation on the environment.
  Last year, an ecological pressure group, Terra-Konventsia, was formed with the aim of forcing the government to fulfil its international environmental obligations. Spearheaded by Valery Dranchuk, the editor of the independent ecological newspaper, Belovezhskaya Pushcha, the movement has attracted scholars and public figures as well as ecologists and environmentalists.
  At a conference last summer, the group appealed to the international community to intervene. "The quest for hard currency is turning an internationally recognised jewel of our natural heritage into fodder for the timber industry," they said in a statement.
  The January 29 visit to the forest was organised by the presidential administration to allow critics to visit the forest. Suspicions were raised immediately when both former directors of the national park and Terra-Konventsia director Valery Dranchuk were denied accreditation.
  The journalists were shown huge areas where trees had allegedly been blown down by the wind. Others had been felled because they were infested by beetles, claimed administration representatives.
  Deputy head of the presidential administration Galina Volchuga even accused former directors of the forest of adding to the problem by not felling trees in time. "The decision to fell them took six years of discussions between specialists and government representatives. This is why we face these tragic consequences," she said.
  However, Bambiza's insistence that "there is no illegal felling in the Belovezhsky forest", was undermined somewhat when journalists were approached directly by a timber worker who gave his name as Valery Puchinsky. "Everything written in the newspapers about the felling of the forest is true. I'm ashamed for the park," he said.
  This unscripted intervention made a strong impression on the visitors, despite claims by administration officials that Puchinsky is "sick". Excluded from the official party, Valery Dranchuk spent the day in Kamenyuki. "The forest has been taken over by an industrial lobby. Local residents have described many times over how it is being chopped down and taken away," he told journalists.
  Unable to stop the felling, local people have resisted by refusing to join in. The forest is an integral part of their lives and the majority have chosen unemployment rather than work in the sawmill. Most of the workers there are outsiders or "temps" as the locals call them.
  Hamstrung domestically, ecologists and the former heads of the reserve now intend to draw the Council of Europe's attention to the felling. EU officials have yet to issue any statement on the matter.

  Irina Levshina is a reporter for BelaPAN news agency in Minsk.

  More information on the problem is at www.seu.ru/projects/eng/belovezha

YUKOS-COMPANY DIVIDEND at the COST of NATIONAL PARK?

  The most effective way is sending a post-letters, less effective is fax letters and lesser effective are E-mail letters.
  Will be great if you send a copies of your letter to the vice-minister of Natural Resources of Russia Mr. KIRILL V. YANKOV:
  Bolshaja Gruzinskaja St, 4/6
  Moskow, 123812
  Russia
  Fax: (7 095) 254-43-10
  E-mail: admin@mnr.gov.ru

  and David Gordon, Pacific Environment: E-mail: info@pacificenvironment.org

  In your letter ask authorities to:
  - reject of the oil pipeline building in the Tunkinsky National Park;
  - leave the Park's borders without any changes;
  - respect and support One Human Rights of people living there;
  - follow the Lows in part of the public discussion of dangerous projects, environment protection and especial protected territories status;
  - protect Lake Baikal and guarantee it not to be the way of oil transportation.

   The example of a letter:

  Dear Leonid Vasilievich,
   We know "YUKOS RM" is going to build the oil pipeline Angarsk-Datsin through the Tunkinsky National Park.
  As experts say, this project is very dangerous for nature balance of the National Park and all Tunkinsky Hollow. More, it breaks the rights of people living there and it can cause the pollution of the Baikal.
  Most local habitants are against this building.
  This project breaks the Lows of Russia, especially article 59 of Federal Low "About environment protection", art. 15 of Federal Low "About especially protected territories" and The Land Codex of Russian Federation.
  That is why we ask you to reject the pipeline building across Tunkinsky National Park, not to change the borders of Tunkinsky National Park, to respect and support the rights of local people, to follow the laws and to allow people and NGO to take part in discussing problems of this project realization. We ask you to protect Lake Baikal as the World's treasure and guarantee the lake not to be in dangerous by the oil transportation.
  With best wishes and hope of Tunkynsky National Park protection, signatures

  We hope fore your support!
  Sergej Shaparenko, Environmental Group "Pechenegi"

  Written by eco-group "Pechenegi" (pecheneg@ic.kharkov.ua) based on the information published in bulletin "Bear land" (N12 (43) 2002 isarsib@mail.cis.ru), materials of E. Kislov and Socio-Ecological Union A Center for Coordination and Information, by the task of the Ukrainian Coalition "For a Wild Nature".