CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

FOREIGN POLICY – HOSTAGES (CHECHNYA) - 09 December 1998

FOREIGN POLICY – HOSTAGES (CHECHNYA) - 09 December 1998

Dr Julian Lewis: I am sure that the whole House is grateful to the Minister for the sensitive and sombre way in which he has been answering questions. Would he join me in urging right hon. and hon. Members to have some sympathy for the position in which the leadership in Chechnya finds itself? It is under threat from Chechen bandits, Muslim fundamentalists and the Russians, whose terrible bombardment of their country led to the chaos that is there? Will the Minister agree with me that it is understandable that the leadership in Chechnya is desperate to have help from the west to rebuild the country, and that we should pay tribute to those men who were brave enough to try to help it?