Although we remember well the Sovet Union´s aggressive foreign policy and its war in Afghanistan in 1979, the present situation in the CIS is even worse: seven wars have been ravaging in the last 15 years: civil war in Tadshikistan, the wars about Moldavia – Transdnistria, Georgia – Abchasia, Georgia – Ossetia, Chechnya I and Chechnya II, the Karabakh war in Armenia and Azerbaijan, to name just a few regions which experienced brutal wars during the last few years.

In the past 15 years I was several times in the Republic of Moldau, Russia, Ingushetia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the region of Nagornij Karabakh, Georgia and Abchasia. On these trips I learned a lot about the former Sovet Union and its current conflicts. In all of these areas I am in touch with human rights and peace activists.



Republic of Moldavia: in a seminar for ecological groups in Moldau I learned a lot about the ecological situation in this former Soviet Republic. The seminar was organized by GTZ.

Chechnya: At the beginning of the first Chechnya war in 1994 I organized a trip of experts from the human rights center „Memorial“. The Russian human rights activists Jan Rachinskij and Mariam Jandiewa spoke in several German cities about the situation in Chechnya.

A few months later I traveled to Ingushetia, the neighboring republic of Chechnya, as a member of a delegation that was headed by Elisabeth Schroedter, member of the European parliament. Among other persons, we met the then President of Ingushetia, General Aushev.

Since the inception of the second Chechen war in 1999 I have been cooperating with the refugee network “Migration and Law” of the human rights organization „Memorial“.”Migration and Law” is helping refugees from the wars in Chechnya.

Armenia and Azerbaijan: The war between Armenians and Azerbaijanians for the Karabakh region was one of the bloodiest war of the former Sovet Union. Thousands had lost their lives, many were taken POWs or hostages. In spite of a truce in 1994 the sides still regularly take persons as hostages. Together with Svetlana Gannushkina (Moscow) and Paata Zakareishvili I founded in 1998 the International Working Group for the Release of Prisoners and Hostages and the Tracing of Missing Persons of the Karabakh conflict. The work of our group has been supported since 1998 by the German ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation and Caritas France.

We work tracing missing persons, we work as mediator between the parties to the conflict and we help former POWs. Several prisoners of war and hostages had been released with our participation. In 2005 our group organized a meeting of high level representatives of the Armenian and Azerbaijanian state commission on missing persons in Tbilisi (Georgia). In 2006 Svetlana Gannushkina and I spoke in the Council of Europe in the committee on migration and refugees about the situation on missing persons of the Karabakh conflict.
More information at www.agkk.org.

Georgia-Abchasia: In March 2001 I visited Georgia and Abchasia as a member of a Green Party delegation, headed by Helmut Lippelt, MP. We had spoken with several representatives of Georgia and Abchasia, of the UN-Mission and NGO representatives.