Moscow, March 25 (RFE/RL) - Russia's Nationalities Ministry says the Chechnya conflict will be discussed at an international conference on ethnic conflicts opens at The Hague Wednesday (March 27). The three-day conference is sponsored by Harvard University, the Netherland's Foreign Ministry and Russia's Republic of Tatarstan.
A spokesman for the Nationalities Ministry Yuri Drobin told our Moscow correspondent that Nationalities Minister Vyasheclav Mikhailov; the head of the Moscow-backed Chechen government, Doku Zavgayev; the President of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaymiev, and the Russian presidential adviser on Chechnya, Emil Pain, have been invited to take part in the conference.
Mikhailov has agreed to attend the conference and will leave for The Hague March 27. Shaymiev has also confirmed he will take part in the conference. The spokesman also said that the sponsors of the conference are trying to invite supporters of Chechen separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, but no response has been received from the Chechen separatist leader.
It will be the second such conference at The Hague to discuss the Chechnya conflict. The first one took place January 1995.