PACE SPRING SESSION OPENS IN STRASBOURG AT PALACE OF EUROPE

ITAR-TASS
April 14 2008
Russia

STRASBOURG, April 14 (Itar-Tass) – The spring session of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which opened
here at the Palace of Europe on Monday, began its work by drawing up
a work agenda. The session will last until April 18.

The draft of the agenda includes a report on the Council’s work in
2007, which is to be delivered by CE Commissioner for Human Rights
Thomas Hammarberg, assessment by PACE monitors of the elections in
several countries, including Russia. The main items also include
opposition of Moslem communities to extremism, accessibility to
safe and legal abortions in Europe, growing number of suicides among
young people.

The section "on urgent debates" is expected to include the problem of
the functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia and a discussion
of the situation in the Middle East. It was moved at the very last
moment to discuss the situation with human rights in China.

"The Russian delegation will advise PACE to look into the facts, cited
in former Chief Prosecutor of the International Tribunal for Former
Yugoslavia Carla Del Ponte’s book ‘The Hunt, Me and War Criminals’,"
Chairman of the Duma Committee for International Affairs Konstantin
Kosachyov told Itar-Tass.

She reports in her book that at the end of 1990 militants of the
so-called Kosovo Liberation Army had abducted more than three hundred
inhabitants of Serbian enclaves in the territory, as well as women
from Albania, Russia and other countries. Vitally important organs were
later extracted from their bodies in an underground laboratory, located
in the southern part of Albania, to be sold on the black market.

Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, and French Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner are expected to address the Strasbourg session as
"guests of honour".

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress