SARKOZY PRAISES MEDVEDEV'S 'DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS'
Received Tuesday, 2 March 2010 21:05:41 GMT
PARIS, March 2, 2010 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday praised his Russian counterpart's stance on the sensitive issue of human rights, capping two days of intense diplomatic activity. Global campaign group Amnesty International complained of rights violations in Russia in a report last month marking a programme of Franco-Russian exchanges of which Dmitry Medvedev's state visit is a highlight. But Sarkozy told Medvedev as he welcomed him for a state dinner at the presidential palace: "Your attachment to the state of law... judicial security and defence of human rights eases the relations between our two countries."
During his 2007 election campaign, Sarkozy criticised the Russian army's actions in Chechnya, where it has been accused of violations, and slammed his predecessor Jacques Chirac's cordial ties with Russia's then-president Vladimir Putin.
Earlier on Tuesday Medvedev met the Socialist Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe, who also brought up the subject of human rights. "I am thinking of human rights and the freedom of the press. It is part of the greatness of a nation that it allows all journalists to think, speak and write without fear," Delanoe said in a speech at Paris's town hall.
Rights activists have repeatedly called for full light to be shed on the murders of prominent figures such as the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova, one of the best-known activists in Chechnya. But Delanoe praised Medvedev for what he called his "courageous efforts" to improve respect for human rights.
The Greens, part of a left-wing coalition governing Paris, boycotted Medvedev's visit to draw attention to the Kremlin's rights record.
Källa: AFP