Chechen asylum-seekers deny being duped into coming to Finland

print this

Bislan Saraliyev, the leader of a Chechen folk music group whose members have applied for asylum in Finland, denies reports that they were duped into coming to Finland.
      Chechnya's Minister of Culture Dikalu Muzakayev claimed on Thursday to Reuters news agency that the musical group had been misled into applying for asylum in Finland, and that the members now want to return home.
      "Perhaps the Minister of Culture has more information on the matter than I do, but I came to Finland out of my own free will", Saraliyev said on Thursday evening.
      Saraliyev says that the members of the group have not cancelled their asylum applications.
      "The Minister of Culture called us earlier and wanted us to return. When the whole media frenzy began in Chechnya and Moscow, some panicked, and we talked about whether or not some wanted to go back."
      "Now the situation has calmed down, and nobody is going back."
     
Saraliyev did not want to say why the members of the group had applied for asylum.
      He said that members of the group have been in daily contact with their families.
      The members of the popular Zhovhar folk music group resigned from their jobs with the Ministry of Culture before leaving for Finland.
     
"Three or four members of the group remained in Chechnya because they did not want to go."
      The musicians were invited to Finland by IT entrepreneur Mikael Storsjö, who maintains a website opposed to the present administration in Chechnya. He said that the group was to have performed at the World Village multicultural festival in Helsinki in May.
      "However, their arrival was delayed, so the group only got to Finland last Sunday", Storsjö notes.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Chechen musicians apply for asylum in Finland (8.8.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat