burke25,
It appears that that Colombia supports Russia's policy against the
Chechen rebels, though I have found no official policy statement (I
looked on the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Relations' web site).
Both countries have a "little" rebel problem.
The Pravda site: http://english.pravda.ru/world/2001/09/05/14262.html
says that the Russian govt. is sending helicopters to the Colombian
military. Since the Colombian govt. is not fighting against anyone
but its
own rebels, we could infer that the Russian aid is to support the
effort
against the Colombian rebels.
The rules of diplomacy suggest that Colombia would not support the
Chechen
rebels if Russia were supporting Colombia against its own rebels.
The Human rights watch site:
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/04/unchechnya20april.htm
shows that Colombia abstained from the vote to investigate human
rights
abuses perpetrated by Russia in Chechnya. This supports the idea that
Colombia supports Russia. Colombia could not vote against the
resolution
because only rogue/"bad" states did and it cannot afford to anger the
U.S..
However, Colombia could not afford to vote for the resolution (as the
U.S.
did) because it is receiving military aid (helicopters) from Russia.
To
vote for the resolution would have been biting the hand that gave it
helicopters....The easy way out for small countries whose opinion is
of
little consequence anyway is to abstain.
It appears that Colombia supports Russian policy in Chechnya because
it shares a rebel problem, and because it recieves military support
from Russia. It is likely that no official policy statement to this
effect exists because, again, Colombia can't really afford to make
bold statements in any direction.
Hope this helps!
Regards, crabcakes
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