At 6 p.m. on Wednesday 11th May, a meeting with Reverend Terasawa, the Buddhist monk of the Nipponzan Myohoji order working in support of world peace, took place at the headquarters of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

Rev. Terasawa has been responsible for many initiatives in support of world peace carried out in various countries. He built two Peace Pagodas in England in 1980 and 1985, initiated the Rajgir Symposium on the Victory of Law over the nuclear menace in 1986 and established the Peace Camp on the Iraq/Saudi Arabia border in 1991. Rev. Terasawa has publicly opposed the conflict in the Chechen Republic, and in 1995 he organized the Mother’s March for Peace and Compassion to Grozny. In 2002, he initiated the Pakistan-India Prayer March for Peace. For this reason since 2000 he is not allowed to enter onto the territory of the Russian Federation and other CIS countries.

During the meeting with students, Rev. Terasawa spoke about the dramatic situation in the Chechen Republic and the methods of fighting against human rights violations throughout the world.

He will attempt to publicize the Chechen situation during the Council of Europe Summit that will take place on 16-17 May in Warsaw. In the nearest future, he intends to support the Chechens living in Europe in their fight for the improvement of the situation of Chechens remaining in their homeland.