#4500: Russians warned against visiting Haiti (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

MOSCOW, July 4 (Itar-Tass) - The Duma subcommittee for the protection of
Russian citizens abroad does not recommend fellow-countrymen to visit
countries where wars are being fought and where public riots and
terroristic acts cannot be ruled out. The mps passed this decision on
Monday during the first meeting of this subcommittee, which was set up in
June as a subdivision of the Committee for International Affairs.
   The "black list" includes twenty-eight countries and regions where
hostilities are now under way, including Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Colombia, Haiti, Northern Sri Lanka,
Angola, Nigeria, Somalia, Burundi, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
   Subcommittee Chairman Oleg Naumov said that the decision of the mps to
draw up such a list "was prompted by their desire to warn fellow-countrymen
against possible dangers". He noted that this initiative of the
subcommittee stemmed from the foreign policy doctrine declared by the
Russian president "which stipulates the protection of Russian citizens
wherever they may be, including foreign countries".
   At the same time, Naumov noted, the subcommittee's list does not include
some regions of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) where visits
are also frought with different dangers.