In a wide-ranging response to the Queen's Speech, Baroness Cox, President of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, highlighted atrocities in the Sudan and a bias in media coverage on the recent war in Chechnya.

Using evidence from her recent trips to southern Sudan, Baroness Cox drew attention to human rights violations in the Sudan, including reports of the use of chemical weapons as well as "military offensives against innocent civilians, denial of aid to vast areas and slavery." "Genocide is not a word I use lightly," she stated, "but I challenge anyone who saw what we saw to find a more appropriate word for this aspect of the NIF's (National Islamic Front) policies." She went on to emphasise the lack of international concern or action taken on the reports of chemical weapons. "The failure by the international community to investigate those reports has caused acute dismay among local people, concern among aid organisations and anxiety that inaction will encourage the NIF to believe that it can repeat such attacks with impunity".

From Sudan she turned to Chechnya illustrating how a concerted, pre-meditated Islamist agenda lay behind the War, refuting a more simplistic explanation of Russian resistance to the militant independence movement. "Please may I urge that critical commentary on the wars in Chechnya and Dagestan is balanced and does not continue to put the primary blame on to Russia without apportioning appropriate criticism to those Islamists in Chechnya and Dagestan who started the conflicts, who have their own track record of brutality and who must carry much of the blame for the suffering of their own people. "

Baroness Cox drew a clear distinction between the majority of peaceable Muslims in Chechnya and Dagestan who had not sought war and those Islamic fundamentalists who sought military control through 'Jihad'. She noted that Islamist leaders meeting in London this month had declared a jihad against Russia and stated, "We declare that we will never rest until we establish the Khilafah, that is an Islamic State for all Muslims worldwide, which will be a shield behind which Muslims can protect themselves and from behind which they can fight the enemies of Allah".

She also forewarned of an expansion of this campaign.

"These Islamists have announced their intention to attack Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia next: first Dagestan and then Karabakh, and then more Islamic nations of the former Soviet Union in due course. There are many reasons, including oil and pipeline factors. The issues are too complex for discussion here. If any noble Lord would like further information, may I refer to an authoritative article entitled Chechnya; The Mujahedin Factor, written in January 1998 by Yossef Bodansky, Director of the Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US Congress. He concludes:

"Determined to consolidate their control over the strategically and economically crucial Caucasus, the Islamists and their sponsoring states have already resolved to escalate their terrorist 'jihad' to achieve what no negotiations can deliver. And herein lies the quintessence of the grim prospects for the Caucasus".