GROZNY, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Chechen government announced Tuesday that it would suspend a Danish relief group's operations in the republic following the publication in Denmark of cartoons depicting Mohammed, whom Muslims consider a prophet.
In a letter of notification to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Chechen officials said the suspension of the Danish Council for Refugees was intended to avoid further escalation of tensions in the predominantly Muslim republic after the cartoons, depicting Mohammed unfavorably, were published by a newspaper in Denmark and reprinted by periodicals in other Western countries.
The publication of the drawings in Denmark - a "leading European nation that keeps declaring its interfaith tolerance" - "may lead to irreversible consequences for the complicated socio-political situation in the Chechen Republic," the letter said.
According to Chechen officials, the decision to suspend the Danish humanitarian organization has also been necessitated by concerns for the security of its staff amid a wave of angry protests across the Muslim world.
On Monday, Chechnya's acting prime minister said all Danish non-governmental organizations should be barred from the republic over the Mohammed cartoons.
The Danish Embassy to Russia has not yet commented on the situation.
