We're in a bad world if our European governments will not recognise a democratically elected government

Vanessa Redgrave

Redgrave, who is a member of the Amnesty International group in Reading, was joined by local Labour MP Martin Salter and Akhiad Idigor, foreign affairs spokesman for the unrecognised Chechen government.

"Why will no government in Europe recognise a government that the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Boris Yeltsin recognised as democratically-elected in 1997?" she asked.

Russian torture

"We're in a bad world if our European governments will not recognise a democratically elected government."

The average Chechen had been made a refugee five times in the last two years, she said.

"Russian government forces are continuing to use torture and every kind of illegal weapon, as well as what is called normal military weapons," she told the crowd at the three-day festival.

Akhiad Idigor: speaks of Chechens' plight

"They've turned the whole of Chechnya into a concentration camp."

Mr Salter promised to take up the issue with prime minister Tony Blair and foreign secretary Jack Straw.

He told BBC News Online that one of the aims of Womad, where more than 60 bands from all over the world are taking to the stage, was to highlight world issues.

"We should recognise that people have a right to those basic democratic freedoms that we take for granted," he said.