“Glad to be Deceived”: the International Community and Chechnya
Sept 9, 2004
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The following three references should help understand
the situation in Chechnya: 1. 'CRIMINALS, NOT MUSLIMS' Los Angeles Times, 9/8/04 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed- russia9sep09,1,1219084.story 2. GIVE THE CHECHENS A LAND OF THEIR OWN Richard Pipes, New York Times, 9/9/04 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/opinion/09pipes.html 3. "Glad to be Deceived": the International Community and Chechnya By Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch http://hrw.org/wr2k4/7.htm#_Toc58744956 ========================================================== 1. 'CRIMINALS, NOT MUSLIMS' Los Angeles Times, 9/8/04 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed- russia9sep09,1,1219084.story The criminals who took children hostage at their school on the first day of classes and are responsible for the deaths of at least 335 people in Beslan, Russia, have generated universal condemnation. The sickening pictures of row upon row of corpses, many of them grammar school students, provoked Muslim leaders to excoriate the terrorists and declare that the perpetrators did not act in the name of their religion. Egypt's top cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, said during prayers Friday that "those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims." At a Moscow rally of more than 100,000 on Tuesday, a leading Muslim said the terrorists, thought to be men and women from the predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya, were "not Muslims … not humans." ________________________________________________ 2. GIVE THE CHECHENS A LAND OF THEIR OWN Richard Pipes, New York Times, 9/9/04 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/opinion/09pipes.html The terrorist attack in Beslan in Russia's North Caucasus was not only bloody but viciously sadistic: the children taken hostage by pro-Chechen terrorists were denied food and drink and even forbidden to go to the bathroom, then massacred when the siege was broken. It is proper for the civilized world to express outrage and feel solidarity with the Russian people. But to say this is not necessarily to agree with those - including President Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia - who would equate the massacre with the 9/11 attacks and Islamic terrorism in general. In his post-Beslan speech, Mr. Putin all but linked the attack to global Islam: "We have to admit that we have failed to recognize the complexity and dangerous nature of the processes taking place in our own country and the world in general." Reports that some of the terrorists were Arabs reinforce that line of thinking. But the fact is, the Chechen cause and that of Al Qaeda are quite different, and demand very different approaches in combating them. Terrorism is a means to an end: it can be employed for limited ends as well as for unlimited destructiveness. The terrorists who blew up the train station in Madrid just before the Spanish election this year had a specific goal in mind: to compel the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. The Chechen case is, in some respects, analogous. A small group of Muslim people, the Chechens have been battling their Russian conquerors for centuries… The Russians ought to learn from the French. France, too, was once involved in a bloody colonial war in which thousands fell victim of terrorist violence. The Algerian war began in 1954 and dragged on without an end in sight, until Charles de Gaulle courageously solved the conflict by granting Algeria independence in 1962… Until and unless Moscow follows the French example, the terrorist menace will not be alleviated. It is as impossible to track Chechens scattered throughout Russia as it is to intimidate the suicidal fanatics among them. Worse, the continuation of Chechen terrorism threatens to undermine the authority of Mr. Putin, whose landslide victory in last spring's presidential election was in good measure due to the voters' belief that he could contain the Chechen threat. Russians respect strong authority, and there are new signs that Mr. Putin's inability to wield it over Chechnya makes them wonder whether he is fit to rule them. After the school siege, there was much muttering in the streets that under Stalin such atrocities would not have occurred. Unfortunately, he seems determined not to yield an inch. "We showed weakness, and the weak are trampled upon," he said on Saturday. This may seem like a truism to Russians, but in this case it is wrong. Russia, the largest country on earth, can surely afford to let go of a tiny colonial dependency, and ought to do so without delay. ________________________________________________________________ 3. "Glad to be Deceived": the International Community and Chechnya By Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch http://hrw.org/wr2k4/7.htm#_Toc58744956 The armed conflict in Chechnya, now in its fourth year, is the most serious human rights crisis of the new decade in Europe. It has taken a disastrous toll on the civilian population and is now one of the greatest threats to stability and rule of law in Russia. Yet the international community's response to it has been shameful and shortsighted. The international community has a moral and political obligation to protect fundamental rights of people in and around Chechnya. It should with a unified voice be prevailing on the Russian government to halt forced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention, which Russian forces perpetrate on a daily basis. It should be compiling documentation about abuses into an authoritative, official record. It should be vigorously pressing for a credible accountability process for perpetrators of serious violations of international humanitarian law, and should think strategically about how to achieve this when the Russian court system fails to deliver justice. And it should stop Russia from forcing the return of displaced people to areas where their safety and well-being cannot be ensured. But none of this has happened. The international community has instead chosen the path of self-deception, choosing to believe Russia's claims that the situation in Chechnya is stabilizing, and so be spared of making tough decisions about what actions are necessary to stop flagrant abuses and secure the well-being of the people of the region. ....... Russia's second armed conflict in Chechnya in the 1990s began in September 1999. Russia claimed it was a counter-terror operation, aimed at eliminating the chaos that had reined in Chechnya since the end of the 1994-1996 Chechen war and at liquidating terrorist groups that had found haven there. Five months of indiscriminate bombing and shelling in 1999 and early 2000 resulted in thousands of civilian deaths. Three massacres, which followed combat operations, took the lives of at least 130 people. By March 2000, Russia's federal forces gained at least nominal control over most of Chechnya. They began a pattern of classic "dirty war" tactics and human rights abuses that continue to mark the conflict to this day. Russian forces arbitrarily detain those allegedly suspected of being, or collaborating with, rebel fighters and torture them in custody to secure confessions or testimony. In some cases, the corpses of those last seen in Russian custody were subsequently found, bearing marks of torture and summary execution, in dumping grounds or unmarked graves. More often, those last seen in custody are simply never seen again—they have been forcibly disappeared. Make no mistake, Chechen rebel forces too have committed grave crimes, including numerous brutal attacks targeting civilians in and outside of Chechnya, killing and injuring many. Rebel fighters were also responsible for assassinations of civil servants cooperating with the pro-Moscow Chechen administration of Chechnya. Anti- personnel land mines laid by fighters and Russian forces claimed the lives of federal soldiers and civilians alike. At the height of the Chechen war in 2000, as many as 300,000 people had been displaced from their homes, with most living in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia. Of these, 40,000 resided in tent camps. By 2003, the cycle of arbitrary detention, torture, and forced disappearance was well entrenched, and the crisis of forced disappearances appeared to have become a permanent one. According to unpublished governmental statistics, 126 people were abducted and presumed "disappeared" in January and February 2003 alone. In mid- August, the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs said that nearly 400 people had "disappeared" in Chechnya since the beginning of the year. Local officials in 2003 have also admitted the existence of forty-nine mass graves containing the remains of nearly 3,000 civilians. ........ READ MORE by FOLLOWING THE LINKS GIVEN ABOVE |