democracyforcalifornia.com: What is Going on In Chechnya?

September 05, 2004

What is Going on In Chechnya?

We as people naturally feel sorrow and heart-felt sympathy for the victims of the attack on a Russian school, much as the world felt sympathy for us on 9/11, but what I find deeply disturbing is this new meme I see being spread on the Net by fanatical right wing factions, who seek to promote public acceptance of the idea of using nuclear weapons on Chechnya and other muslim parts of the world to eradicate terrorism.

This is madness.

Further exacerbating misunderstanding, the media is portraying this school tragedy without providing a historical context, leaving the impression this is something "terrorists" do in a vacuum, . A look at the history of the conflict between Russia and Chechnya might help us understand the dynamics of terrorism and dispel attempts to exploit the tragedy to further the ends of rightwing extremists, here and abroad.

THE SAVAGE WAR IN CHECHNYA

by Eric S. Margolis

Chechen, a Muslim people of the Caucasus Mountains, have fiercely battled Russian occupation for 300 years. In hidden genocide during the 1940's, Stalin had thousands of Chechen shot and 500,000 (half the population) sent in cattle cars to frigid Central Asian concentration camps, where 25% died.
Survivors of Stalin's gulag filtered back to Chechnya in the 1960's. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Chechen, led by Gen. Jhokar Dudayev, declared independence. While Moscow allowed other republics independence, Chechen were denied freedom because of important oil pipelines that ran through their territory and Kremlin fears other Muslim peoples of the Caucasus would seek independence.

In 1994, Boris Yeltsin ordered an invasion of breakaway Chechnya. Much of the cost of the war was financed by the United States, which sought to support Yeltsin against his domestic political enemies. President Bill Clinton even called Yeltsin `Russia's Abraham Lincoln.' In a near military miracle, lightly-armed Chechen fighters defeated and drove out the Russian army, but at appalling cost. Russia razed the Chechen capital, Grozny, and killed an estimated 100,000 civilians. President Dudayev was assassinated by the Russians, thanks to secret electronic equipment supplied KGB by the US.

In 1996, Russia granted Chechnya de facto recognition and promised a referendum within five years to decide its future. Chechnya seemed free. But in 1999, in an eerie harbinger of the 9/11 attacks on the US, a series of mysterious explosions destroyed apartment buildings in Russia, killing 300 people. Then prime minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer, blamed `Islamic terrorist' Chechen `linked to bin Laden.' Russia was swept by nationalist fury and anti-Chechen hatred.

When a FSB (formerly KGB) team was caught planting bombs in another building, and a KGB officer blamed the bombings on the war party in Moscow, the news was hushed up. Putin became president, almost by acclaim, and promptly ordered another invasion of Chechnya.

In the Second Chechen War, 60,000 civilians have so far died in Russian shelling and bombing, according to Chechen sources; 170,000-are refugees. The tiny nation has been shattered, covered with mines, and turned into a nightmare free-fire zone for 80,000 ill-disciplined, often drunken Russian soldiers and Interior Ministry troops, who are paid special monthly bonuses to fight in Chechnya.

In spite of massive firepower, including devastating fuel air explosives and carpet bombing, Russian forces have failed to crush small bands of fierce Chechen mujihadin. In mass roundups called `zachistki,' Russians seize all male Chechen over 16, routinely torture and, often, execute them. International rights groups accuse Moscow of widescale murder, torture, rape, and looting.

War in Chechnya has degenerated into a savage battle of attrition, with atrocities and banditry committed by both sides. Moscow conducts its brutal operations under a blanket of secrecy. Foreign and Russian journalists who try to report the ugly truth about this conflict are killed or silenced. Russia has lost an estimated 10,000 soldiers killed, 66% of total losses in Afghanistan.

The Bush Administration has shamefully adopted Moscow's propaganda line by branding the Chechen independence fighters `Islamic terrorists,' the price of Kremlin support for its anti-Islamic campaign. The Kremlin now claims the hostage-taking was `Russia's 9/11.'

Not so. `Terrorism' is the only weapon the weak have against the mighty. Russia could end `terrorism' by finally giving Chechen the independence they have long sought and richly deserve - and be well rid of this pointless bloodbath. If America truly cared about human rights, it would be encouraging Moscow to set the Chechen free instead of turning a blind eye to what the rights group, the International Helsinki Federation, calls a second attempted genocide against this tortured, forgotten people.