Chechnya's agony

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20040214-112852-4962r.htm

As the media remains fixated on Iraq and the next

outlandish comment to come out of the mouth of Howard
Dean, there is a major news story receiving very
little attention: the slow, creeping genocide in
Chechnya.

Russian President Vladimir Putin insists his troops

are conducting a military campaign aimed at wiping out
"Islamic international terrorism" from the war-torn
southern province. Using the global war on terrorism
as a pretext to consolidate Moscow's iron grip over
the breakaway republic, the Russian army has been
waging a war of extermination against the Chechen
people.

Yet the West has been silent in the face of Russia's

genocidal campaign. Instead of demanding the Kremlin
withdraw its forces and negotiate a peace settlement
with Chechen leaders, the Bush administration
continues its shameful policy of neglect.

President Bush is convinced that, after looking into

"the soul" of Mr. Putin, the former KGB apparatchik is
an important ally in the war on terrorism. Washington
has accepted Moscow's line that the issue of Chechnya
is a Russian "internal matter." Mr. Bush would be
better served if he looked at Mr. Putin's actions.

Before the conflict began nearly a decade ago, there

were approximately 1 million Chechens in the small
mountainous republic in the Caucusus. Since then,
human-rights activists estimate hundreds of thousands
have been displaced, thousands more have simply
"disappeared" and more than one-fourth of the
population is believed to have died.

A report last year by the Council of Europe documented

extensive human-rights violations by Russian forces,
including widespread torture of Chechens.

Also, the Russian army has launched a scorched-earth

campaign, seeking not only to cripple the Chechen
nation, but its economy and physical environment as
well. Its capital, Grozny, is in ruins. Most of
Chechnya's land has been devastated by defoliants. The
remainder of the population is slowly dying through a
combination of war, disease and sky-rocketing suicide.

Sadly, Chechnya's plight is not new. In terms of

proportionate losses and victims of genocide, three

peoples suffered the most during the 20th century:
Jews, Gypsies and Chechens. In 1944, Soviet dictator
Josef Stalin deported most of the Chechen nation to
the icy far east to punish them for their staunch
opposition to communism. More than half of all
Chechens died during the murderous operation, many of
them freezing to death or simply butchered by Red Army
troops.

Following the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991,

the surviving Chechens returned to their native land.
From 1994 until 1996, they fought a courageous war for
independence against Russian imperial rule. An intense
guerrilla campaign by Chechen tribal clans forced
Russian troops to retreat.

But in 1999 Moscow sought to reassert its authority in

another invasion. The conflict continues to this day,
with Chechen civilians the primary victims (about
5,000 Russian soldiers also have died).

Moscow's brutal occupation has convinced most Chechens

to abandon their dreams of national sovereignty; many
now would gladly accept some form of autonomy. Yet Mr.
Putin refuses to even consider the idea. He demands
world leaders accept the notion every Chechen leader
is a terrorist. Therefore, Russia's hawks argue

peaceful compromise is impossible, and the only viable

solution is all-out military victory regardless of
the humanitarian consequences.

The Kremlin's line is not completely without merit.

During the past several years, Chechnya has attracted
international Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia,
Afghanistan and other Arab states. The goal of the
militants is to forge a fundamentalist Muslim
republic. However, most of the Chechen rebels are not
Islamic extremists, but romantic nationalists seeking
to defend Chechen rights against an increasingly
authoritarian Russia.

The savage war in Chechnya is simply one component in

Russia's evolution from a fledgling democracy into a
repressive corporate state. Rather than a pro-European
Westernizer, Mr. Putin has shown himself to be a
Russian Francisco Franco or Augusto Pinochet: a
right-wing strongman who champions social order and
market-driven economic growth. Under his leadership,
Moscow has begun flexing its muscles against
neighboring countries, leading dissidents such as
tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky have been arrested on
trumped-up charges and basic press freedoms and civil
rights have come under assault.

The West's appeasement of Russia risks emboldening the

Kremlin to continue its anti-democratic and

expansionist policies.

Moreover, failure to condemn Mr. Putin's genocidal

rampage in Chechnya threatens to open Western
governments to charges of hypocrisy. Although it took
decisive action to stop the Serbs' ethnic cleansing
campaigns in Kosovo and Bosnia, the West refuses to
lift a finger to help prevent the tragedy unfolding in
the Russian province.

Yet unlike the discovery of the Nazi death camps after

the Second World War, this time the civilized world
cannot claim the excuse of lacking knowledge of the
horrors occurring in Chechnya. We know. We just don't
care.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a historian and contributing

writer for The Washington Times.

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A History Written In Chechen Blood

By Khassan Baiev
Tuesday, February 24, 2004; Page A21

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A802-2004Feb23.html

Yesterday was Armed Services Day in Russia, so, of

course, there were observances in Moscow. But
yesterday also was the 60th anniversary of a Soviet
crime perpetrated against the Chechen people -- and,
of course, there was no official observance in Moscow.
In fact, a proposed ceremony was banned, and the small
number of people who nevertheless gathered to
solemnize the event were dispersed by the police. But
the past will not be so easily dispersed -- it must be
dealt with if there is to be a political settlement of
the cruel Chechen conflict.

The crime was Joseph Stalin's deportation of the

Chechens on Feb. 23, 1944. This event is to Chechens

what the Holocaust is to the Jews or the genocide is
to the Armenians. That day, when Stalin packed the
Chechen population of 1 million into cattle cars and
shipped them to the wastes of Siberia and Central
Asia, lies in our collective memory. One-third of the
population died on the journey. Many others perished
under the harsh conditions of exile.

During Soviet times, the deportation was a taboo

subject, talked about behind closed doors. As a small
boy, most of what I learned was from old women
gathered in our kitchen. Once, when they thought I
wasn't listening, I heard my mother tell my sisters
how women were so ashamed to relieve themselves in the
railroad cars in front of men that they held on until
their bladders burst. Only when I was 14 years old did
I understand the true horror of what had happened.
That summer my father showed my twin brother and me
the cliff near our ancestral village of Makazhoi, over
which troops of the NKVD (the secret police of the
time) pushed resisters, including some of our
relatives.

Stalin claimed that the Chechens were Nazi

sympathizers. This was an insult to most Chechens,
including my father, who fought on the northeastern
front and was wounded during World War II. In spite of

his wounds, my father was ordered deported. He

returned to Chechnya from Kazakhstan in 1959 after
Nikita Khrushchev allowed the Chechens to go home.
Only after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power were my
father and other Chechens who fought in the war
recognized as veterans and given pensions. He wore his
medals with pride.

Chechnya has been struggling for independence for 400

years. The 1944 deportation is not the only one we
have suffered. Chechens were pressured to leave for
Turkey, Jordan and Syria in the 19th century. In view
of our history and what is going on in Chechnya today,
it is not surprising that we believe Russia wants to
liquidate us.

About one-quarter of our population has been killed

since 1994. Fifty percent of the Chechen nation now
lives outside Chechnya. Ethnographers say that when
this happens, a nation ceases to exist. Estimates
claim that 75 percent of the Chechen environment is
contaminated. I recall a physician from Doctors
Without Borders telling me, "The Russians don't need
to bomb you, the environment will kill you." I didn't
believe it at the time. But now as a doctor I can
testify that Chechnya is a medical disaster area.
Pediatricians report that one-third of children are
born with birth defects. Drug-resistant tuberculosis

is rampant. The population is suffering from

post-traumatic stress. Depression and insomnia are
widespread. Young men are having heart attacks.

As in all modern wars, including Iraq, the main

victims are civilians. In Chechnya, the human rights
violations, documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International, Physicians for Human Rights and
Russia's Memorial, are horrendous. Chechnya has become
a lucrative business operated by the Russian military
and its Chechen criminal collaborators. Their trade is
kidnapping young men, selling corpses back to
relatives, looting property, stealing oil and selling
guns.

In August 2000, Russian soldiers burst into my

sister's house and removed my 20-year-old nephew Ali.
He was tortured and held in a pit for 39 days until
his release was negotiated. It cost our family $10,000
and eight rifles to get his freedom.

The Kremlin has done a brilliant job of convincing the

world that Chechens are bandits and terrorists. Yes,
horrible acts of violence are committed in Chechnya,
not only by Russians but by some criminal Chechens.
But Chechen killings, including the suicide bombings,
are largely motivated by a desire to take revenge for
a family member killed by the Russians. People who

have lost everything think they have nothing more to

live for. They are desperate. Blood revenge, rather
than religious extremism imported from the Middle
East, governs the violence. And I believe it will
continue as long as 100,000 Russian troops remain in
Chechnya.

Acts of terrorism are also being committed outside

Chechnya, such as the recent subway bombing in Moscow.
The Chechens are immediately blamed for these barbaric
acts before any investigation takes place. Repression
follows. Meanwhile, Russian newspaper articles and two
recent books suggest that the Russian secret police
played a role in earlier bombings.

Unlike my generation, which lived in comparative peace

with Russia, today's young Chechens are growing up
full of hatred for Russians. The younger generation is
ignoring our traditions. They no longer obey their
elders. If world nations do nothing to support a peace
settlement in Chechnya, there is no guarantee that
these young people won't be radicalized or forced into
the arms of religious fanatics. Then Russia will have
a far more serious problem with history and terrorism
than it has today.

The writer, a Chechen physician, received political

asylum in the United States in 2000. He is the author

of "The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire."

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