The conflict the west
always ignores
Russian policy in Chechnya is breeding terrorists, writes Lindsey Hilsum
Two images from a forgotten war: an emaciated 13-year-old boy, unable to absorb food because of shrapnel in his stomach; and an old man who has lost
his mind and is yelping like a dog, then is calmed by the sight of his own face reflected in the small mirror that his
wife holds before
him.
The images are from 1999, when Russian troops went to pacify what President Vladimir Putin called "a bandit enclave". Five years later, the war in
Chechnya sputters on with no end in sight. Chechen rebels, who are mainly Muslims, lay landmines and ambushes that kill dozens of Russian soldiers
every month. The Russian security forces are reported to use death squads that
"disappear" anyone they think might support the rebels.
In the past year, a new force has come on the scene: a Chechen militia known as the "Kadyrovsky" because of its loyalty to Russia's puppet
president in Grozny, Akhmad Kadyrov.
The Kadyrovsky terrorises those who would resist his rule.
In Chechnya, human rights abuses and war crimes are
not aberrations but tactics, an integral part of a war that, according to the American aid
group Refugees International, has killed or driven into exile nearly
half the Chechen population. Atrocities carried out by Russian troops and
their proxies are well documented, but attract almost
no censure from European or American governments because Putin's war in Chechnya is
deemed to be part of the war on terror.
"We're not dealing with indifference. We're not dealing with ignorance. We're dealing with tactical expediency," said the former US national
security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski at a recent conference on Chechnya in Washington. "After 9/11, it is deemed better to sweep this issue under the
rug, even though we know better."
Despite considerable danger to its staff, the Russian human rights group Memorial
manages to document
atrocities. In one case, a young
woman described how masked men abducted her
brother, Aslanbek, after two Russian soldiers had been blown up near where he was tending the
family's cattle. She believed the kidnappers were Russian soldiers taking
revenge, even though her brother had nothing to do with the
explosion. "We are worried that we will never find his body and bury him," she said. "In Chechnya it is widely known that when people are
taken
without shoes, like Aslanbek was, it means they will
never be seen again."
Shoes, according to the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, which monitors Chechnya closely, are something that can identify a body.
The Russian army has
learnt how to cover its tracks.
The main reason to question the European and US policy of
turning a blind eye to the Chechen problem is that Russian tactics do not work. There
is no evidence that Russia's hard line in Chechnya has discouraged Chechens from joining the Islamist networks that threaten terror attacks in
Europe. On the contrary, the Russian campaign in Chechnya seems to be
breeding terrorists.
The latest are the "black widows", who have carried out a series of bomb attacks in Russia and were behind the 2002 Moscow theatre siege.
They
are the widows, mothers and sisters of Chechen men, mainly Islamists, who have been killed by the Russians. Last year, one killed 14 people and
injured 53 others at a rock concert in Moscow; and last month two detonated a bomb outside the National Hotel near the Kremlin. One thing that
Chechnya isn't short of is widows. The Russian response, according to the International Helsinki Federation, has been a
"growing number of crimes
targeted at women", including disappearances.
Now the war in Chechnya may be spreading to the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia. Last year,
Russian troops attacked Chechen refugee camps
in Ingushetia and several clashes between Russian and Chechen forces erupted on the Ingush side of the border. President Putin has just announced that
the remaining Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia must close by 1 March - two weeks before the Russian presidential elections.
Putin has no chance of being ousted, but it is
part of his election campaign to present the war in Chechnya as over. No matter if the refugees
have nowhere to go because their homes have been destroyed, nor if they fear the dangers that await them back home.
Only the bravest journalists report from Chechnya - the chances of being
kidnapped are high, while the cold, lack of electricity and general
misery of the place make it difficult to work in. Moreover, the news likes things that change and Chechnya never does - the violence may alter as new
forces appear, but the story essentially remains the same.
Tony Blair maintains that intervention in one place where people are tortured and oppressed doesn't mean we can or should intervene everywhere.
But Chechnya is a shameful example of western leaders refusing to confront another government on human rights abuses and war crimes because, in the
end, strategic and political issues matter more. Chechnya is complex and dangerous and miserable, and we just don't care enough to try to make a
difference.
A Chechen website provides a weekly report - this is week 228 of the war. In broken English, it catalogues pain and violence. Last week's entry
ended: "The world in which we live is full of dirt and meanness."
Lindsey Hilsum is the Channel 4 News diplomatic correspondent
So i guess, if that's how the Russian treating Chechnya. Kidnapping Children, Journalists, Innocent people from their houses, murdering while
everyone turning a blind eye on them. I wouldn't be surprised if anything *similar* goes in Russia . . .
