"To wipe Chechen civilization off the map..."
08/31/2002 | Костя П.
Прекрасна стаття про забутих чеченців від відомого автора.
We Are the Lost Ones' The Chechens know they have been forgotten by the West.
Washington Post
By Anne Nivat
Wednesday, August 21, 2002;
Page A17
The dramatic crash of a Russian military helicopter in Chechnya this week, in which more than 100 members of the armed services were killed, was a reminder to those in the West of something many of them have forgotten in recent years: The Chechnya war goes on. It may be worse then ever.
Over the past three years, I have traveled extensively throughout the tiny, mountainous republic, determined to report fairly on this forgotten conflict, which the Kremlin would like very much for the rest of the world to ignore. The West needs to know that the real and intended casualties have mostly been Chechen civilians, local independence-minded governments, the Chechen economy and the people's nonaggressive Sufi Muslim culture.
The Russians, lacking dramatic military successes, have managed to defuse Western criticism by designating the conflict an "anti-terrorist operation." They have depicted the Chechen people as bloodthirsty terrorists who would impose Islamic law on other Caucasian republics. Today even educated Muscovites commonly say there is nothing wrong with killing Chechen noncombatants, even babies.
Returning to Chechnya in June, I was hoping to find that the situation was "under the process of normalizing," as the Kremlin puts it. High-ranking military officials have repeatedly said the "military phase has been over" in Chechnya since March 2000. Instead I found that the situation was deteriorating.
Many Chechens are preoccupied with planning ways to avoid the "zachistkas," the frightening, out-of-control raids of villages by masked soldiers searching for young Chechen males. These operations are conducted every day by the Russian army. Afterward, families search out the fate of loved ones who were dragged off. In every village, young men have disappeared. Some lucky ones return after their families pay for their release. Many never come back. Chechens with whom I survived long hours of aerial bombardment during the peak of the war in winter 1999-2000 talk of their fear that any male between the ages of 12 and 60 can now disappear without a trace at any moment.
[...]
I arrived in Meskert-Yurt, a large village of 5,000 inhabitants, two days after the end of one of these "mopping-up" operations, an exceptionally long one lasting from May 21 to June 11. What I saw defies description. In late May, in a scenario that replays itself over and over, the village was sealed off -- encircled by masked Russian soldiers. Although an order from the Kremlin known as "Decree Number 80" forbade masks and mandated identification of the soldiers and of the raid's purpose, it was ignored by the perpetrators.
The method in all these operations is the same: Under the pretext of searching for rebels, the military enters each house, terrorizes every family and drags away one or more civilian men, mostly very young ones, even if their documents are legitimate.
[..]
[...]
This is the new Russian military strategy: to avoid formal combat and air bombardment and to multiply the clandestine raids under the pretext that terrorists hide in these villages.
[...]
There is no outcry in the West about a war fought on the very edges of Europe. We seem to have heeded Russia's justification for it: that this, too, is a war on terrorism. President Vladimir Putin is welcomed as a colleague and treated as a friend -- especially after Sept. 11 -- by heads of state across Europe and in the United States. But by showing its willingness to wipe Chechen civilization off the map in order to prevent a people's independence, Russia tells us a great deal about how it might behave with its own citizens under the pretext of "maintaining order."
Anne Nivat is a Moscow-based writer. Her book "Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya" won the 2000 Albert Londres Award in France.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
We Are the Lost Ones' The Chechens know they have been forgotten by the West.
Washington Post
By Anne Nivat
Wednesday, August 21, 2002;
Page A17
The dramatic crash of a Russian military helicopter in Chechnya this week, in which more than 100 members of the armed services were killed, was a reminder to those in the West of something many of them have forgotten in recent years: The Chechnya war goes on. It may be worse then ever.
Over the past three years, I have traveled extensively throughout the tiny, mountainous republic, determined to report fairly on this forgotten conflict, which the Kremlin would like very much for the rest of the world to ignore. The West needs to know that the real and intended casualties have mostly been Chechen civilians, local independence-minded governments, the Chechen economy and the people's nonaggressive Sufi Muslim culture.
The Russians, lacking dramatic military successes, have managed to defuse Western criticism by designating the conflict an "anti-terrorist operation." They have depicted the Chechen people as bloodthirsty terrorists who would impose Islamic law on other Caucasian republics. Today even educated Muscovites commonly say there is nothing wrong with killing Chechen noncombatants, even babies.
Returning to Chechnya in June, I was hoping to find that the situation was "under the process of normalizing," as the Kremlin puts it. High-ranking military officials have repeatedly said the "military phase has been over" in Chechnya since March 2000. Instead I found that the situation was deteriorating.
Many Chechens are preoccupied with planning ways to avoid the "zachistkas," the frightening, out-of-control raids of villages by masked soldiers searching for young Chechen males. These operations are conducted every day by the Russian army. Afterward, families search out the fate of loved ones who were dragged off. In every village, young men have disappeared. Some lucky ones return after their families pay for their release. Many never come back. Chechens with whom I survived long hours of aerial bombardment during the peak of the war in winter 1999-2000 talk of their fear that any male between the ages of 12 and 60 can now disappear without a trace at any moment.
[...]
I arrived in Meskert-Yurt, a large village of 5,000 inhabitants, two days after the end of one of these "mopping-up" operations, an exceptionally long one lasting from May 21 to June 11. What I saw defies description. In late May, in a scenario that replays itself over and over, the village was sealed off -- encircled by masked Russian soldiers. Although an order from the Kremlin known as "Decree Number 80" forbade masks and mandated identification of the soldiers and of the raid's purpose, it was ignored by the perpetrators.
The method in all these operations is the same: Under the pretext of searching for rebels, the military enters each house, terrorizes every family and drags away one or more civilian men, mostly very young ones, even if their documents are legitimate.
[..]
[...]
This is the new Russian military strategy: to avoid formal combat and air bombardment and to multiply the clandestine raids under the pretext that terrorists hide in these villages.
[...]
There is no outcry in the West about a war fought on the very edges of Europe. We seem to have heeded Russia's justification for it: that this, too, is a war on terrorism. President Vladimir Putin is welcomed as a colleague and treated as a friend -- especially after Sept. 11 -- by heads of state across Europe and in the United States. But by showing its willingness to wipe Chechen civilization off the map in order to prevent a people's independence, Russia tells us a great deal about how it might behave with its own citizens under the pretext of "maintaining order."
Anne Nivat is a Moscow-based writer. Her book "Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya" won the 2000 Albert Londres Award in France.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
Відповіді
2002.09.01 | Мертві Бджоли Загудуть
Едюковані Московити жадають крові чеченських немовлят
Це сильно:> Today even educated Muscovites commonly say there is nothing wrong with killing Chechen noncombatants, even babies.
У Чечні відбувається справжній геноцид, а весь світ відвернув свої писки і мовчить. Але в історії такі злочини задармо не лишаються. Буде ще клопіт москалям, ой буде.
За усіх тих замордованих "інородців" буде Москві страшна кара. Прийде час, раніше чи пізніше - москалям вже від того не втекти, бо самі свою могилу викопують у Чечні.