5.9.04
::KAVKAZ CENTER::
Wheel of war
After five years since the Russian-Chechen war started Russia received a pretty deplorable result of the actions that it has done. In Chechnya the Resistance is not getting any weaker, the conflict is getting aggravated, and it already crossed the boundary where a compromise like the Khasavyurt Accord could have been possible. For a long time Russian party of war has been condemning the 'traitors', who did not let the brave warriors finish Chechens off back during the first war. But now everybody can see that the so-called 'traitors' were the ones who actually saved the 'honor of cloth', the 'esprit de corps' of the Russian army. General Lebed was straightforward when admitting that in 1996 Chechen troops were preparing the parade of Russian prisoners-of-war in the liberated Chechen capital, just like the Soviet Union did to Germans after the WW II. The infamy was no joke, and this fact alone was the reason for Russians to sign peace agreement with Chechen President Maskhadov.
But today the Kremlin regime has driven itself into an impasse. And during the existing regime there is no way out of it for at least the next few years to come. But the war has already been continuing for five years, and time-wise it is comparable to the World War II. And if you add two more years of the first war, -- that’s almost like the Afghan epic.
A war has its own logic of development: as time goes by, more and more nations, countries and territories get drawn into the war, let alone the interests of certain groups. A war can never exist in just one phase for a long time: it either subsides, when one of the sides gets defeated, or it has the tendency to expand. In our case we apparently have the second option present.
The war operation, which is supposed to 'uproot terrorism' in Chechnya has led to the fact that the entire Russia is turning into the arena of retaliatory actions today. Chechen people have been 'liberated' so much that they are now ready to do anything to get rid of Russia.
So far the West is speculating on the Russian-Chechen war and seeking unprecedented concessions from Russia in exchange for keeping quiet about it. At the same time there is the draft process of compiling the materials about Chechnya going on for sure: the day will come, and political expediency will instantly turn the Western governments into upholders of human rights and defenders of oppressed nations. And the Chechen nation first of all, which «turned out to undergo genocide!», «And that’s in Europe, in the 21st century!».
But today it’s not time yet, and the West is silent so far. And meanwhile the war is spreading across the Caucasus and Russia slow and steady.
Strategically, Dagestan and Ingushetia are the most vulnerable republics. It is due to their geographical location as well – they are Chechnya's next-door neighbors. It is also due to the situation in these republics, which is far from being stable.
The fact that the spreading of the conflict is really posing a threat to Russia's integrity is evident, and Moscow’s arguments that the war was unleashed in order to save Russia are hardly convincing anymore.
Political shortsightedness of leaderships of Dagestan and Ingushetia is surprising. The existing system of power in Dagestan maintains the formal interethnic reconciliation in the republic, while in reality the situation is so explosive that the fire may break out within days. Sabotage units of Dagestani Mujahideen (Resistance Fighters) have been more and more active and more and more determined lately. And the tensions are most likely to be escalating.
Ingushetia has its own problems, which started getting aggravated once FSB/KGB agent Zyazikov was appointed as its president. The main problem is Chechen refugees, whom Russian government ordered to be sent back to Chechnya. Moscow’s order has virtually been fulfilled and… the republic has lost its last argument in favor of undesirability of the war on its soil.
Over the past couple of years abductions and murders have been actively practiced in Ingushetia. Death squads of Russian FSB and GRU (Russian military intelligence), Kadyrov’s collaborators, Ossetian pro-Russian armed groups with badges of Russian secret services and other formations of thugs have been running the show in Ingushetia with complete appeasement and spinelessness of Zyazikov.
Russian secret services have been conducting so-called 'residential security sweeps' ('residential cleansings') in 'suspicious households' and taking people away by using the formula «we’ll figure it out once we get there», and oftentimes they would just shoot the innocent people right in their homes.
Ingushetian pro-Moscow police have killed dozens of Chechen people, mainly young men, during all sorts of raids and other actions. It has been done (and it is still being done) in a quite simple way: they open fire point-blank, and then they plant a grenade on the people, as if the victims were suicide bombers. Hundreds of people have been taken hostage, many of them just disappeared and their fate still remains unknown.
The fight against believers has become more active too. Mainly, the young people are getting accused of practicing 'Wahabism' (Russian version of Islamic extremism). It even went as far as the Office of Muftis of the Republic of Ingushetia banned people from praying wherever they want and whichever way they want to. The authorities are getting involved in all of these seemingly religious arguments, which is far from promoting pacification.
The opposition to Moscow’s appointee Zyazikov is not slumbering either. The outrage about today’s leadership is getting stronger and stronger in the republic. The pro-Moscow government is being accused of corruption and poor economic situation, weakness of power and lack of any independence from Moscow, as well as the presence of a large number of Russian troops, encouragement of murders and kidnappings and many other things.
All of it resulted in the events that happened June 22, when the attempt of Zyazikov’s puppet regime to conceal the total tyranny in the republic behind the smokescreen of deceitful statements and TV lies, had cost Ingushetia several hundreds of killed and wounded.
Ruslan Ismailov, Nazran, Ingushetia.
For Kavkaz-Center
2004-08-10 00:45:55
Wheel of war
After five years since the Russian-Chechen war started Russia received a pretty deplorable result of the actions that it has done. In Chechnya the Resistance is not getting any weaker, the conflict is getting aggravated, and it already crossed the boundary where a compromise like the Khasavyurt Accord could have been possible. For a long time Russian party of war has been condemning the 'traitors', who did not let the brave warriors finish Chechens off back during the first war. But now everybody can see that the so-called 'traitors' were the ones who actually saved the 'honor of cloth', the 'esprit de corps' of the Russian army. General Lebed was straightforward when admitting that in 1996 Chechen troops were preparing the parade of Russian prisoners-of-war in the liberated Chechen capital, just like the Soviet Union did to Germans after the WW II. The infamy was no joke, and this fact alone was the reason for Russians to sign peace agreement with Chechen President Maskhadov.
But today the Kremlin regime has driven itself into an impasse. And during the existing regime there is no way out of it for at least the next few years to come. But the war has already been continuing for five years, and time-wise it is comparable to the World War II. And if you add two more years of the first war, -- that’s almost like the Afghan epic.
A war has its own logic of development: as time goes by, more and more nations, countries and territories get drawn into the war, let alone the interests of certain groups. A war can never exist in just one phase for a long time: it either subsides, when one of the sides gets defeated, or it has the tendency to expand. In our case we apparently have the second option present.
The war operation, which is supposed to 'uproot terrorism' in Chechnya has led to the fact that the entire Russia is turning into the arena of retaliatory actions today. Chechen people have been 'liberated' so much that they are now ready to do anything to get rid of Russia.
So far the West is speculating on the Russian-Chechen war and seeking unprecedented concessions from Russia in exchange for keeping quiet about it. At the same time there is the draft process of compiling the materials about Chechnya going on for sure: the day will come, and political expediency will instantly turn the Western governments into upholders of human rights and defenders of oppressed nations. And the Chechen nation first of all, which «turned out to undergo genocide!», «And that’s in Europe, in the 21st century!».
But today it’s not time yet, and the West is silent so far. And meanwhile the war is spreading across the Caucasus and Russia slow and steady.
Strategically, Dagestan and Ingushetia are the most vulnerable republics. It is due to their geographical location as well – they are Chechnya's next-door neighbors. It is also due to the situation in these republics, which is far from being stable.
The fact that the spreading of the conflict is really posing a threat to Russia's integrity is evident, and Moscow’s arguments that the war was unleashed in order to save Russia are hardly convincing anymore.
Political shortsightedness of leaderships of Dagestan and Ingushetia is surprising. The existing system of power in Dagestan maintains the formal interethnic reconciliation in the republic, while in reality the situation is so explosive that the fire may break out within days. Sabotage units of Dagestani Mujahideen (Resistance Fighters) have been more and more active and more and more determined lately. And the tensions are most likely to be escalating.
Ingushetia has its own problems, which started getting aggravated once FSB/KGB agent Zyazikov was appointed as its president. The main problem is Chechen refugees, whom Russian government ordered to be sent back to Chechnya. Moscow’s order has virtually been fulfilled and… the republic has lost its last argument in favor of undesirability of the war on its soil.
Over the past couple of years abductions and murders have been actively practiced in Ingushetia. Death squads of Russian FSB and GRU (Russian military intelligence), Kadyrov’s collaborators, Ossetian pro-Russian armed groups with badges of Russian secret services and other formations of thugs have been running the show in Ingushetia with complete appeasement and spinelessness of Zyazikov.
Russian secret services have been conducting so-called 'residential security sweeps' ('residential cleansings') in 'suspicious households' and taking people away by using the formula «we’ll figure it out once we get there», and oftentimes they would just shoot the innocent people right in their homes.
Ingushetian pro-Moscow police have killed dozens of Chechen people, mainly young men, during all sorts of raids and other actions. It has been done (and it is still being done) in a quite simple way: they open fire point-blank, and then they plant a grenade on the people, as if the victims were suicide bombers. Hundreds of people have been taken hostage, many of them just disappeared and their fate still remains unknown.
The fight against believers has become more active too. Mainly, the young people are getting accused of practicing 'Wahabism' (Russian version of Islamic extremism). It even went as far as the Office of Muftis of the Republic of Ingushetia banned people from praying wherever they want and whichever way they want to. The authorities are getting involved in all of these seemingly religious arguments, which is far from promoting pacification.
The opposition to Moscow’s appointee Zyazikov is not slumbering either. The outrage about today’s leadership is getting stronger and stronger in the republic. The pro-Moscow government is being accused of corruption and poor economic situation, weakness of power and lack of any independence from Moscow, as well as the presence of a large number of Russian troops, encouragement of murders and kidnappings and many other things.
All of it resulted in the events that happened June 22, when the attempt of Zyazikov’s puppet regime to conceal the total tyranny in the republic behind the smokescreen of deceitful statements and TV lies, had cost Ingushetia several hundreds of killed and wounded.
Ruslan Ismailov, Nazran, Ingushetia.
For Kavkaz-Center
2004-08-10 00:45:55
