Did Clinton get the peace message in Moscow?

by CHRIS HUNTER

<*> While a huge Soviet-style military parade thundered across Red Square on 9 May, marking "50 Years of Victory Over Fascism", a small group of Buddhist monks and Quakers gathered outside the Kremlin to protest against Russia's brutal war in Chechnya.

The group of 12 marched down central Moscow's New Arbat Street, passed the Lenin Library, then continued on towards the Borovitskaya Gates of the Kremlin. Small as the group was, with the Buddhist monks chanting and beating a drum, it was widely noted.

They remained near the Kremlin for over half an hour and were in full view of western leaders leaving the Kremlin after an evening banquet hosted by President Boris Yeltsin.

President Bill Clinton could be seen reading the protesters' banner, "Remember--the genocide in Chechnya continues."

At 9.20pm the militia took action against the demonstrators, grabbing them and pushing them away. The seven Buddhist monks, from Russia, the Ukraine and Japan, were taken away in a militia van, reportedly to city police headquarters at the Lubyanka.

The Russian military parade included 9,900 soldiers, 253 tanks and 70 war planes. Many of the soldiers taking part had been brought from the war in Chechnya and are shortly to return there.

President Clinton, Chancellor Kohl, Prime Minister Major and President Mitterand chose not to review the military parade as a gesture of objection to the Chechnya war. Fierce clashes had been reported in the Chechen capital, Grozny, and other area of Chechnya in the days leading up to the anniversary.

Russian troops also held a parade through the ruins of Grozny but few Chechens joined in the celebrations. They recall that in 1944 Stalin wrongly accused the Chechens and Ingush peoples of collaborating with the Germans and deported large numbers to Siberia and Kazahkstan in cattle trucks. "We have little to celebrate," a Chechen woman in Moscow told me.