Sian Glaessner
"The two stacks of hay there had been burnt; the apricot and cherry trees he had planted and reared were broken and scorched; and, worse still, all the beehives and bees were burnt. The wailing of the women, and of the little children who cried with their mothers, mingled with the lowing of the hungry cattle, for whom there was no food. The bigger children did not play, but followed their elders with frightened eyes. The fountain was polluted, evidently on purpose, so that the water could not be used. No one spoke of hatred of the Russians. The feeling experienced by all the Chechens, from the youngest to the oldest, was stronger than hate."
Leo Tolstoy: Hadji Murat, 1904
"Who will remember the Jews, after all... who today remembers the Armenians?" Adolf Hitler
As reports of Chechenrebel commander Aslan Maskhadov's death flooded the Russian media in early March 2005,an equally sensational announcement by Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov passed unnoticed.
He was increasing the Russian Federal Troop presence in Chechnya by 5,000 men, bringing it to a total of 80,000. This stands in direct contradiction to the Russian Government's "withdrawal" rhetoric.
Over the past three years,Putin and his ministers have repeatedly emphasised thedegree to which they have withdrawn from the conflict,leaving it in the capable hands of the "independent" ChechenGovernment.
They make it sound like theChechen Government is in con trol and war is but a distantmemory. In fact, little has changed since the second waveof offensives was launched by the Russian government againstChechnya in October 1999.
Numbers game
According to Russian statistics, the Russian Federation lost1000 personnel in Chechnya in
2001, and 250 in 2004. Minis -ters parade these figures before the press in an attempt to dis -tract attention from the continuing war. Fewer people are dying,they say, so you can see it is becoming more peaceful--andas for Chechen casualties--we are even paying compensation. The Regional Operational Headquarters for the Counter -terrorist operation in the North Caucasus likewise issues state -ments about the rebuilding of residential areas, compensationpaid, guerrilla troops killed. But talk to Oleg Khotin, com -mander of the provisional unit ed federal police forces inChechnya, and he'll tell you that 532 of his men have beenkilled or wounded in the first quarter of 2004. He doesn't talkof success, peace or "normality".
The Chechen Government istotally dependent on the pres ence of Russian Federal Forceswho take increasingly punitive measures against the populationof a country that has been dragged through war and terrorby two successive Russian regimes, in a pattern of eventsstrangely reminiscent of the Russian Empire's first attemptat "pacifying" the region.
The disappeared
If, as Putin continually reas sures us, there is no longer awar in Chechnya, what are these troops there for? Not"reconstruction" as the Regional Operative HQ website proudlydeclares; Russian Forces are actively engaged in a campaignof "state terrorism" against the
civilian population of Chech -nya. Human Rights W atch (HRW) has detailed this in arecent report (http://hrw .org/ b a c k g r o u n d e r / e c a /chechnya0305/3.htm#_Toc987 59252), as have the UN and theEU. HRW has detailed the cases of 43 people "disap -peared" in 2004, and quotes the government figure for similarcases since 1999 of 3,000- 5,000, but the real total is like -ly to be much higher.
Whether the attacking forcesspeak Russian (as was the case in most disappearances thattook place in 2001-2002), or Chechen (as is increasinglybeing reported), the actual attack runs to a fairly standardpattern as in this example taken from the HR W report: "[...]on the night of 3 July 2004, a large group of soldiers in twoAPCs arrived at the village of Assinovskaia in western Chech -nya. The soldiers, who witness es said were drunk, searched thehouse of the Ilaev family and took away all the males whohad been staying in the house that night --Adlan Ilaev (b1987) Inver Ilaev (b1982), Rustam Ilaev (b1974), and KazbekBataev (b1983). The soldiers also took money , jewellery, aspare tyre, and a car battery that they found in the house. Rela -tives learned through unofficial sources that the servicemen whocarried out the operation were members of `military intelli -gence unit no12,' and that the four missing men had been seenin August 2004 by other detainees at the Khankala mili tary base, located just outsideGrozny. Although the local prosecutor's office opened acriminal case into the abduction, so far the family has received noofficial information of the detainees' fate or whereabouts."There is no redress for vic tims, few court cases arebrought, and many thousands of families are unable to findout whether their disappeared relatives, usually men between18 and 60, are alive or dead. On the ground in Chechnya localhuman rights groups--Russian or international--have theirwork obstructed daily by Russ ian Forces' threats and intimi -dation, and the Russian Gov ernment accuses them of beingin the pay of international ter rorist organisations.
You can't hide
International governmental or NGO censure seems to carrylittle weight with a President surrounded by a KGB coteriewho accuse him of being too liberal. He feels he has little tofear from the W est as US/UK criticism has been renderedmeaningless by the attack on and occupation of Iraq. Europedepends on Russia for much of its oil and gas supply , and soPutin can be confident that "They bought it from Brezh -nev--they'll buy it from me."
The Russian governmentwould like us to for get what life is like in Chechnya. They do notwant us to know that martial law is the norm and everyonelives in fear of the next round of disappearances, that murder, torture and rape are carried out bygovernment officials with as much ease and regularity asteam lunches in Whitehall.
Resistance grows
But all across the Russian Fed eration, and in other formerSoviet republics in the CIS, people are refusing to tow theline. They refused to be brain washed by the anti-Chechenpropaganda t hat fills the sched ule--news and drama--of state-run TV. Too many conscripts have come home to Mother Rus-sia mentally scarred, physically mutilated, or in coffins. T oomany have disappeared "missing in action" in the oil-drenchedfield of battle.
From St Petersburg to Vladi -vostock there are regular anti war protests. Russia' s youth,inspired by the Ukraine' s "orange revolution", and scaredof government plans to remove student exemptions from con -scription, are mobilising on an unprecedented scale.
Students were integral tofacilitating the pensioners' protests that caused weeks ofdisruption throughout the Russian Federation in January ,creating websites that enabled local groups to see where elsegroups were taking action and undermining the Governmentsattempts to dismiss the actions as a few stroppy old folk.
In 2008 Putin must stand down, or break the constitu -tion. There are rumours he will rewrite it to allow him to standagain, or create a unified state with Belarus. It is likely thatafter the G8 meet in Moscow in 2006 he will re-form the Russ -ian constitution in an even more authoritarian mould.
It is imperative that we now recognise the excellent workbeing done throughout Russia to oppose this, and that we lis -ten to the people who are brave enough to take action againstthe genocide in the Caucasus.
See http://ags-cpcd.narod.ru/english/index.html
and http://yhrm.hrworld.ru/index.shtml#a
Sian Glaessner is an independent journalist and regular PN contributor.
