Chechnya being isolated from the rest of the world has served the Russians well in their three centuries of attempts to annihilate a people. Deported to Kazakhstan, 30,000 died in fields of hunger and cold. That is the reality that is missing from the world’s condoning of Russia’s self-perpetuated act of terrorism.

Between 1994 and 1996 alone, Russia killed 100,000 Chechen civilians, then scattered 17 million anti-personnel landmines throughout Chechnya. To Shamil Basayev and Khattab, the capital Grozny had no strategic importance. However, Russia’s obsession with this small country was explained, by former Russian President Yeltsin, as the fear of a “domino effect” on surrounding countries, if Islam was to spread beyond Chechen borders. This is in light of the fact that Chechnya sits on the borders of oil reserves belonging to Central Asian states that were once valued at $28 billion.

The plight of the Chechens has been taken up by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has done much to raise the alarm at the United Nations, but to no avail. The alarm concerned the “forced disappearances” of Chechens. “Forced disappearances,” as defined by HRW, is when “...persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.”

The UN Commission on Human Rights established a Working Group on this issue in 1980. In 1992, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. Unfortunately, though the crime is recognized internationally as a multiple human rights violation, the Declaration is not legally binding, though it is included in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the Russian Federation is a party.

However, by terming the 1999 war on Chechnya as an anti-terrorist operation, the situation falls under “national emergency,” which allows for a suspension of some rights, and in today’s global climate, is subject to interpretation.

HRW, in their letter to NATO, argued that the new relationship between NATO and Russia has compromised any hope of the end to the suffering of the Chechens. Early this year, Russian troops carried-out massive sweep operations, detaining hundreds of Chechens, similar to those conducted in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. The basis has been the same - that they are communities suspected of harboring rebels. The whereabouts of the detained remain unknown. Chechen families were not informed of the whereabouts of relatives that had been forcibly detained. Those released had been tortured, others were executed. Access to Chechnya has been denied to HRW several times; as such, they resorted to interviews with victims, families of victims, and witnesses in neighboring countries.

After placing Grozny under siege in 2000, followed by 40 days of fighting, Grozny was razed to the ground using iron bombs, surface-to-surface missiles, high-explosive warheads, massed artillery, tank fire and fuel-air explosives. Fuel air explosives are detonated with a scattering charge and contain volatile gases, liquids or powdered explosives to form an aerosol cloud. This cloud is then ignited, causing a fireball that sears the surrounding area, consuming oxygen and creating a blast wave. If caught under the cloud, one is “literally crushed to death,” according to the US Marine Gazette. The blast wave travels at 3,000 meters per second, causing a vacuum that pulls loose objects in to fill the created void. The Gazette states that this is tactically equivalent to a nuclear weapon without the residual radiation – an environmentally friendly weapon of destruction! With Grozny flattened, continuous incursions then took place.

Up until May 2000, 10,000 Chechens had been detained. At the office of Vladimir Kalamanov, 793 persons were registered missing. To abate international condemnation, a superficial system of recourse was put in place, but the civilian prosecutors lack the authority to investigate crimes committed by the military, and military prosecutors make no effort to look into allegations. In a 49-page report entitled “Last Seen… Continued Disappearances,” HRW stated that the Russian authorities continued to block investigations by transferring accused security and law enforcement personnel to avoid questioning.

Even the US once referred to the Chechen situation as one that “contributes to an environment that is favorable to terrorism.” Unfortunately, these true words lose currency within the borders of occupied territories.

While the world is looking at Chechens as Muslims (a label to identify and admonish with), not as humans with a history, a culture, with ethics and values, it would not have forgotten them if it had, in fact, heard their cry for help when Grozny was burning.  As the Chechens put it,“[a]t a time when the world has left us entirely, we ask Muslims around the world not to forget the ordeal of their brothers in Chechnya fighting the jihad against Russian oppression”.

Reporting, Eric Margolis said:

I've been a combat soldier and have covered twelve high intensity wars from the front, but I have never seen anything that equals the heroism and boundless courage of the Chechen mujihadin. For the past four months, 5,000 lightly-armed Chechen warriors fighting on flat, open terrain that favors air, armor and artillery, have held 160,000 Russian troops, backed by regiments of heavy guns and rockets, helicopter gunships, ground attack aircraft, and thousands of tanks and armored vehicles. Russia's generals have repeatedly vowed to `exterminate' the Chechen. All Chechen males from 6 to 65 are being thrown into concentration camps.

Meanwhile these people to be feared only had light ammunition, a few radios, few anti-tank rockets, no heavy weapons and no training.

From the 18^th to the 21^st century, the Chechens have fought for their survival. The 800 hostages that they held in a cinema this October were a desperate cry for the world to pay attention to their plight. The hostages were in less danger with them than with the Russian authorities. For four days, Russia refused to tell the world what gas it had employed in the “rescue mission.” Moscow’s top doctor, Andrei Seltsovsky, reported that 646 former hostages were still in hospital, 150 were in intensive care, and 45 were in serious condition. One woman whose daughter was one of the hostages said that they were treated like cockroaches; in other words, to be exterminated. Another doctor said, “I saw no gunshot wounds at all, those who died had swallowed their own vomit or their tongues.” Dr. Peter Hutton, head of Britain’s Royal College of Anesthetists commented: “It’s almost certainly something that’s developed, owned and used by the military.”

Finally, the Russian government admitted that the gas was fentanyl. Fentanyl is an opiate analgesic that was found at higher dosages to induce hyperalgesia, which leads to a long-lasting enhancement of pain sensitivity. At one time the Pennsylvania State University had proposed fentanyl as a possible non-lethal weapon. In fact it is sold as an anesthetic in the US, as skin patches and oral doses carry a warning acknowledging that it can be fatal. Released onto oxygen-starved people it can be fatal.

But what the Russians used was not just fentanyl. Dr Thomas Zilker, a toxicologist at the Munich University clinic in Germany, suspected that it contained other substances, after having tested the blood and urine samples of two German hostages who were present. Russian Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said on Russian TV: “By themselves, these compounds can not provoke a lethal outcome.”

The official death toll at the end of October was set at 120. Most of the Chechen fighters were shot whilst unconscious, and the cloud of “war-on-terrorism” once again muffled the voices of a people who have struggled to survive against the Russians for three centuries.

Hwaa Irfan is the editor of the Cyber Counselor page of IslamOnline and a frequent contributor to the Health and Science page.

References:

• Andersen, Elizabeth. “NATO: Address Russian Abuses in Chechnya: Letter to NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson”. 05/23/02. 4. Press. 10/28/02.

• Grau, Lester & Smith, Timothy. “Chechnya Comments: A Crushing Victory – Fuel-Air Explosives and Grozny 2000”. Military Studies Office. 09/16/00. 5. 10/28/02

• Human Rights Watch #1. “Background”. 10. 10/28/02.

• Human Rights Watch #3. “Russia: Chechen ‘Disappearances’ Continue”. 04/15/02. 2. Press. 10/28/02.

• Ingram, Judith. “Russia Announces Gas Used in Special Forces Raid was Based on Fentanyl”. Associated Press. 10/30/02. 3. News

• Meier, Andrew. “What Does Russia See in Chechnya? Oil”. 01/20/95. 2. Articles 07/11/00.

• Margolis, Eric. “Forgotten Chechens Face Extermination”. Foreign Correspondent. 01/23/00. 2. Articles 10/28/02.

• Popeski, Ron. “They Poisoned Us Like Cockroaches”. Reuters. 10/28/02. 2. 10/30/02

• Rivat, Celerier. E. et al. “Long-Lasting Hyperalgesia Induced By Fentanyl in Rats: Preventative Effect of Ketamine”. Anesthesiology. 92: 2(2000) 465-72. 2. 11/04/02.

The articles posted on this page reflect solely the opinions of the authors. Views Archive Advanced Search Views & Analyses

Related Links