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Alex Kvartalny @ flamedragon27.blogspot.com

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The Russian-Chechen Conflict and Its Resolution

Moscow metro Monday morning of March 29^th, 2010 at 7:45 a.m. was a perfectly normal one. Millions of people were riding their way through a sophisticated system of subway stations, some for work, others to do shopping or, like the author of this essay, to change a train. It was my second time in Moscow and I had to use the underground. It seemed then and seems now to be the fastest and the most convenient way of getting from point A to point B. Did I notice any tension as I was changing lanes at the “Park Kultury” station? Perhaps a little, coming mostly from the people around me jostling in the rush-hour.

It was still a long way to Minsk, I was daydreaming and what seemed like a million things were running in my head. One of them, as I entered an empty suburban electric train carriage and saw a bag somebody had left, was, “what if the thing explodes?”. With videos of Nord-Ost and the Beslan school sieges I had seen at university still in my head I did not want to raise an obviously false alarm. The last time Moscow was bombed was 6 years ago and there was absolutely no way it would be once again, not during my second time here anyway.

As I was concentrating on this thought I was already too far away from the Park Kultury station to hear a suicide bomber explode. I could not see the expression of utter bewilderment on the passengers' faces that would later turn into a grimace of unmistakable horror. I could not smell their blood or feel their bodies tearing to pieces. Nor could I taste dust flying in all directions. I suppose I was pretty lucky being on that train smelling beer and urine stink coupled with perfume of a woman next to me, hearing salespeople, not thinking that had I stayed at that station longer, perhaps, you would not be reading these lines now.

When I get home I would read all the details in the Internet and see people laying flowers in memory of the 40 unlucky ones.

Perhaps flowers is what the indigenous nation of mountain herdsmen and farmers that has lived in the Caucasus for thousands of years, the Chechens, has been shielding, along with their language and the clan-based society, from foreign invasion.

Throughout the history Chechens have been known as rebels, people fighting for their independence and freedom lovers. Since the 16^th century, the Caucasus region has become the focus of political and military competition. Several parties, including Safavid Persia, the Ottoman Empire and tsarist Russia claimed the area. The history knows examples of the local population defending their homeland. Thus, in the mid-18th century the legendary national hero of the Chechen people Sheikh Mansur led a resistance movement against the foreign invaders of the Caucasus. Even though Mansur was captured by Russian forces in 1791 and died several years later he remain an outstanding figure for the Chechens.

In the decades that followed, the Caucasian mountain peoples began to cooperate economically with the Russians but opposed any political domination. As a result of the 1824 – 1859 war Russians finally managed to occupy and annex Caucasus. Gen. Alexei Yermolov, who led Russian forces in the first years of a ruthless campaign to conquer the Caucasus region called the Chechens "congenital rebels." Poet Mikhail Lermontov, a Russian officer in that war, wrote in 1832, "[The Chechens'] god is freedom; their law is war."

During the Russian Revolution of 1917, Dagestan - which included Chechnya at the time declared its independence as a North Caucasian Republic. Later during the civil war the Chechens clashed with local Cossacks and the anti-Communist White forces as well as with the Communists' Red Army. With the establishment of Soviet authority in the region, the Chechens joined with other Caucasian peoples to form the Republic of the Mountain Peoples in November 1920. Later, the Soviet government divided the North Caucasus along ethnic lines, separating the Chechen Autonomous Oblast from the Republic of the Mountain Peoples in 1922 and abolishing the republic itself in 1924.

During the 1930s many of the Chechens were forced onto collective farms and efforts were made to restrict their religious practices. The Chechens suffered under these policies and fought fiercely for their beliefs and traditional way of life. In 1934 the Chechens and Ingush were united in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Oblast within Soviet Russia. In 1936 the oblast was raised to the status of an autonomous republic, fn February 1944, during World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin accused the Chechen and Ingush peoples of collaboration with the Nazis and deported them to Kazakhstan. At least 30% of Chechens died as a result. The Soviet policy at the time also eliminated the Chechen-Ingush Republic.

Yet, the Chechens did not submit to oppression and stood proud, unrelenting in their desire for self-determination. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in "The Gulag Archipelago": "there was one nation that would not give in, would not acquire the mental habits of submission ~ and not just individual rebels among them, but the whole nation to a man. These were the Chechens. They were capable of rustling cattle, robbing a house, or sometimes simply taking what they wanted by force. They respected only rebels. And here is an extraordinary thing - everyone was afraid of them. No one could stop them from living as they did. The regime which had ruled the land for thirty years could not force them to respect its laws."

In 1956 the Chechens were permitted to return to their homes, and the region settled into its longest period of relative peace in three centuries. But the post-Soviet period may yet prove to be the bloodiest chapter in this seemingly endless conflict.

When in November 1991 shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union Chechnya declared an independent republic, the Russian government refused to recognize it as such. There are many reasons for it. This area is strategically vital for the Russian economy for several reasons. Firstly, access routes to both the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea go from the centre of the federation through Chechnya. Second, vital Russian oil and gas pipeline connections with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan also run through Chechnya.

The territory declared full independence in 1993, which led to a civil war in the republic. Several Russian-backed attempts to overthrow Dudayev failed in 1993 and 1994. The growing resentment in the region towards the Russians erupted into a war. The first Chechen war started in December, 1994 after a decision in the Yeltsin administration. The objective was a quick victory leading to pacification and reestablishment of a pro-Russian government. The result, however, was a long series of military operations bungled by the Russians and stymied by the traditionally rugged guerrilla forces of the Chechen separatists.

Russian military aircraft bombed both military and civilian targets in Groznyy, the capital of the Caspian republic. Regular army and MVD troops crossed the border into Chechnya on December 10 to surround Groznyy. Beginning in late December 1994, following major Chechen resistance, there was massive aerial and artillery bombardment of Chechnya's capital, Groznyy, resulting in a heavy loss of civilian life and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons. Air strikes continued through the month of December and into January, causing extensive damage and heavy civilian casualties. According to press reports, there were up to 4,000 detonations an hour at the height of the winter campaign against Groznyy.

Besides the large number of civilians injured and killed, most residential and public buildings in Groznyy, including hospitals and an orphanage, were destroyed.

The control was regained in many regions in 1995. But the fighters were giving neither in nor up. Chechen fighters employed guerrilla and terrorist tactics controlling much of the mountainous south. Two major hostage-taking incidents - one at Budennovsk (Separatists take 1,600 hostages at a hospital in Budennovsk, in southern Russia. They demand that Moscow stop the fighting and holt talks with rebel President Jokhar Dudayev. During a weeklong siege 120 die, many in failed Russian attempts to take the building. The hostages are released after the fighters are given free passage to Chechnya in a convoy, using 150 people as human shields) in southern Russia in June 1995 and one at the Dagestani village of Pervomayskoye (Chechen fighters take 2,000 hostages at another hospital, this one in Kizlyar in Dagestan. Some 300 rebels move back toward Chechnya, again using hostages as human shields. As Russian forces engage them in an unsuccessful rescue attempt in the village of Pervomayskaya, 78 hostages die.) in January 1996 - led to the embarrassment of unsuccessful military missions to release the prisoners.

The peace did not last long. In August 1999 hundreds of Islamic guerrillas crossed into Dagestan from Chechnya and occupied several villages, claiming the formation of a separate Islamic territory. Although Russian air and artillery attacks returned the villages to federal control, incursions into Dagestan became increasingly common by Chechen guerrillas seeking to create an Islamic state. Meanwhile, a deadly wave of terrorist bombings struck apartment buildings in Moscow and several other Russian cities in August and September, killing more than 200 people. Russian leaders accused Chechen rebels of organizing the attacks, precipitating another full-scale military offensive to reestablish federal control in the republic.

In late September Russian warplanes began a campaign of air strikes against targets in Chechnya. In October Russian ground forces entered Chechnya with the goal of capturing Groznyy. Russian forces surrounded the city by early December. Despite heavy bombing and artillery fire, rebels entrenched in fortified buildings managed to hold Groznyy for many weeks, waging a fierce street-by-street battle with advancing Russian troops. By the time the fighting ended in early February 2000, Groznyy was reduced to rains. Fighting continued in the mountainous regions of southern Chechnya, traditionally the stronghold of the Chechen rebels.

In May 2000 Russian president Vladimir Putin declared that Chechnya would be ruled federally. Akhmad Kadyrov was appointed by the Kremlin to replace Chechen president Maskhadov. Maskhadov ignored the federal government's demand for his unconditional surrender and became one of the principal leaders of the Chechen insurgency. The conflict showed no signs of abating through 2001, with serious human-rights violations by Russian troops and constant attacks by Chechen guerrillas against Russian forces in the region. The Russian government characterized the war in Chechnya as an “antiterrorist operation" against fundamentalist Islamic militants linked to al-Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations.

In October 2002 Chechen terrorists seized a theatre in Moscow and held more than 800 persons hostage. It is believed to be one of the largest incident of hostage taking. The terrorists rigged the theatre and themselves with explosives and threatened to kill themselves and the hostages by blowing up the theatre if their demands were not met. Russian Government refused to meet such demands. Faced with an extremely difficult dilemma, Russian forces stormed the theatre using a gas to immobilize the terrorists. All the hostage takers were killed in the raid – and prevented from detonating their explosives. Unfortunately, 129 hostages died from the gas used during the rescue operation.

The Nord-Ost Siege was widely discussed in the media and proved to be a very controversial problem. On the one hand, the attack was thought to be “nihilistic” suicidal terrorism that democratic governments have problems dealing with. The way the Russians dealt with the situation was approved by some. An analogy was drawn to a hostage siege in Iran that acted as a deterrent and led not to having another of this kind. But on the other hand the Russian government was criticised for using the gas that even now nobody can be sure what really was used at that time. Although the gas helped to save most hostages, it killed more than 120. In addition, by using this kind of method to deal with the situation you are giving those people a justification of revenge, maybe a severe one. Plus Russia was criticised for killing all the terrorists that were asleep because of the effect of the gas and not bringing them to justice, as any democratic government should do.

Another major terrorist crisis broke out in the Russian Federation when a gang of armed men and women, some wearing suicide belts, seized a school in southern Russia and took more than one thousand children and adults hostage. The attack came one day after a suicide bomber killed nine people at a metro station in Moscow and days after bombs went off on two Russian jets, killing 90 people. The terrorists mined the school and threatened to kill the hostages and blow up the school if Special Forces stormed the building. They also vowed to kill 50 children for each terrorist killed. Russian authorities ruled out the use of force and said that the main aim was to save the lives of the hostages. Authorities established contact with the hostage-takers who demanded a withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and the release of militants jailed after a series of raids on Ingushetia. Though the hostage-takers refused to allow food and water supplies into the school on the third day they agreed to let emergency workers into the school to remove the bodies of dead hostages. Minutes later, explosions and gunfire were heard and a group of hostages of different ages managed to escape. Eyewitnesses said that one of the many bombs in the gym fell and exploded. This was followed by a second large explosion, after which the roof caved in and hostages started to run out of the building. The attackers fired at them as they fled, prompting the troops outside to shoot back. Special Forces stormed the school. Russian authorities later said the decision to go in was unplanned and was taken after the attackers started shooting at children. As the troops moved in, half-naked and bloodied children began running out of the school. Others were carried out by adults. Later, hundreds of bodies, many of them those of children, were found in the debris of the school gym. During the confusion after the storming of the school, some of the attackers managed to flee by mixing in with hostages and their relatives but later they were killed by Special Forces. One terrorist was reported to have been captured alive. The full terror of what had taken place at the school became clearer the next day. Emergency workers discovered the remains of many of the hundreds of children and adults killed. At Moscow's request the United Nations Security Council called an emergency meeting and the U.N. Secretary-General “condemns in the strongest terms” the seizure.

Later the country witnessed the 2009 Nevsky Express bombing that occurred on November 27^th when a bomb exploded under a high speed train travelling between the Russian cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg causing derailment near the town of Bologoye, Tver Oblast (approximately 200 miles or 320 km from Moscow), on the Moscow–Saint Petersburg Railway. The derailment occurred at 21:34 local time (18:34 UTC). Russian officials had stated that 39 people were killed and 95 injured but later retracted the death toll, with 27 deaths reported as of December 2.A second bomb exploded at the scene of the investigation the following day, injuring one. It was reported to have been triggered by a remote mobile phone. The government confirmed that the accident was caused by terrorists, making this attack Russia's deadliest outside the North Caucasus region since the 2004 Russian aircraft bombings.

The BBC website comes up with a timiline of Moscow metro attacks

• March 2010: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up at Lubyanka station and Park Kultury station, killing 35 people

• August 2004: Suicide bomber blows herself up outside Rizhskaya station, killing 10

• February 2004: Suicide bombing on Zamoskvoretskaya line, linking main airports, kills 40

• August 2000: Bomb in pedestrian tunnel leading to Tverskaya station kills 13

• February 2000: Blast injures 20 inside Belorusskaya station

• January 1998: Three injured by blast at Tretyakovskaya station

• June 1996: Bomb on the Serpukhovskaya line kills four

As for the present situation in the Caucasus Republic, according to the Russian government, over $2 billion was spent on the reconstruction of the Chechen economy since 2000. However, according to the Russian central economic control agency (Schyotnaya Palata), not more than $350 million was spent as intended. The economic situation in Chechnya has improved considerably since 2000. According to the New York Times, major efforts to rebuild Grozny have been made, and improvements in the political situation have led some officials to consider setting up a tourism industry, though there are claims that construction workers are being irregularly paid and that poor people have been displaced.

There are still intense debates about whether the situation in Chechnya is War for Independence or Jihad. Until now the essay has been focusing on the-war-for-independence point of view. To illustrate another point one must bear in mind that Chechens were indoctrinated in the most radical, most extremist forms of Islam by the Arabs who came either as university students or missionaries. Arabs arrived in Chechnya because they saw it as a new front to promote Jihad. One of the arriving Arabs was a Saudi Arabian radical Islamist called Samir bin Salih bin Abdullah al-Sweleim (known as Khattab), who belonged to the Wahhabi sect. Following his death, he was replaced by another Wahhabi Arab, Abd al-Aziz al-Ghamidi, known as al-Walid. Home-grown rebel leaders, such as Shamil Basayev, Arbi Barayev, and Movladi Udugov, allied themselves with jihadi fighters and began to look to Middle Eastern Islamists for support.

Fundamentalism should also be taken into account. Fundamentalists began pouring into Chechnya, bringing with them not only religious extremism, but also Islamic internationalism and anti-Westernism. By mid-90rs, Chechen extremists began to adopt the Arab world-view. Arab fundamentalists, under Khattab and Walid, organized jihad training camps where Chechens, Dagestanis and other Muslims were not only well-fed and accommodated, but also indoctrinated in Wahhabism and jihad.

Basayev and his Arab supporters wanted to engage in a war with Moscow, thinking they can defeat the Russian military and establish a radical Islamist Caucasian Republic (a.k.a. North Caucasian version of Saudi Arabia or Sudan), consisting of Chechya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and any other parts of southern Russia that they would be able to occupy. The new Caucasian Islamist state was supposed to feed off of Arab extremism and ally itself with the most fundamentalist regimes in the Middle East, rather than the West.

Islamists were not interested in independence just for the sake of independence. Arabic language does not even have a word for "nation" or "nationalism." Rather than being part of a nation, they consider themselves to be part of the "umma" - an Islamic community. To them, there are two groups: umma (Islamic community) and Jahiliyya (barbarism, lack of social order). Nationalism, as envisioned by Dudayev, Maskhadov and most Chechens is barbaric Jahiliyya. Arab fundamentalists, who sponsored Basayev and other Chechen extremists, specifically reject the idea of sovereignty and democracy because it is a rule of man, rather than rule of God (Hakimiyyat Allah). Indeed, even de­colonization is seen negatively by fundamentalists because it introduced the idea of nationalism. Nationalism is seen as a Western conspiracy, imposed on the Middle East by "Ataturk and his Jewish adherents," (Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is the founder of modern Turkey) according to Muhammad Salim al-Awwa, a prominent leader of Muslim Brotherhood which has been active in Chechnya. As far as the Middle Eastern fundamentalists flooding Chechnya are concerned, it is better to have disorder than a nationalist, democratic government because a non-fundamentalist government will damage Islam and would serve as an impediment to Nazim Islami (Islamic World Order).

As for my evaluation of the reasons for the Russian-Chechen conflict, I believe they are numerous and complicated. Both the history and the present-day situation must be regarded as context for the conflict. But apart from the global perspective, I believe if we narrow it down to basic human feelings we shall see how greed, lust for power on the one hand and the wish to be free and independent on the other confront one another and destroy many lives. For war does not bring peace, it brings more war.

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