Chechens Pay Dearly for "Russia's Honour"

Recently, President Clinton's foreign policy team gathered at the White House to discuss Chechnya, according to The New York Times. Briefers from the Central Intelligence Agency explained the Russian military strategy in Chechnya in brutally frank terms: "continued artillery and aerial bombardment of the break away republic; the destruction of the capital, Grozny, in an effort to flush out the rebels, and the creation of even more civilian casualties and refugees, who are already spreading chaos through the Caucasus." The destruction of Chechnya - just that - is what Russia is after.

Now that Mr. Vladimir V. Putin - whose popularity has skyrocketed because of his intransigent stance towards the Chechens - is almost certain to succeed Mr. Boris Yeltsin and continue as Russia's President, so will the carnage of the Chechens. Although publicly America has criticized Russia's "indiscriminate bombing inconsistent with international standards," privately they call Russian actions "reprehensible." Any American economic sanction against Russia, however, is a nonstarter. America's relationship with Russia is considered too important to be sacrificed for the Chechens; and the bulk of the American aid to Russia is for dismantling its nuclear arsenal.

The Russians argue that in the aftermath of the West's war against Russian ally Serbia, American complaints about the suffering of Chechens are hypocritical. "When civilians were hurt in Kosovo it was called collateral damage, and when we do that you call it a violation of human rights," Russians bristle. The Clinton administration counters that NATO was careful to try and avoid civilian deaths in the bombing of Yugoslavia, and when mistakes occurred, they were made public. Further, the administration argues that the Yugoslav war was aimed at curbing the murderous actions of one leader, Slobodan Milosevic. Once Milosevic cried uncle, the bombing campaign ceased and Milosevic was left alone. Russia is going after the entire population of Chechnya and indiscriminately pulverizing all its cities. Putin's Russia has repeatedly refused the entreaties of the democratically elected Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov, to talk peace.

After a recent Taraveeh prayer, we were shown a film of the war in Chechnya. Mostly shot by BBC television, the film highlighted Russia's conduct of the war. It is ugly and inhumane. The Russian guns and planes do not spare anyone - men, women or children. The artillery fires and the planes drop bombs without the slightest regard for who might get hit. Thousands of innocent civilians are getting maimed and killed. In its attempt to neutralize two or three thousand guerillas, Russia has gone berserk, like a mad bull in a china shop.

Mr. Putin has recently said that winning the war in Chechnya is a matter of Russia's honour. Mr. Putin, is Russia's honour enhanced by murdering unarmed men, women and children? The Acting Russian President has stated that he will stop the break-up of Russia and insists that Chechnya is an integral part of Russia. Mr. Putin, please read history: the Caucasus was never a part of Russia. The Caucasus has historically been a Muslim region. Russians began infiltrating the territory in the 15th century. The Chechens, the Ingush and other Caucasian mountain people are Muslims who speak East Caucasian or Dagestanian languages, and who have always resisted Russian conquest of their land. In the 19th century, under the Muslim leader Shaykh Shamil, for a while the Caucasian Muslims succeeded in getting rid of the Russians, who were preoccupied with the Crimean War. After the Russians captured Shaykh Shamil in 1859, the resistance ended and many of his followers migrated to Armenia.

Josef Stalin accused the Chechens and the Ingush of collaborating with Germany during World War II and banished the entire Chechen population to Central Asia. Premier Nikita Khruschev allowed them back in 1957. Mr. Putin, if Russia considered the Chechens their own, would they have exiled them? If you stand beside a Chechen Mr. Putin, you will notice the differences between you two: you are pale, a Chechen is dark; you speak Russian, the Chechens speak Nakho-Dagestanian.

In the BBC film, to a man the Chechen fighters interviewed said that they would win the war against Russia. Their reasoning is simple; their spirit will never die because they are fighting for their own land; the Russians know that they are unwelcome intruders in Chechnya who sooner or later will have to leave. That is why the Russians are so barbaric, the Chechens say. The Chechens say something else. They did not proclaim a "democratic republic of Chechnya," but "an Islamic republic of Chechnya"; that is why they are not receiving moral support from the West.

They have a point. When the Roman Catholics of tiny East Timor voted for independence, the Christian West ganged up on Indonesia let go of East Timor, which Indonesia had already promised to do. The Vatican labeled the criminal acts of Indonesia-supporting militias as "genocide." Yet, the upholders of Western morality are disturbingly, hypocritically silent on the suffering of the hapless Muslims of Chechnya.

The criminalization of the Muslims continues unabated worldwide. The mention of "Islam" conjurers up the images of terrorists in the Western mind. Let us face it: the world's Muslims have done a lousy job of defining who they are. Instead, they are letting terrorists such as Osma Bin Laden, and the thugs who hijacked the Indian Airlines flight from Nepal, define Islam for them. The West and Russia are happy to grab on to that definition. That is why Mr. Putin's use of the code word, "Islamic militants," to describe the Chechens allows the West to back off from any meaningful criticism of Russian atrocities in Chechnya. Herein lies the Western dilemma: they are gung-ho about human rights; yet when the victims are Muslims, the enthusiasm is diminished considerably.

The truth is that in recent history no other religious group has been as severely persecuted as the Muslims. For over fifty years they have suffered atrocities in Kashmir and Palestine. They endured real genocides in Bosnia and Kosova, only for being Muslims. With Western connivance, the Algerian army stopped the Islamic Salvation Front from coming to power in Algeria democratically; the Front gets most of the blame for the atrocities, when the Army is equally brutal. The bombardment of Iraq and the denial of food and medicine to Iraqi civilians via UN-sanctions have continued for over ten years. Over 90 per cent of the nations that suffer UN-sponsored economic sanctions are Muslim. And now, as Muslim Chechnya - "a province of Russia" - is being obliterated from the face of the earth, the world conducts business as usual with Russia!

In the short term, Mr. Putin will probably win the honour he covets. It is doubtful that he will be able to hold on to Chechnya for long though. He will find out that you cannot integrate a people that want to dis-integrate. Latest news reports indicate that the Chechens have already stanched Russian advance and are attacking them from the rear.

As a New York Times editorial recently pointed out, Russia is foolish to solicit the enmity of the world's Muslims; after all, there are ten times as many Muslims in the world as there are Russians. Muslims remember what Russia did in Afghanistan. According to New York Times, Russia was willing to betray Iraq and let America enact punishing UN sanctions against Iraq in exchange for American non-criticism of Russia in Chechnya. With friends like these, Iraq is better off with its enemies! Thus far, Russia has suffered no retribution from the Muslim world for its destruction of the Chechen nation. But unless Russia modifies its behaviour towards the Muslims drastically, Mr. Putin and Russia cannot count on such halcyon days of generosity to continue forever.