sajjad
10th March 2005, 15:54
Russia’s nemesis, the Chechnyan war
The Russian army claimed Tuesday that it had killed the ex-president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov. Russia had $10 million on his head and blamed him, wrongly in our opinion, for killing 326 hostages in a town in South Russia last year. Mr Maskhadov was chief of the Chechnya army staff and was credited by many with victory in the first Chechen war (1994-96), which secured temporary de facto independence for Chechnya. In January 1997, Mr Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya on a platform including demands for independence from Moscow. Following the start of the second Chechen war in 1999, he returned to lead the guerrilla movement against the Russian army. He was a moderate with whom Moscow could have negotiated, but the Russian president, V Putin, was elected on the promise of tough action against the Chechens and was therefore averse to talking to him. Mr Maskhadov had condemned the real culprit of the south Russian killings, Shamyl Basayev, and awarded punishment to him in absentia.
The Russians have so far killed 200,000 Chechens out of a nation of barely one million. The decision in Moscow not to negotiate with the Chechens after 1996 has led to consequences that threaten the world. The world, including the Islamic world at the OIC, had reason not to support the Chechen demand for total independence, but the atrocities committed in the North Caucusas by Russia have actually strengthened the case for Chechnyan independence. Terrorism has grown alongside the Russian policy to discard dialogue in favour of jingoism. A number of successful terrorist strikes have been made inside Russia, killing hundreds of innocent citizens. The widowed wives of the 16,000 Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya are now a milling population of disregarded protesters.
When the Chechnyan war dragged on, Arab money and warriors got into the region. “Radical” Muslims are supposed to have funnelled close to $100 million to Chechnya since a 1997 ceasefire ended the first Chechen conflict. Linked developments in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 1996 were ignored till 9/11. A Pakistani jihadi outfit, Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami, (the one that nearly killed President General Pervez Musharraf in 2003) began to deploy its warriors in Chechnya and neighbouring Dagestan from its headquarters in Kandahar. The Taliban accepted a Chechen ambassador after recognising the Chechen “republic”. This ambassador also “strayed” into Pakistan and was “touring” its different cities when the Russians protested. The charge that the Gulf Arab states were interfering in Chechnya was highlighted again in 2004 when Russian agents killed two Chechen separatists in Qatar. An Arab warlord, al-Khattab, operating in North Caucasus, was killed in 2002 in Dagestan.
After 9/11 Pakistan was subjected to the fallout of an Al Qaeda-Chechnyan connection. An ex-MNA and lawyer serving Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Mr Javed Ibrahim Paracha of Kohat, has narrated the story of how Al Qaeda mujahideen were killed in Kohat 2001 as they came down from Afghanistan seeking shelter in Pakistan. After a misunderstanding with the intelligence agencies, a shootout followed in which the mujahideen, including a number of Chechens, were killed. Today a monument stands in Kohat remembering the “martyrs”. According to Mr Paracha, the Chechens had come to Kohat because many of their brothers were imprisoned there. Kohat was supposed to be the city whose airport was used to transport “terrorists” to the United States. A Pakistani air force chief, Air Marshall Mushaf Ali Mir, was killed after his plane crashed approaching the Kohat airport in 2002.
Some observers have compared President Putin’s Chechnya war with President Bush’s Iraq war. Both are bogged down, but the Gallup polls of both are held up by what they are doing in their respective killing fields. Both have won elections on the basis of the suffering of innocent human beings on ground. And both have earned the disapproval of the entire world for their vicious “nationalist” projects.
The Russian army claimed Tuesday that it had killed the ex-president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov. Russia had $10 million on his head and blamed him, wrongly in our opinion, for killing 326 hostages in a town in South Russia last year. Mr Maskhadov was chief of the Chechnya army staff and was credited by many with victory in the first Chechen war (1994-96), which secured temporary de facto independence for Chechnya. In January 1997, Mr Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya on a platform including demands for independence from Moscow. Following the start of the second Chechen war in 1999, he returned to lead the guerrilla movement against the Russian army. He was a moderate with whom Moscow could have negotiated, but the Russian president, V Putin, was elected on the promise of tough action against the Chechens and was therefore averse to talking to him. Mr Maskhadov had condemned the real culprit of the south Russian killings, Shamyl Basayev, and awarded punishment to him in absentia.
The Russians have so far killed 200,000 Chechens out of a nation of barely one million. The decision in Moscow not to negotiate with the Chechens after 1996 has led to consequences that threaten the world. The world, including the Islamic world at the OIC, had reason not to support the Chechen demand for total independence, but the atrocities committed in the North Caucusas by Russia have actually strengthened the case for Chechnyan independence. Terrorism has grown alongside the Russian policy to discard dialogue in favour of jingoism. A number of successful terrorist strikes have been made inside Russia, killing hundreds of innocent citizens. The widowed wives of the 16,000 Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya are now a milling population of disregarded protesters.
When the Chechnyan war dragged on, Arab money and warriors got into the region. “Radical” Muslims are supposed to have funnelled close to $100 million to Chechnya since a 1997 ceasefire ended the first Chechen conflict. Linked developments in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 1996 were ignored till 9/11. A Pakistani jihadi outfit, Harkat al-Jihad al-Islami, (the one that nearly killed President General Pervez Musharraf in 2003) began to deploy its warriors in Chechnya and neighbouring Dagestan from its headquarters in Kandahar. The Taliban accepted a Chechen ambassador after recognising the Chechen “republic”. This ambassador also “strayed” into Pakistan and was “touring” its different cities when the Russians protested. The charge that the Gulf Arab states were interfering in Chechnya was highlighted again in 2004 when Russian agents killed two Chechen separatists in Qatar. An Arab warlord, al-Khattab, operating in North Caucasus, was killed in 2002 in Dagestan.
After 9/11 Pakistan was subjected to the fallout of an Al Qaeda-Chechnyan connection. An ex-MNA and lawyer serving Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Mr Javed Ibrahim Paracha of Kohat, has narrated the story of how Al Qaeda mujahideen were killed in Kohat 2001 as they came down from Afghanistan seeking shelter in Pakistan. After a misunderstanding with the intelligence agencies, a shootout followed in which the mujahideen, including a number of Chechens, were killed. Today a monument stands in Kohat remembering the “martyrs”. According to Mr Paracha, the Chechens had come to Kohat because many of their brothers were imprisoned there. Kohat was supposed to be the city whose airport was used to transport “terrorists” to the United States. A Pakistani air force chief, Air Marshall Mushaf Ali Mir, was killed after his plane crashed approaching the Kohat airport in 2002.
Some observers have compared President Putin’s Chechnya war with President Bush’s Iraq war. Both are bogged down, but the Gallup polls of both are held up by what they are doing in their respective killing fields. Both have won elections on the basis of the suffering of innocent human beings on ground. And both have earned the disapproval of the entire world for their vicious “nationalist” projects.