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October 17, 2003
Chechnya: A Ray of Hope for Peace
The peaceful Presidential election on October 5, 2003 in the tiny war-ravaged republic of Chechnya on the southern fringe of Russia, holds out a ray of hope for an era of peace and stability in the life of its one million people inhabiting an area of 600 square miles of grassy, mountainous land. Area-and-population-wise, this tiny region is smaller than many a county of California. But, it has often been in the news since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and attracted attention even during the period of the Czars.
The poll on October 5 gave victory to Akhmad Kadyrov, the nominee of Russia, to be an elected President of the somewhat autonomous Caucasian republic within the Russian orbit. Kremlin’s strategy has been to have Kadyrov elected to put an end to the demand of the Chechens for full independence like the other six Muslim republics of the region. The Chechens have fought two bloody wars with the Russians in a decade that have reduced life to a cycle of abductions, murders and other abominable crimes and the poverty-stricken territory to a loathsome rubble.
All well wishers of the Chechens sincerely hope that President Kadyrov, with the support of Russia, will be able to give an enduring peace and normality to the war-torn people. He secured 87% votes in the poll - a notable measure of his popularity and the basis of hope for peace.
Ever since I read the biography of Imam Shamil, four decades back while stationed in Turkey and met some of his admirers there, I have remained much impressed by the unusual valor of Chechens. But, rationality dictates a compromise with the situation on the ground and acceptance of an honorable arrangement. The induction into the Presidential chair of a Chechen, elected by a vast majority of his own people, offers the possibility of such a compromise solution. The fact that the elected candidate was a nominee of Russia adds to the strength of the compromise formula.
Some Western analysts have expressed cynicism towards the success of the arrangement. They point out that the ballots were cast under the shadow of the bayonets of Kadyrov’s 5,000-strong private army and the watchful eyes of 20,000 Russian troops. It is also mentioned that a Chechen member of the Russian parliament, Aslam Asiakhanov, who was a much more popular candidate was made to withdraw from the field when the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, offered him a high-ranking job.
Andre Glucksmann, a French journalist, who was in Chechnya on the eve of the election, reported to the Wall Street Journal of October 2, 2003: “Bought or threatened with death, all the competitors capable of challenging him (Kadyrov) have backed off or are forbidden to run. As for the people, pushed towards the ballot boxes with a Kalashnikov, they know that it’s not the ballots that will decide, but rather the armed men who will count and invent them (200,000 dead Chechen ‘souls’ are on the electoral lists). Such a farce fools no one, not the Chechens, not the Russians, nor the Europeans.”
Be that as it may, what then is the alternative for the Chechens? They can’t keep fighting indefinitely; nor, can they expect any support from the US or from the European Union. The Chechens can engage only in a guerilla war for total independence. They may consider themselves as freedom-fighters, but the world media now generally refers to them as terrorists -obnoxious creatures to be shot at sight.
Who is going to support their cause? Who is going to help them? The Imams of the mosques in the US no longer utter the word Chechnya in their after-prayer supplications on Fridays, lest they be suspected of links with the religious extremists. This being the situation, Chechens would also be well advised to accept the fact that discretion is the better part of valor.
They have already proved their mettle. The Russians too acknowledge that.
Chechnya had been under the forced occupation of the Czars and then the Soviets for almost three centuries. Leo Tolstoy served in the Czarist army there and wrote about the often-losing struggle to make those mountain warriors loyal subjects of the Russian empire. Iman Shamil, a mystic warrior of the 19th century, carved a niche for himself in world history by confronting the mighty Russian empire for almost 30 years.
In 1943, Stalin sought a solution to these fiercely independent, hardy highlanders by deporting the whole lot of them to Siberia - a sort of present-day ethnic cleansing. Nikita Khrushchev allowed them to return to their homeland.
At the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union, all the republics were given the right to secede from the Union. The Baltic, Central Asian and the republics of the Caucasus elected to be independent. The claim of Chechnya to independence in 1991 was, on the other hand, rejected. Why?
Its oil reserves make it a special possession of Russia. Then, there have been plans for an oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea port of Novorossisik that would pass through Chechnya. Daily Izvestia had accused in a commentary the Chechens of the intent “to steal: Russian oil by gaining control of the region as an independent state”.
The Russian effort to re-impose its control over the region led to a brutal war for two years -1994-96. Conscripts who were not receiving even their pay regularly were fighting the Russian war. The Russian economy was in a tailspin. President Yaltsin entered into a peace accord that granted virtual self-rule to the Chechens. Many Russians saw it as a humiliating agreement.
President Putin, who succeeded Yaltsin, wanted to re-impose Kremlin’s control over the region. To secure its oil pipeline may have been one of the objectives, apart from erasing the memory of a humiliating accord. He sent into Chechnya in September, 1999, some 100,000 troops who started pulverizing the tiny republic.
While confronting the Russian troops as best as they could, the Chechen young men and women resorted to terrorist acts to attract attention to their cause. They hijacked planes, took hostages, bombed public gatherings. But their most dramatic act was the seizure of a Moscow theatre a year back - on October 26, 2002. Fifty-three Chechen guerillas, including 18 young widows of Chechens killed by Russian troops in the war, traveled 1,500 miles north to reach the Moscow Theatre in the shadow of the Kremlin.
Their foolhardiness might have been anchored in their personal tragedies, but it totally defied rationality. All of them got killed along with 120 patrons of the theatre.
In the present circumstances, any further armed struggle would be foolish and suicidal. The Chechens should support their elected President so that he might keep negotiating with the Kremlin for the expansion of the autonomy already conceded to the republic. Terrorism in not a choice at all. If adopted, it would be a deliberate option to crass stupidity and suicide.
arifhussaini@hotmail.com
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