In the news...terrorist attack seriously wounds the president of Ingushetia.
For over 200 years the many small nations in the Caucasus have resisted Russian aggression. From the 1834 campaign through to Stalin’s genocide against the Chechen and the Ingush people during World War II, little trust was won for the federal government they never asked for in the first place. The ethnic, cultural and religious rift between Russia and its southern republics is so deep and violent, that it makes the Irish conflict seem like a family squabble over Christmas dinner.
On June 6, 2009, the Dagestani Minister of Interior was shot dead on third assassination attempt. On June 10, the speaker of the High Court of the Republic of Ingushetia was killed; on June 13, the ex-prime minister. On Monday, June 22, a suicide bomber rammed into the presidential cavalcade severely injuring the current leader of Ingushetia Yusur-Bek Yevkurov. The ex-KGB commander - who came to international prominence as a head of the Russian troops in Kosovo in 1999 - was flown to Moscow with head trauma, injuries to the chest and multiple internal organs.
President Medvedev - visiting at the hospital - has told the doctors and the state TV that he expects Mr. Yevkurov to be in fighting order soon. Such delusional optimism used to frame the Russian authorities’ lying through their teeth when it comes to the situation in the Caucasus is not winning them any supporters, on any side. And despite the fact that a terrorist attack has been waged against a head of local government, no official statement was made. Instead, Medvedev took off to Africa the next day. Mr. Obama paid more attention on the train-crash in Washington. Priorities.
In April this year the 15-year long anti-terrorist operation was finally lifted in Chechnya. The two-stage war, which began after Boris Yeltsin decided to crush the republic’s bid for independence in 1994, cost Russia not only thousands of lives, but reputation. Indiscriminate killings, rape and carpet-bombings resulted in over 150,000 civilian deaths in Chechnya, and over 500,000 misplaced lives. The war, that catapulted Putin to the presidency in 2000, has become a mark of shame on Russia’s already spotty face.
Under Ramzan Kadyrov, a son a Chechen freedom-fighter, the republic seems more peaceful than one could hope. Kadyrov’s cut-throat methods of control include extra-judicial killings, kidnappings, torture and secret concentration camps. On the surface, schools and roads are being built, as well as Europe’s largest mosque. All with Russia’s money. The carpet-bombings levelled Grozny with the ground, costing the military millions and millions of dollars. Now, some 100 billion rubles are pumped into Chechen economy yearly. Russia is desperately bribing the most powerful man in the Caucasus to at least help keep the appearance of peace. Kadyrov has even been named the member of the Russian Academy of Sciences - a title that academics work for most of their lives. Speaking in April, Russian foreign minister commented on the renovation of the Grozny airport and claimed that Chechnya is blooming as a tourist destination. Holidays in hell, anyone?
Peace in Chechnya may be fragile, but after years of severe brutality, the people there seem to be enjoying it. Wahhabism seems to be out of fashion, while Muslim practices and - in places - Sharia law are allowed. Unemployment is only 50%, compared to Ingushetia’s 80%. So the people’s revenge army, curtailed by Kadyrov’s power, has been spilling into neighbouring, less stable republics. Years of Russian federal lawlessness will not go un-forgiven in a culture, where to avenge the death of a family member is a matter of honour.
When the war on terror became a fashionable word in international politics, President Putin eagerly jumped on America’s anti-Islamist bandwagon to give Russia some kind of excuse for what it was doing in the Chechnya. The hype had gone, the problem remained and festered like a sore. This year only, over 300 terrorist acts have been carried out in Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and three other small republics. Kremlin-appointed government officials are being swatted like cockroaches. So are the members of the anti-Kremlin opposition. Russian army’s dodgy dealings with the militants it is allegedly seeking to destroy blurs all boundaries of a clear-cut policy. The war is on between the Islamic militants, the federal forces and the puppet government. And again, it is the people on the streets that are losing.
Little coverage of the conflict, which many news agencies are calling civil war, makes the Russian state news. Occasionally there is a mention of an interception of militants. Recently, Channel 1 ran a story about the ‘arrest’ of a group of armed rebels and their leader. Then they showed a dead man surrounded by Russian soldiers. A televised Freudian slip.
The term ‘human rights abuse’ doesn’t apply in the Caucasus. There is no law. But there are guns. Ramzan Kadyrov has promised a revenge for the assassination attempt on Mr. Yevkurov, ‘highlander style’. Kremlin had asked him to follow federal law in aiding the investigation. Who were they kidding? Themselves, if anyone at all. Having destroyed any illusion of justice in the region, Russia has only violence to resolve to. When a peaceful demonstration following the murder of Ingushetia’s opposition leader in 2007 publicly plead with President Putin for help, he ignored it. He left the people no hope of trust or understanding from the far-away Moscow.
Meanwhile, the Western observers are calling for the cessation of violence and the establishment of judicial structures. Considering NATO’s involvement in the war with the Taliban, this seems a double-standard at best. After all, the Russian state cannot take the terrorist aggression lying down. But when its own tactics become synonymous with those of the insurgents - mired in ethnic hatred and vengefulness - even a long-term solution seems to escape even the most optimistic and self-deluded of imaginations. It is too late to suggest that the Russian government should have read more history books. When the military command claimed that the Chechen operation was going to take ‘one night’, the government bottled up all common sense and threw it overboard. And now no one is even interested in finding the bottle, floating in the sea of hatred, corruption and blood.
No comments:
Post a Comment