Chechnya´s tragedyRussian President Vladimir Putin appears to have taken the horrors
inflicted on the American people on September 11 as a cue to step up
the Russian military's genocidal atrocities in Chechnya. For
Chechnya, the burning embers at Ground Zero flicker with distinct
familiarity. "I just want to tell you that the [Chechen] population
felt the consequences of September 11 in their own hides," said Ilyas
Akhmadov, foreign minister of Chechnya. "Behind me stands the grief
of my whole nation, where hundreds of people are being killed."
Clearly, Mr. Putin has overseen genocidal atrocities in break-away
Chechnya ever since he launched Russia's second military campaign
there in 1999, as then-President Boris Yeltsin's prime minister. But
the brutality has intensified, with civilians, even pregnant women,
bearing a greater brunt of the military's aggression, Mr. Akhmadov
told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. Prior to
September 11, the Kremlin tried to at least commit its acts of
brutality discretely, said Mr. Akhmadov, whereas today, government
and military officials appear to have lost all fear of international
rebuke.
The change in the Bush administration's relationship with Chechnya
can be traced to September 11. When Mr. Akmadov visited Washington in
March, he met with the highest-ranking State Department official ever
to receive him, the acting assistant secretary of state for the
region. During his visit in January, the State Department would meet
with him only unofficially, and refused to even confirm to The Times
that such a meeting took place. Even this unofficial meeting drew the
Kremlin's ire, though.
"Such contacts, no matter what the justification, cannot be seen as
anything other than an unfriendly step toward Russia, contradicting
the spirit of cooperation and partnership of both countries in acting
against international terrorism," the Foreign Ministry said in a
statement. This is the language of tyranny. If the Kremlin has done
nothing wrong in Chechnya, it has nothing to fear of Washington-
Chechen contact. While Washington should continue to actively court
Moscow's cooperation, pressing the concerns about the ongoing
campaign in Chechnya is critical.
But the White House appears to have made a Faustian bargain, buying
into Russia's fabricated rumors of a Chechen-al Qaeda nexus. "I know
concretely that there were no [Chechen] groups that were sent [to
Afghanistan]," Mr. Akhmadov said. "And most importantly [the Russians
haven´t] produced a single shred of evidence to prove a single
Chechen was fighting there, much less thousands." Mr. Akhmadov's
claims are backed by Andrei Babitsky, a Radio Liberty/Radio Free
Europe reporter, who reported out of Afghanistan and investigated
Russia's claim.
Clearly, then, the Chechen pleas to America are reasonable, and it
would be our shame if they are not recognized.
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