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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Oct. - 3 Nov. 1999 Issue No. 453 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Oct. - 3 Nov. 1999 Issue No. 453
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Study Special Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Carnage in Grozny
By Abdel-Malek KhalilThe United States and European countries have intensified efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the Chechen crisis. Both the US and Europe are applying tremendous diplomatic pressure on Russia to halt its aggression against the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
Meanwhile, Russia has stepped up its military campaign to subdue the separatist Chechen leadership in the face of growing international disapproval of Moscow's military campaign which is targeting innocent civilians. The worst incident was a series of blasts in the Chechen capital Grozny last Thursday. The explosions that rocked a crowded street market in the centre of Grozny killing 137 and wounding many more was severely criticised in many international forums. Both witnesses and Chechen officials said the explosions were caused by at least five Russian rockets that rained down on the capital's centre and outskirts. Moscow denied responsibility, but evidence points to Russia's missiles, heavy artillery bombardment and vicious aerial attacks.
Dubious and different explanations came out of Moscow, however. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, speaking from Helsinki, admitted that Russia had conducted a special operation in Chechnya at the time of the Grozny explosions, while denying that Russian strikes were responsible for setting off the blasts. On the other hand, General Valery Manilov in Moscow said that the explosions were the result of an altercation between two competing Chechen gangs. The Chechen gunfight, Manilov said, took place near a large arms storage dump which sparked the explosion.
The explosions in Grozny have heightened the diplomatic strain between Russia and the international community with strong condemnations from European, especially German politicians and US officials who expressed concern over the high number of civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, the fighting has intensified between the Russian army and the Chechen fighters in and around the besieged Chechen capital. The last open road into Chechnya was sealed off last week -- a week that saw the fiercest clashes around Grozny since the end of the 1994-1996 war. Heavy fighting raged on the western and northern outskirts of the city. Federal troops sealed off the main road linking Grozny and the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia on Saturday. Chechens had been using the road to flee the fighting raging in their republic for the past seven weeks. Several thousand people were stranded at the border or ordered by the federal troops to go back into Chechnia. Mountain passes will soon be impassable because of the onset of winter and expected heavy snowfall. The situation of refugees trying to flee war-torn Chechnya will become untenable. Already some 200,000 Chechen refugees have fled their homeland and conditions are rapidly deteriorating with severe food, water and medical supplies shortages.
Most of the fleeing Chechen civilians have taken refuge in Ingushetia. The flow of refugees intensified after Russian tanks and artillery approached Grozny last Monday and bombarded the capital's suburbs from surrounding hills.
Last week, Russian generals vowed to take control of Grozny "sooner or later" and the latest fighting marks the closest the Russian federal troops have come to launching a full assault on the city.
In another development, Moscow used the threat of new terrorist attacks inside Russia to justify sealing the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia, and kept up its shelling of the outskirts of Grozny. Russian President Boris Yeltsin has refused to meet with Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov to negotiate an end to the crisis and claimed that Islamist militant sympathisers from Muslim countries are supporting the Chechens. The Russians blame the escalation of the violence on Chechen Islamist warlords, but observers believe that the main reason is Russia's wish to avenge itself for its humiliating defeat in the previous 21-month war of 1994-96 that killed over 80,000 people.
Meanwhile, the popularity ratings for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have soared and his political future is now tied to the success of the military campaign in Chechnya. The prospect of a political settlement appears to be very slim. The Russian intelligence service said on Sunday that Chechen Islamist warlords Shamil Basayev and Amir Khatab had ordered terrorist attacks against targets inside Russia. The Russian authorities have also identified an Egyptian national, Said Taha El-Labban, who acquired Russian citizenship after marrying a Chechen woman, as leader of the terrorist funding campaign and offered Basayev $200,000. Moscow claims that El-Labban fled Russia soon after the bombing campaign in several Russian cities that took place in the past two months. Moscow says that El-Labban has sinister connections with several Middle Eastern countries and militant Islamist groups bent on "liberating" the mainly Muslim Caucasus Mountain areas.
