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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Their backs to the wall
By Jamaal-ud-deen MusallamIn an effort to drum up support for the cause of the breakaway republic of Chechnya, Islam Halimov, chief adviser to Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, and secretary-general of the Chechen National Security Council, was in Cairo last week as part of a regional tour.
At the Press Syndicate in Cairo, Halimov discussed the difficulties Chechnya has faced in its struggle for international recognition and against Soviet antagonism. Speaking on the war still being waged by separatist guerrilla fighters in Chechnya, Halimov declared atrocities committed by Russia in the region to be unconstitutional and motivated by hatred.
"With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Russia's new post-Soviet constitution stipulated that ethnic minorities allocated autonomous regions control their states in whatever way suits them. The Chechen people chose national independence, and voted in President Aslan Maskhadov in internationally-recognised elections with international observers," Halimov told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Noting the differences between the current war and the 1996 war between Russia and Chechen separatists, Halimov highlighted a number of factors that have strengthened Russia's position this time around. "Russian troops were demoralised and did not want to get involved during the last war," he said. "When the Russian military campaign in Chechnya failed, they withdrew from Chechnya, with the tacit agreement of Western powers. But in this war, the Russians have changed their approach. Because of a vicious propaganda campaign, Russian troops now hate the Chechen people, describing them as terrorists and saying that the Chechen government is uncontrollable."
Halimov maintains that the Russians have worked to generate hatred among other ethnic groups of the Caucasus mountain region, turning them against the Chechens. Halimov further contended that the Russian people have been embittered against Chechnya because they were told that the Chechens were responsible for carrying out explosions in Russian cities. Halimov claimed the explosions were actually engineered by the Russian government.
According to Halimov, when it was revealed that the explosions were part of a Russian "plot" to build hatred for Chechens, authorities claimed that they were "checking the Russian people's readiness for such explosions -- with massive quantities of explosives."
"Unfortunately, the Russian people still do not know the truth," Halimov said. "But we believe that one day everything will be clear to the Russian people -- it is Russian state terrorism, not Chechen terror, that unleashed the wave of bombings and war."
Drawing on a sensitive issue in the region, Halimov accused Russia of justifying its actions by claiming to fight international terrorism and militant Islamic fundamentalism. "They highlighted the fact that they are fighting Arabs, like the warlord called Khattab -- who fights for the Chechen cause -- and overlook the fact that they are fighting Maskhadov, because they would be criticised for fighting a legally-elected government."
Halimov denies that territory and economic resources are the main causes of the war. "Besides the four-century-old enmity between us and the Russians, it is the Russian domestic situation and international interests which are behind the war," Halimov said. "[Vladimir] Putin himself admits that it is the war that made him [Russian] president."
Citing the sluggish and lukewarm response of the international community to reported atrocities, Halimov said that Western countries want to weaken Russia by encouraging infighting. "The United States' and the European Union's role in the war is conspicuous -- the EU gave Putin a grace period until he became president, and then they prolonged it after he won the presidency," Halimov said.
"They are not serious about stopping the war; these are all just tricks. Surely we have seen how the US interfered in other places to stop war when stopping those wars was in its interest," he added.
