Phantoms of the Chechen opera
Why does the US brand Chechen liberation groups as "terrorist organisations", asks Shohdy Naguib in Moscow
Last Wednesday the United States officially announced its decision to include three Chechen separatist guerrilla groups on its list of international "terrorist organisations". Branded as "terrorist" are the Brigade of Shaheeds Riyadus Salihiin, the Islamic International Brigade, and the Islamic Special Task Force Unit. In an official statement issued in Washington, these groups were named responsible for the theatre hostage episode in October 2002 in Moscow, and their methods of conducting warfare in the Chechen Republic are considered to be "terrorist methods". According to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, these organisations pose a considerable threat to US national security, American interests, foreign policy and the economy.
Some analysts contend that the Americans have thus fulfilled their part of the bargain presumably struck with Russia in exchange for Russia not standing in the way of military action on Iraq. Several other militant groups active in the Northern Caucasus are also to be added to the list in the near future. This effectively means that their members will be denied entry to the US and their bank accounts will be frozen. The list of "terrorist organisations" which the Russians submitted to the State Department is said to include about 20 guerrilla groups active in Chechnya.
The American selection did not include any groups controlled by Chechen president-elect, Aslan Maskhadov. This is a major disappointment for the Russians, who continue with their efforts to discredit him by denying his resistance any legitimacy. In an unprecedented joint action brought by permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia, the US, Great Britain, France and China -- who were joined by Spain -- asked the UN Sanctions Committee to include the three Chechen organistions on its own list of international terrorist organisations.
This would require all UN member states to apply sanctions which would include a ban on the sale of arms, denial of entry visas as well as freezing the bank accounts of these organisations and their members.
Chechen opposition sources, however, flatly deny the very existence of most of the guerrilla groups that appear on the Russian list. They also question the identity of the three organisations that ended up on the American list of terrorist groups. Anticipating this confusion, Colin Powell -- in a statement made immediately after the announcement of the state department's "black list" -- warned that these organisations often change their names. Indeed, it seems that only the identity of the Chechen warlord, Shamil Basaev, can be traced to the pseudonym, Riyadus Salihiin -- the guerrilla who admitted responsibility both for the Moscow theatre attack and the destruction of the federal administration building in the Chechen capital, Grozny.
One wonders how a country as tiny as Chechnya would manage to harbour as many as 20 different guerrilla groups, all of which are deemed sufficiently dangerous to be included on the Kremlin's master-list of international terrorist organisations. It is also worth mentioning that the Chechen liberation movement has been thoroughly "cleansed" by Russian federal forces, who acted with much vigour and, according to human-rights sources, were responsible for violating human rights on a broad scale.
Moscow's brutal repression of the Chechen liberation movement is believed by many to be responsible for the emergence of many new resistance groups in Chechnya. These groups, driven by despair and a desire for revenge, are uncoordinated and lacking in leadership. The sheer number of "phantom units" and brigades appearing on the "international terrorist list" compiled by the Russian intelligence actually supports this hypothesis.
Commenting on the intention of the permanent members of Security Council of UN to include the three Chechen organisations on its list of terrorist organisations, Chechen opposition government representative, Ahmet Zakayev, told Reuters that Moscow's brutal repression of the Chechen liberation movement has triggered a cycle of violence.
"Chechens had a bitter experience, which proves that violence produces more terrible violence, and terrorism spawns new terrorism. By opposing Russian state terrorism, our government, unfortunately, cannot always control the irresponsible and desperate behaviour of people, who have become victims of Russian terrorism."
Meanwhile, the full power of the state propaganda machine has been focussed on the upcoming referendum in Chechnya on the future of the republic. The referendum is regarded by most observers as inconsequential, regardless of the outcome. Commentators point out that a similar action conducted by the French in Algeria in the 1950s, in support of the union with France, had no legal or political consequences whatsoever since it was not a result of dialogue between major active political forces. It took further referenda in 1962, in France and Algeria respectively, to approve the Evian Accords and grant Algeria independence, effectively annulling the results of the previous referendum. Asserting popular will at gunpoint among the ruins in a war-torn republic is certainly futile, but the surprisingly high investment by the federal government suggest that it needs the referendum to legitimise further "cleansing operations". This may be construed as a dismissal of international public opinion, leaving it hands free to pursue a full-blown war on terrorism approved not only by the US, but implicitly also by the UN.
Obstructing plans to proceed with the referendum would deal a tremendous blow to the prestige of the federal government and its appointee, Kadyrov, who is ruthlessly handling his task of administering the republic with the help of "death squads". Kadyrov's methods are documented by Oleg Orlov, head of the human- rights watch centre Memorial, which operates in Chechnya under severe pressure and constant obstruction. The absence of hundreds of thousands of its citizens, who fled the war-torn republic, makes the upcoming referendum even less meaningful. This can hardly be remedied by the recent decision to extend the polls to the refugee camps outside the republic. Kadyrov's agreement to this reverses his previous hard stance. He evidently bowed to pressure brought by the Council of Europe.
On the other hand, this could be an opportunity to turn the failure of the referendum into a success if a decision to start negotiations with the moderate opposition is taken after the referendum. Chechen president-elect Aslan Maskhadov called on his citizens to boycott the referendum and promised to conduct military actions during and after the event set for 23 March. "Chechens will thus demonstrate that war in the republic has not come to an end," he said. This action by the opposition forces and the resulting escalation of violence will strip the referendum of even more legitimacy and bring the Moscow hard line to a stop. The past week witnessed several fierce skirmishes which inflicted heavy casualties on the federal forces. Moscow itself is getting ready to face a chemical or biological terrorist attack. While the security forces are being hurriedly equipped with gas-masks, Russian citizens remain hostages of the phantoms created by the "global war on terror".
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 6 - 12 March 2003 (Issue No. 628)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/628/int1.htm