rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_ad5615c1-431c-5c9e-a582-1df5eb1a339a">Chechnya
Where is it?
Chechnya is a republic in Russia located in the Caucasus, a mountainous region seen as part of a natural border between Europe and Asia. This area is also home to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as other Russian republics including North Ossetia and Ingushetia. The majority of Chechens are Muslim and traditionally owe allegiance to their local clan (teip) or group of clans (tukkhum).
Struggle for independence
After long and fierce resistance, Chechnya became part of Russia’s expanding empire in the late 1850s, but periodic fighting persisted. It enjoyed fleeting independence between 1917 and 1922 when Russia was experiencing its own civil strife. But in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR—see Russia) was formed, and within it, the Chechen Autonomous Region. Fourteen years later, when the regions were being re-jigged, it became the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), twinned with what is now Chechnya’s neighbouring Russian republic, Ingushetia. The population of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR were brutally punished by Joseph Stalin for their continued insurgence; in 1944 he deported the entire population to Siberia and Central Asia on the groundless accusation that they had collaborated with the Nazis. They remained there until 1957 when the next Russian president, Nikita Khrushchev, ordered their return. The deportation caused devastating loss of life. The Chechen-Ingush ASSR lasted over thirty more years until the USSR collapsed in 1991.
What happened after the USSR fell?
A group of politicians calling themselves the National Congress of the Chechen People, led by Dzhokhar Dudayev, declared independence for Chechnya. Initially Moscow didn’t react, but in 1994, troops were sent in to sort out the defiant region and ensure that other republics in the region didn’t follow Chechnya’s example and break away. After some initial gains, the incompetent Russian federal military were forced to pull out in 1996 after dogged guerrilla resistance by the separatist forces led by Aslan Maskhadov. The First Chechen War claimed the lives of up to 100,000 civilians and roughly 15,000 soldiers as well as injuring hundreds of thousands more. A ceasefire agreement, the Khasav-Yurt Accord, was signed in August 1996, giving Chechnya a significant degree of autonomy but not complete independence. In January 1997 Russia recognised the government led by Aslan Maskhadov, who had won the presidential election.
And then?
Over the next few years tensions once again escalated. Maskhadov’s government in the capital Grozny was opposed by extremist Wahhabi Muslim factions who began to take over more and more areas of the country. The introduction of Sharia law (see Islam) in February 1999 did nothing to appease these groups, and in August an extremist rebel army, led by Shamil Basayev and Saudi Arabian mercenary Ibn al-Khattab invaded neighbouring Dagestan in an effort to establish a separate Islamic state, which would cover part of Chechnya and Dagestan. Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister at the time, quelled this uprising quickly.
In September, bombs were set off in different areas of Russia, causing around 300 deaths. While critics, including former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko—who was poisoned in London in November 2006—have accused Russia’s Federal Security Services of co-ordinating the bombings, Russian officials pointed the finger at Chechen rebels. As a result, soldiers were sent in on the pretext of fighting future terrorism and the Second Chechen War got under way, with Putin declaring Maskhadov’s government illegitimate and Russia striving again to claim authority over the restless region. Thousands more military and civilian casualties ensued, and hundreds of thousands were displaced. Grozny fell back into Russian hands in February 2000, and three years later was pronounced the ‘most destroyed city on earth’ by the United Nations.
What happened at Beslan school?
On 1 September 2004 Chechen separatists took over School No.1 in Beslan, a small city of 40,000 people in North Ossetia, which shares a small part of its border with Chechnya. The group stormed the school, held over 1,000 adults and children hostage, and began rigging bombs everywhere from the ceiling to the walls, and even in basketball hoops. The hostages, who were confined to the cramped gym, were refused food and water; many drank their own urine to avoid total dehydration, and removed their clothes because of the heat. After a few days of extreme tension, Russian special forces entered the school after hearing explosions. Over 330 hostages were killed during this siege, of which 186 were children, and at least 700 were injured. Of the 32 separatists involved, 31 were killed and the sole survivor was handed a life sentence for his involvement. The Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev later claimed to have been the mastermind behind the siege. He was killed in July 2006, apparently by Russian special forces.
Journalist silenced
Russia maintains a tight grip on journalists reporting on the ongoing troubles in Chechnya. This clampdown began in earnest during the Second Chechen War after extensive coverage of the previous conflict had exposed Russia’s heavy-handedness to the world. Anna Politkovskaya was an investigative journalist dedicated to exposing human rights abuses on the part of both Russian and Chechen troops, and her extensive writing, which includes the books Dirty War: a Russian Reporter in Chechnya and Putin’s Russia, made her numerous enemies. Politkovskaya was shot and killed in the lift of her Moscow apartment block in October 2006, having previously received death threats and survived attempts on her life. Three men who stood trial for their involvement in the murder were acquitted in February 2009, while the murder suspect is on the run and is thought to have fled the country.
What does the future hold?
Recent elections in Chechnya were criticised by foreign observers for being neither free nor fair—in December 2007 the United Russia party won 99% of the vote. The current president of the Chechen Republic is the young, bullish and bearded Ramzan Kadyrov, who is backed by Putin and has a reputation for his tough stance against rebels. He is the son of the first president of the Russian-backed republic, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in 2004 after only seven months in office. From 2000-9 fighting continued sporadically between rebel insurgents and the Kadyrovtsy, a militia loyal to both Kadyrovs that has been widely accused of kidnappings, torture and human rights abuses. With an administration loyal to Russia now in charge, the rebels are contained at the time of writing—Russia’s ‘counter-terrorism operation’ against the separatists officially came to an end in April 2009—but uncertainty remains over the long-term stability of the region.
‘The people have already determined Chechnya’s status at the referendum—it is a unit of the Russian Federation. Its political status is not to be discussed any more.’
AKHMAD KADYROV, August 2003
What are they?
Civil liberties are freedoms to exercise one’s rights as guaranteed by the laws of one’s country, or rights which protect the individual from interference or abuse by the government. Civil liberties and human rights are two sides of the same coin—civil liberties is used in the context of a government’s relationship with its citizens, whereas human rights refers more to the fundamental rights that we all share, regardless of our country. Many countries have their own interpretation of civil liberties written into their constitution: the best known of these is the Bill of Rights, which are the first ten
