The Guardian

September 7, 2004

Our dead and injured children: Beslan was barbaric - so has been
Russia's reign of terror in Chechnya

By Ahmed Zakaev

Ahmed Zakaev is Aslan Maskhadov's representative and was deputy prime
minister in the Chechen government elected in 1997. He was granted
asylum by the British government in 2003

The bloody denouement to the Beslan tragedy was barbaric: no other word
will suffice. There could never be any justification for terrorists who
we are told shot fleeing hostages in the back - nor for those who died
at the hands of the ill-judged Spetsnaz operation. I have been asked
many times about Chechen involvement in this appalling bloodbath. Of
course there can be no denying the direct link between the Beslan
tragedy and the war in Chechnya. The president of North Ossetia,
Alexander Dzasokhov, made it clear that the terrorists' only demand was
an end to the war in Chechnya and the withdrawal of all the Russian
forces from our country.

For the past five years that has been the sole concern of the Chechen
nation, led by its legitimate, elected president, Aslan Maskhadov: to
end the fighting and force Russian troops to leave Chechnya.

Ten years ago Chechnya had a population of 2 million. Today it is
800,000, and Vladimir Putin has an army of what we estimate to be up to
300,000 Russian soldiers in Chechnya inflicting a regime of terror. Many
Chechens are refugees and many others have simply disappeared, often in
the night. At least 200,000 Chechen civilians have been killed by
Russian soldiers, including 35,000 children. Another 40,000 children
have been seriously injured, 32,000 have lost at least one parent and
6,500 have been orphaned. These are figures supported by reports of
human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, and we believe
they are conservative. This is how Putin's soldiers treat Chechen civilians.

We feel trapped on a treadmill which is not of our own making. In 1990,
at the height of Mikhail Gorbachov's perestroika, we were told that our
republic would be put on an equal footing with others in a renewed
Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union collapsed and in 1993 Russia decided
that if it was to recreate its empire within the former frontiers, it
could start with us. There was no justification for Russia invading
Chechnya either in 1994 or in 1999.

In 1993, four years after our declaration of sovereignty, Russia
arbitrarily included the Chechen Republic as part of its territory in
the new constitution of the Russian federation. It did this in spite of
the way things were, de facto and de jure, for Chechnya and its
neighbours. Unlike other formerly autonomous Soviet republics, the
Chechen republic did not give in to the many threats intended to force
it to sign the federal treaty with Russia.

When Putin unleashed the dogs of war on Chechnya in order to occupy it
for a second time, he christened his attack a "counter-terrorist
operation in the northern Caucasus". Many of us did not realise the
significance of that then. Now, with hindsight, we can see that the idea
was to discredit the very notion of statehood for Chechnya. While a
minority of Chechens regarded Putin's onslaught against us as justified,
the majority of the nation has kept faith with its elected president,
Maskhadov.

Five years have passed since then, and little has changed. Especially
since September 11 2001, President Maskhadov's government has
systematically disowned any links with international terrorism. Such
assurances, however, have not been enough: the lack of any evidence of
links between us and any international terrorist network has failed to
dent the firmly held views of Putin and his friends.

Putin has been blaming every act of terrorism in Russia on the Chechens
and by his linking our efforts to achieve freedom with monstrous acts of
terrorism, each more terrible than the last, Putin and his government
are trying to force us to renounce any claims to independence. The
Kremlin will not, however, succeed. Freedom for Chechnya is in our blood
and in the struggle that stretches back for centuries. President
Maskhdov and his supporters, including myself, will never endorse or
support terrorism to achieve this independence. Our aim is to strive for
a peaceful resolution to an end to the barbaric injustice that is being
dealt out to the Chechens by Russia's government.

Putin is keen to get the international community to see the situation in
Chechnya as part of the war on international terror. He hopes the
outside world will leave him alone to inflict his regime of terror on
the Chechens. The international community knows that the situation in
Chechnya is quite different, so why does no one intervene? We are keen
to participate in mediation to bring an end to this dreadful situation
for the Chechens. We call on the international community to step in and
help bring peace to both Chechnya and to Russia.