Posted on 06/27/2005 3:56:21 PM PDT by lizol
300,000 Killed in Chechen Wars — Pro-Moscow Official
About 300,000 people have been killed during two wars in Chechnya over the past decade, a senior official in the province’s Moscow-backed government said Sunday.
Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, a deputy prime minister in the Kremlin-controlled Chechen civilian administration, also said that more than 200,000 people have gone missing. Abdurakhmanov’s claim could not be independently verified, The Associated Press reported.
The Russian government has not revealed any casualties among civilians in Chechnya during the two wars in the region since 1994. Casualty estimates vary widely, but many say about 80,000 civilians — 40 percent of them children — died in the first Chechen war. Countless more have been killed since the conflict exploded again in 1999.
Abdurakhmanov made the statement during a visit to the neighboring province of Dagestan, where more than 1,100 ethnic Avar residents of a Chechen village fled after one villager was killed and 11 others went missing during a recent raid they blamed on Chechen security forces.
Abdurakhmanov and other Chechen officials were trying to persuade the refugees to return home, arguing that Chechens had suffered much greater losses throughout the conflict. The high casualty figures Abdurakhmanov cited could be part of a pitch to push the reluctant residents of the village to come back rather than a product of a thorough calculation.
“You lost 11 people, while every resident of Chechnya has scores of relatives who have been killed or gone missing,” Abdurakhmanov told the village’s residents.
Russian forces pulled out in 1996 after a disastrous 20-month battle with separatist rebels, leaving Chechnya de facto independent. The Russian army swept in again in 1999 after Chechnya-based fighters made incursions into Dagestan and after some 300 people died in apartment bombings blamed on the separatists.
Ping
If it involves wiping out Islamic terrorists and those that abet them, I don't think that makes me fascist.
"We should support Russia in this."
This ?
"Casualty estimates vary widely, but many say about 80,000 civilians — 40 percent of them children — died in the first Chechen war. Countless more have been killed since the conflict exploded again in 1999."
Yes. But is this all Russia's fault? Do the Chechen's have some culpability? If they are supporting Islamic terror, I am sorry to say they have brought it upon themselves.
And 200,000 gone missing.
Slow start.
Killing terrorists plus innocent civilians is good?
That's not what we do, and you know what? In a short period of time, we've achieved much success. Meanwhile Russia continues a long -- and I do mean long -- pathetic battle to nowhere against the Chechen's.
Whoop-de-do.
This is really terrible death toll. In essense, Chechnya is the result of the clash between two brands of nazism: Kremlin Nazism (Barbarism) vs. Islamo Nazism. Various Federal Forces and local pro Federal militias are completely out of control behaving as barbarian invaders on their own territory, employing dirty tactics of kidnappings for ransom, random murders, etc. On the other side, Basayev and Co. are Islamist terrorists (Islamic CheGuevaras so to speak) seeking to establish Islamic Rule in Chechnya, North Caucasus and elsewhere in Russia and have no qualms about using mass terror too (Beslan, Moscow Theatre, Budennovsk, etc.). Situation is really tough. You can't allow Chechen Islamists to win--it would be geopolitical catastrophy to Russia and to Europe as well because they would turn Chechnya and North Caucasus into the Islamic Caliphate with all the geopolitical consequences (spread of Islamic terror into Russian heartland, control of Caspian oil reserves by Basayev and the likes that would allow them to add more money to the global Jihad). But it's also impossible to close the eyes on how Russian Government barbarically behaves toward its own citizens.
Yeah, sad but true - a "no good exit situation".
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