Posted on 09/09/2004 10:39:04 AM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
Nobody should excuse what happened in Beslan—but Chechnya still needs a solution.
“THEY have declared war on us,” said one Russian television anchorman as he began his report on the massacre in Beslan. And indeed, the terrorists who devastated a school and its hostages on September 3rd wrought carnage of proportions usually seen only in wartime: the death toll, in what is only a small town, may exceed 500.
Even wars are rarely this cruel. They have rules, sort of, one of which is to avoid harming civilians where possible, and especially children. The terrorists in Beslan deliberately went for the most innocent and defenceless targets; they timed their attack, on the first day of the school year, to catch the maximum number; they tortured their small captives by refusing them all food and water; and when one of the explosives they had rigged in the school gymnasium went off, apparently by accident, they shot fleeing hostages in the back before blowing the building apart. If this were war, such bestial, inhuman acts would richly deserve the name of war crimes.
The world should recognise and affirm that. Yet it is also important to draw other lessons from Beslan. One is that the Russian security forces made mistakes that may have cost many lives. They had not established how many hostages or terrorists there were, they did too little to secure the area and bring in emergency services, they even allowed armed civilians to join the siege. That may have forced their hand when the terrorist bomb exploded.
Just a week earlier, the blowing-up of two Russian airliners by suicide bombers had made little difference to government policies or to Russians' lives, besides a perfunctory increase in identity checks on passengers arriving at Moscow airports from the south of Russia. Beslan, however, has shaken the country's leadership to the core. “This is a total, cruel and full-scale war that again and again is taking the lives of our fellow citizens,” said Vladimir Putin, Russia's president.
The language of war can unify a nation. Like George Bush, who declared “war on terror” after September 11th, Mr Putin is putting his country on a war footing. He has promised “measures aimed at strengthening our country's unity”, better co-ordination of forces in the northern Caucasus, and “entirely new approaches to the way the law-enforcement agencies work.” And, as before, he has striven to link Russia's problems to America's: “What we are facing is direct intervention of international terror directed against Russia.” In effect, he wants “9/3” to be seen as Russia's 9/11.
But that is disingenuous, and may even be dangerous. The verified links between Chechen terrorists and al-Qaeda are few and tenuous. Intelligence sources doubt that the “Islambouli Brigades” that claimed responsibility for the two aircraft bombings last month actually did the deed. The Russians claim that ten of the hostage-takers in Beslan may have been Arabs, but no proof has been offered besides indistinct pictures and some sounds that just might be Arabic. All the signs are that the mastermind was Shamil Basayev, a Chechen who has organised a series of terrorist attacks, including on a hospital in Budyennovsk in 1995 and a theatre in Moscow in 2002
Governments that go to war have a duty not only to win, but also to stop future ones breaking out. And that means understanding their root causes—which is not at all to imply excusing or condoning them. Stressing the Chechens' links with al-Qaeda lets Mr Putin wriggle out of acknowledging that America's and Russia's terrorist threats are more different than they are alike. Al-Qaeda's jihad is the product of complex circumstances, in many countries, in which America's foreign policy was only one contributory factor.
Russia's conflict in Chechnya is home-grown, nurtured in a republic that has been systematically destroyed in the struggle for power. Russia has tried to wipe out Chechnya's separatists, first through direct military force, and more recently through “Chechenisation”—ie, foisting the problem on to a local strongman (the latest luckless candidate, Alu Alkhanov, was put in place in rigged elections only two weeks ago). But the result has been to breed an anarchy in which soldiers and separatists alike kidnap and murder the innocent with impunity.
Crackdowns on rebels hiding in neighbouring republics have simply spread the lawlessness. The Beslan raiders included not just Chechens but Ingush and other northern Caucasians. Their evil deeds may now revive the old conflict between mainly Christian Ossetians and mainly Muslim Ingush. “Chechenisation” was meant to contain Chechnya; now it threatens to engulf the region. Yet Mr Basayev's Islamic fundamentalism is borrowed from abroad; it would attract few sympathisers were it not for the misery created at home.
Mr Putin said after Beslan that “we showed ourselves to be weak, and the weak get beaten.” The implication is that he will now be even tougher in Chechnya. Not only is that likely to stir up more terrorism; it also ignores one of the conflict's main drivers, which is cash. It suits certain Chechens, particularly the Kadyrov clan that now in effect controls the republic, to keep the war going, in large part because they make money out of it. It suits many in Moscow who connive at and benefit from the corruption, smuggling and worse in Chechnya. And it suits some Russian commanders and law-enforcement bosses who get their cut from Chechen oil wells, arms sales and the bribes that everyone—terrorists included—pays to get through the checkpoints that dot the northern Caucasus.
Part of the solution in Chechnya must be to break today's nexus of perverse incentives that do so much to keep the war going. That means not ever-tougher controls on the whole population, in a vain attempt to root out terrorists, but starting at last to tackle the top-to-bottom corruption that makes a joke of existing controls. Mr Putin seems sometimes to recognise that his armed forces are part of the problem, but his preferred solution still seems to be to impose control, through a Chechen placeman, rather than try a new approach.
What should that approach be? Ultimately, extreme autonomy, possibly leading to properly negotiated independence, should not be ruled out, if that is what most Chechens want. But right now, most just want peace. Simply making the republic independent would not only reward terror; it would not work, as Chechnya is too shattered to function on its own. Pulling the troops out would leave a bandit state, worse than the one that operated in 1996-99. Yet throughout the conflict, Mr Putin has refused to talk to moderate Chechens. Potential interlocutors have either turned extreme or lost support. Moreover, when Mr Putin calls Chechnya an “international” problem, he is right—though not in the way he claims. Ask Muslims around the world what aggrieves them, and they will mention Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, even headscarves in French schools...and Chechnya. Russia's conflict may not have started with foreign terrorists, but it has given them fodder for their own trouble-making.
That also gives western leaders an interest in helping to end it. One thing they must do is to keep telling the truth. They should offer sympathy and assistance to the Russians as victims of terrorism, not least in better training for their security forces. But even after Beslan, they should not condone Russia's human-rights abuses in Chechnya, and they should urge Mr Putin to seek out moderates with whom to talk. Perhaps after an interval, they might look for a more active involvement in the northern Caucasus. Russia has reached a dead end in Chechnya; if western offers of peacekeepers, human-rights monitors, financial or other assistance can help it to back out again, they would be well worth making.
Mr Putin will resist outside “interference”. But the Russians need help in Chechnya. And the one thing more tragic even than September 3rd would be if Budyennovsk, Moscow and now Beslan keep happening, over and over again.
Stuff from the Economist is rapidly approaching the need for an automatic "BARF ALERT!"
It's time for people to step up and point fingers to those who carry out these missions.
Bush's words are those who harbor terrorist are terrorist.
If we find out these guys have families in a certain country. We need to go interogate and make sure there was no contact for months. Phone records, friends, neighbors, they will know. Any contact is suspicious. We are at war. I know all my family members and what they are up to. If I don't, I can give information on how to find them.
Innocent people do die during war.
Let's start listening to the people who know.
This is a war. Let's go to war folks.
Democrats are you listening? Are you just happy that they have not hit you yet?
They're coming.
"Let's wait Kerry" or
Let's go Bush!!
YOUR CHOICE!!
Ken, did you actially read this?
It's very fair, and it's not giving Russia a pass on their actions.
It depends on how you define Al Qaeda. If you are looking for "Al Qaeda" ID badges, then you aren't going to find any. If you look at the presence of Saudi money, Wahab fanatics, access to Afghan training camps until 2001, if you look at the presence of Chechens still in Pakistan among Taliban remnants, and arab and pakistani volunteers among the Chechens, then its not hard to draw conclusions.
This isn't a trial, and we aren't their lawyers trying to get them off, our only need is to spot the connections and go after them.
My choice is to not turn my country into a police State, that's the terrorist's goal.
My choice is to go where they live, and turn THEIR countries into a police State.
Of course I read it , LG..FYI..anytime an article refers to 9/11, or any act of terrorism, as "tragic"..it's pure crap..
"My choice is to not turn my country into a police State, that's the terrorist's goal.
My choice is to go where they live, and turn THEIR countries into a police State."
BINGO!!!! HELLOOOOOO IRAQ!!!!!
The connection has yet to be spotted.
Putin is trying to detract attention from his own actions in Chechnya and attach himself to our WOT...the actions of the Russians in Chechnya do not excuse the events in Beslan, but they contributed to it.
Absolutely.
Get them fighting one another and they'll leave us alone.
So, you write off the essence of the article due to your disapproval of the verbiage describing 9/11?
9/11 WAS tragic; it was also horrific, heartbreaking, holocaustic, horrifying...
Don't dismiss the points made over semantics.
Luis...Russia has made many stupid mistakes...I'm NOT defendign them..but this is part of a systematic attempt by Islam terrorists to tear apart Russia, and they'll use any methods to accomplish their objective. There is NO negotiating with this scum..you can't reason with vermim..you have to kill them all..
I agree
Unfortunately it cost U.S. lives and our supervision.
The United States is doing the right thing at the present. Hopefully we keep this kind of leadership in charge.
Can you imagine Kerry with these decisions?
You think New Yorkers on 9/11/01 and shortly after wanted to hear the words " we need to seek out those who directly did this with the help of our friends, and we will bring them to court" or
"we will seek these criminals in whatever hole they are hiding and kill them and bring them to justice, included are those who harbor these criminals!!"
**PING**
Russia created the situation that gave opportunities to Islamic extremists to thrive among the Chechens.
What are the common denominators between Chechen terrorists and the Al Qaeda/Hamas/Hezbollah types?
Most people would point to the obvious...Muslims!
Some would see the second common denominator; in both instances, there is an oppressive system of government in place. The first being an oppressive theocracy governing in the name of God, and the other is communism, where the State denies God and sets itself in His place.
A Grand Strategy Of Transformation
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1077054/posts
I don't agree. Again, Chechens trained in Afghanistan, Arabs and Pakistanis have been found fighting in Chechnya, Chechens are funded by Saudi money.
As I say, if you are looking for an Al Qaeda org chart, you aren't going to find one, so it depends on how you define Al Qaeda. In my view its Al Qaeda where Wahabs and Saudi funding get into the mix. Beyond that, Al Qaeda is a term of convenience for non-state actors. So you have the traditional Chechen banditry with maybe some Turkish support up until the nineties, and then at some point, you have the injection of Wahab volunteers and Saudi money. At that point we have our "Al Qaeda" connection.
Turks helping Chechens kill Russian troops, we look the other way. None of our business. Arabs helping Chechens kill Russian civilians, we have a different game. Our interest intersects with Russia's interest in shutting down the Wahab and Saudi connection, and on a human level, getting rid of the people who target civilians. At the point it goes back to being a traditional insurgency, or bandit enterprise, we have no further interest.
Chechnya was conquered by the Bolsheviks and forcefully annexed to the Soviet Union in 1923. It was actually one country, until the U.S.S.R. divided it.
Our interests intersect with Russia insofar as we have a common need to eradicate terrorism from the world.
What can't be swept under the rug are Russia's actions, in Chechnya and elsewhere, that vent the fires regionally, and create opportunities for Al Qaeda and other terrorists organizations to expand their bases of operations.
We are looking at the distinct possibility of having to militarily assist Russia in Chechnya, a situation created by their own brutality, in spite of the fact that Russia refused to assust us in Iraq.
That pisses me off.
Look at it this way Luis:
It's like hiring the mob to kill the man that just raped your daughter!
Does this help??
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