There is one proposal that appeals to the common misfortune of the Russians and the Chechens, and to their possible reconciliation, and which aims not only to condemn war crimes and terrorism, but also to repudiate weapons. It condemns the barbaric nature of the Russian occupation and its genocidal intent, as well as the "murderous courage" of Chechen terrorism. It calls for the disarmament of the Chechen forces and the withdrawal of the Russian forces through the intervention of the United Nations and of a temporary UN Administration, charged for a limited period to re-establish civil, political and material order in a country reduced to rubble and mass graves. To this end it calls for the immediate appointment of a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Chechnya.

Sign the Appeal

EUROPE MUST NOT FORGET THE CHECHEN TRAGEDY

20/05/2003 | La Repubblica | CHECHNYA |

by ADRIANO SOFRI

Nowadays every cause gets its mass demonstration: so let’s have one against a genocide in Europe, against the degeneration of a proud struggle for independence in a capital of international terrorism. For once I write not to express my opinions, but to invite the Italian people to organise a major demonstration on the Chechen tragedy. My appeal is addressed to everyone. To the peace movements and the human rights movements. To parallel diplomacies, like the Sant'Egidio organisation. To the centre-left parties and their leaders, Rutelli, Fassino, D'Alema, Cofferati, Bertinotti and all the others.

To the parties in the government coalition, including those who would like to see an increasingly close relationship between the European Union and Russia but fail to see that, political considerations aside, the policy will continue to seem indecent until the abomination of the Chechen war is brought to an end. To the editors of newspapers and TV news programmes. To Veltroni’s Capitoline Hill, a wonderful platform for those who have no voice. The terrible, though predictable massacres of the last few days prove once again, if there were any need, that peace will not come to this long-suffering country through repression or military resistance.

Suicide attacks are detestable, in Chechnya or anywhere else, and are condemned by the military leaders of the independence movement, like Aslan Maskhadov. They are inspired by warlords, like Shamil Basaev or his new emulators, who have now turned from Caucasian patriotism to Islamic irredentism, increasingly linked, in terms of operations and funding, to Arab and Asian Islamist terrorism. (Though despite the rumours at the time not a single Chechen was found, either dead or alive, among the Afghan fighters). But the suicide attacks are not the work of Arab infiltrators or of some fanatical fundamentalist International; there is no need for them, and in actual fact the proverbial pride of the Chechens would repudiate this possibility. The "black widows" (an unhappy expression, if there ever was one) and the black daughters and sons of Chechen fighters, ready to sacrifice themselves, even simply out of a passionate desire for revenge, are enough. The facts point clearly to the failure and the lies of Putin, who built his rise to power on the bold promise to wipe out the Chechen “sore”.

The Chechen irredentism against the Russians is centuries old. For nine years - with a few brief intervals - the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in conflict, tens of thousands of them, have been returning, hidden from view, from Chechnya. Not a day goes by without the Russian soldiers laying waste to some Chechen village or quarter, bursting into houses to pillage them, kidnapping civilians and “disappearing” them, or extorting ransoms for their release, or more often for the return of their bodies. Chechnya’s tragedy is also Russia’s tragedy. There is a tiny, irreducible population - just over a million at the beginning of the war, no more than 700,000 now - which has been decimated, deported, tortured and abused in what amounts to true genocide. Any intention to negotiate or undertake non-violent initiatives is thwarted by the brutal violence of the Russian repression, and by the suicidal and murderous fanaticism of Islamist extremism, until recently extraneous and hateful to the Caucasian tradition. The liberation of Chechnya is now a necessary condition for the liberation of Russia. And no liberation will take place except by laying down all weapons and giving a voice back to the civilian population. The Chechen civilian population - driven out to the miserable refugee camps in Ingushetia, Ossetia and elsewhere, and now forced to return to towns and villages where there is now nothing but rubble and terror; or to hide among the ruins like mice, a dispersed populace whose very name has been stolen, a hostage of the despised, drunken violence of Russian mercenaries and soldiers and of the usurpation of their own fighters, possessed by heroism and torn apart by rivalries.

The Chechens aspire to independence. Their dream has survived endless wars and opprobrious events like the total extirpation of their land towards the more inhospitable regions of Siberia and Kazakhstan. But now, after over 200,000 deaths in less than a decade, all they want is a bit of peace, a bit of life. For the first time in their valiant history, they must be listened to and protected.

In these pages Paolo Garimberti has revealed how the referendum organised in March by Moscow, in collaboration with the pro-Russian Quisling Akhmad Khadirov - the target of the assassination attempt last Tuesday by the "black widow" - was nothing but a mockery of a popular vote. With the sole aim of showing that the Chechens are happy to submit to Russian occupation, the referendum saw votes cast by Chechens, Russian soldiers (there are over 80,000 of them) and even passing reporters - more voters than inhabitants. Those who consider Chechnya to be an internal affair for the Kremlin must realise the extraordinary gravity of a massacre conducted in the name of state sovereignty that is a hundred times more horrific that that which torments Israel and Palestine. If we wish to recognise Russia’s right to keep Chechnya within its federal borders, then the scandal is paradoxically even greater: because the Chechens are Russian citizens, and the Russian government treats its own citizens by massacring them and torturing them, even hoping, it seems, to annihilate them.

All this unspeakable horror has taken place without a single important demonstration in Italy to denounce the crimes against humanity committed by the Russian government and the Russian army, to condemn the "suicide" attacks, and to show solidarity with the Chechen people and the Russian mothers. No call for peace has come for this tiny, abused country. It is one of those failures that we will be unable, in a few years’ time, or a hundred year’s time, to explain, and which will make us feel overcome with shame. We must begin right now (already far too late) to feel this unbearable grief and shame. This is the precondition. We must then overcome the obstacles that have so far made the Chechen tragedy in Italy the eccentric obsession of half a dozen people, the Radicals and one or two others. The first obstacle is, as always, ignorance. Chechnya continues to be a funny, undiscovered word. The second is the fear of giving credit to violence and terrorism: a reasonable fear, except that it contributes to bringing about the opposite effect, that of leaving the Chechen cause in the hands of armed extremism alone.

There is one proposal that appeals to the common misfortune of the Russians and the Chechens, and to their possible reconciliation, and which aims not only to condemn war crimes and terrorism, but also to repudiate weapons. Discussed with movements and leading figures in Russia and elsewhere, it has been presented in the United States by Ilyas Akhmadov, former Foreign Minister in the Maskhadov government, elected in January 1997 and then overturned by the Islamist provocation and the Russian invasion. It condemns the barbaric nature of the Russian occupation and its genocidal intent, as well as the "murderous courage" of Chechen terrorism. It calls for the disarmament of the Chechen forces and the withdrawal of the Russian forces through the intervention of the United Nations and of a temporary UN Administration, charged for a limited period to re-establish civil, political and material order in a country reduced to rubble and mass graves. To this end it calls for the immediate appointment of a Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Chechnya. At the end of this process the surviving Chechen citizens will be called on to choose their own destiny. The premise for this plan for "conditional independence" is that no-one can hope to win on the field of battle, and that it is up to the UN and the international community "to allow two peoples who are both losing a shameful war to win together an honourable peace". When the international community is mentioned, we must remember that Chechnya and the Caucasus are in Europe, and were actually its cradle: and that if Europe were to search for its soul, it would find it there.

Russia cannot feel offended by the possibility of UN intervention, since Russia itself recognised the independence of Chechnya, confirmed by the elections in 1997, after the first bloody invasion.

The appeal has so far been supported by single figures, by the transnational Radicals, and by organisations that have sprung up in other European countries: in Italy it can become the backdrop of a large-scale mobilisation of people and movements. There are lots of important events coming up, I know. Elections, referendums, Champions League finals, holidays by the sea, trials to be held, trials to be undermined. Important things. Chechnya is a small country, far away, strange, and all the problems are ultimately a matter of life and death. Of people, rights, freedom. Let’s do it, let’s organise a mass demonstration. I have spoken, as best I can from my prison cell, to the leaders of parties and movements, and I have found them to be willing. The watchwords, for once, are clear and common: peace in Chechnya, no to Russian occupation, no to terrorism, the proposal for an interim UN administration, and European Parliament support for the idea. But people can choose whatever watchword they want, as long as they speak out. Individual, newspapers, parties and movements can contribute for once without rivalries to a testimony of solidarity that will warm the good soul of Chechnya and Russia and redeem the souls of we Italians and Europeans. Sign the Appeal