"Grozny’s
civilian population was trapped in a city devastated by a conflagration not
seen in Europe since World War II." - Emma Gilligan
"Yuri Luzhkov,
the mayor of Moscow, suggested building a wall around Chechnya to protect
Russia from terrorists. "Despite five months of bombing and guerrilla
warfare, the situation in Chechnya remained largely ignored by the world." Chechnya is the site of one of the worst
human rights catastrophes of the post-Communist era, comparable with Rwanda and
former Yugoslavia.
In spite
of this work, there has still been no international investigation of the crimes
committed, and the role played by racial prejudice.
Rereading Emma
Gilligan's important work on human rights violations in Chechnya 1999-2005
There
needs to be a public discussion of what Russia did in Chechnya, and the
consequences it brought both to Russia and the world at large.
Chechens
were dehumanized with racially bigoted language - “blacks”, “bandits”,
“terrorists”, “cockroaches” and “bedbugs”.
Russian
propaganda pictured the entire Chechen people as terrorists and
"bandits" - and civilians were indiscriminately abducted and killed.
·
Reply
The
Russian pretence: not massacring a population but conducting an "anti-terrorist
operation" - to give it international respectability.
The
hostage-taking and suicide bombings practised by the separatists against
Russian civilians were also war crimes.
·
Reply
The
Second Chechen War coincided with the rise of Russian nationalist propaganda
and the establishment of the Russkiy Mir (Russian World).
Chechens
were victims of Putinist Russia's reassertion of national and ethnic identity,
quest for a new Russian destiny, still continuing.
“After
9/11, Chechnya ceased being a post-Soviet phenomenon and became an issue
between the West and the Islamic world." - Akhmed Zakayev
"We
did not seek this role, it was bestowed on us by the West’s policies." -
Akhmed Zakayev
The West
traded acquiescence in Russia's HR violations in Chechnya for Russia's
acquiescence in US HR violations in Iraq and at Guantanamo.
There is
presently a need for a nongovernmental international commission of inquiry on
war crimes in #Chechnya.
Emma
Gilligan has made a detailed study of the Zachistka of 2000-2002, in which the
Chechen population was humiliated and subjugated.
The
Zachistka was a campaign of collective punishment, with torture and ill treatment
of civilians in local communities.
The
purpose of the Zachistka was to uproot and destroy those communities, thus
weakening resistance.
In her
book, Emma Gilligan also examines the practice of enforced disappearances as a
method used by Russian forces to eliminate their enemy
There is also a
chapter on the refugee crisis of 1999-2000, when c. 250,000 Chechens fled into
the tiny neighbouring republic of Ingushetia
The
refugees were denied the basic rights linked to their status, as the Russian
govt assured the West that all was returning to normal.
·
Reply
On
radical Chechen retaliation to Russia's assault - the hostage-takings and
suicide bombings did little to advance the radicals' cause.
On
reaction of Russian civil society to war in Chechnya by individuals like Sergei
Kovalev, Svetlana Gannushkina, Anna Politkovskaya, others
There was
extensive activity by Russian civil society, in spite of FSB pressure, to
contest the war and monitor the human rights situation
But the
international community failed to secure Russian compliance with UN
resolutions, and the pressure was eased progressively after 9/11
·
Reply
Discussing
Chechen human rights cases at ECHR, Gilligan shows the lengths that Russia was
prepared to go to in order to conceal its actions.
·
Reply
Gilligan: a
detailed list of all current and past investigations into human rights abuses
during the two Chechen wars needs to be compiled
A
database must be compiled and a survey made to begin the process of determining
the no. of civilians who have died in Chechnya since 1994.
A
comprehensive documentation project, like the one made by the Kosovo
Commission, is needed showing depth of crisis.This is an urgent task.
Emma
Gilligan: Terror in Chechnya (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity)
Paperback – 1 Dec 2013 amazon.co.uk/Terror-Chechny…
No comments:
Post a Comment