CHECHEN WAR 1999

History of the Chechen War

The List of Reasons That Russia Accuses For the Start Of This War

What Are the Actual Reasons Behind the Chechen War (1999-...)?

Civilians are filling the brunt of the Russian military campaign, laments Maskhadov

History of the Chechen War

Since 1722, Chechnya is suffering from continuous Russian campaigns.
Chechen towns were completely erased and destroyed. Until the year 1864,
the War stayed continuous for 142 years, where 75% of the Chechen
population was eradicated and most of the towns were completely erased.
This was the first liquidation.

In February 1944, Chechens were exiled to the cold Siberia and desert of
Kazakhistan. Chechens were accused in cooperating with Germany. Again,
more than 50% of the Chechens were liquidated in the exile. Chechnya was
erased from the maps and no official mention to it was until 1957. This
was the second liquidation.

Although Germany was targeting the oil fields of Grozny in Chechnya and
Baku in Azerbaijan, but it never made it to these fields. Daniel Yergin
in his book "The Prize" 1992, mentioned: "In mid August [1942], Germany
mountain troops planted the swastika at the summit of Mount Elbrus, the
highest point in the Caucasus and in Europe.... By November 1942 the last
German effort to break through the mountain passes toward Grozny and Baku
had definitively been repulsed."

The eight nations exiled were Chechens, Ingush, Karachai, Balkar, Kalmyk,
Crimean Tatar, Volga Germans, Meskhetians. They were ordered to board the
trains in order to be used as a hard labor in building the Siberian
railroad. The ill and the elderly Chechens were separated from their
families, where they were pushed out of the trains and were left to face
the death alone, along the rail road.

In Siberia, each Chechen family was divided into many concentration
camps, which were fenced and separated by miles from each other. These
families were not allowed to communicate during the 13 years of the
exile. In 1957, Khrushchev decided to return five nations, among them the
Chechens to their homeland. Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars are still in
the exile. Meanwhile, Meskhetians were totally eradicated, their homeland
was annexed to Georgia in the Caucasus, and was erased from the official
maps.

This exile and the punishment were worse than what Hitler did! The world
media never gave the attention to Stalin's liquidation of nations,
relative to the Holocaust of Hitler which is always under spot light!

An important note here, one of the main reasons that Hitler was defeated
is the lack of oil which left the German machinery and army to be frozen
in Russia. If Hitler actually reached Grozny and Baku, he would never be
defeated!

The third liquidation of the Chechens by Russians was in the War
(1994-1996). Before the War, the Chechen population was 1.2 million, but
after the War the population dropped to 250,000. Hundred thousand
Chechens were killed and the rest were dislocated.

Today's invasion by Russia to Chechnya is a continuous liquidation and
total destruction, targeting at first the civilians. Thousands of Chechen
women, children, and elderly were forced to stay on their feet at closed
borders for several days till they were collapsed. Only the ones who pay
to the Russians were allowed to pass the borders to Ingushita. The rest
were forced to return to their homes under the bombing, where thousands
of them were killed. The cold weather in the refugee tents is killing the
children, elderly and the sick. The lack of antibiotics and medicine
cause the death of the wounded. Surgeries are made without anastasia! ^

The list of the reasons that Russia accuses for the start of this War:

1. Russians accuse the Chechens for planting explosions in Moscow apartments. In fact every Chechen denied these accusations.
- During history, Chechens fought the Russians man to man.
- During the previous War 1994-1996, Chechens did not plant explosions.

So, why should they at the time of the peace?
- The explosions were strong enough to bring a 12 level apartment in
Moscow into dust. Such explosions are not handled by few terrorists, but
are officially made by Russia.

Russian military officials say their planes and artillery continued to pound Chechen, targets

- Russians never proved that Chechens made the explosions.

-and most important, Chechens would are not honored to kill women and
Children. Not because they fear Russia, not because they can not do it,
but because they fear God.

- Moscow news sources reprinted in the Economist in October 1999,
revealed that undercover Russian security agents had been caught
red-handed planting explosives in an apartment building. The explosions provided Russians a pre-text to invade Chechnya.

- "On November 26, 1939, Russian troops near the Finnish border were
bombarded by artillery fire, and 13 soldiers were killed or wounded. The
incident, known as The Shootings of Mainila, or Mainilian laukaukset,
gave Russians an excuse to attack Finland just a few days later, thus
starting the Winter War. Fifty years later, in 1989, the Soviet Union
confessed that those shots had been fired by its own cannons." Quoted
from the Newsweek -international issue- Oct 25, 1999.

2. The presence of few Islamists in Chechnya:
First, Islam is the center of the Chechen culture, as Christianity is of
the European and Judaism is of the Israeli.
If the argument is the presence of the Islamic extremists in Chechnya,
then every country in this world has extremists. Was not Timothy McVeigh,
who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma, a Christian extremist? Was
not Eygal Amir, who assassinated the Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, a
Jewish extremist? Also Russia has Orthodox extremists, mafias, and
criminals! Should these countries be flattened like Chechnya?!

Second, every nation was under the Communism in the former Soviet Union
was prevented from practicing its religion. Nations were hungry to their
religions after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Third, the Chechens need Islam more than ever today in Chechnya to
overcome the social problems that Communism left, such as the habit of
drinking. Islam handled such habits very well.

3. The Russians fear the establishment of united Islamic State in North
Caucasus.
In fact, there was a North Caucasus Federation established in May 11, 1918
by seven nations, Chechen-Ingush, Daghestan, Karachai, Balkar,
Cerkessians, Ossetines (mostly Orthodox Christians) and Kabardino.
Representatives of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the Ottoman Empire were in
the meeting of the Union. The Federation was recognized by Turkey,
Germany, Bulgaria and Communist Russia (by Lenin himself).
The North Caucasus Federation was just like the European Union today,
where these small countries found mutual economic interest with each
other. What is wrong with that???
The British General Thompson, who was occupying with his army the city of
Baku in 1918, recognized it on a conditional basis to be confirmed in
Paris Conference for WWI in next December. This delay gave the Russians
enough time to invade the North Caucasus Federation. The British General
called the Chechens at that time "Muslim bandits" and assisted the
Russians in ammunition during their invasion. Members of the NCF
government were hanged or got asylum, such as President Chermoy and the
foreign minister Haydar Bamat who both were Chechens. Chermoy had a law
degree from St. Petersburg University, meanwhile Bamat was mastering nine
languages.

After 5 months, Russians fought the British in Baku and defeated General
Thompson. Russians captured the oil fields of Baku causing the loss of
hundreds of million dollars of oil facilities invested in Royal-Dutch
Shell oil by Britain.

Today, history is repeating itself. Behind the scenes, The West is
tapping on the back of Boris Yeltsin and his prime minister Putin in order
to get rid of what they so call the "Chechen terrorists", forgetting that
Russia's final stop of aggression will not be on Chechnya only, but it
will continue dominating the oil fields of Baku, the entire Caucasus, and
the rest of the satellite countries. There is a cold silence by the
Western leaders against the Russian aggression on Chechnya. Infact, the
foreign minister of Russia Igor Ivanov announced a Russian diplomatic
triumph in Istanbul (17-19 Nov 1999) in which the Russians lobbied and
managed to eliminate a principle paragraph of the OSCE charter that would
have spelled out the human rights violations are no longer a country's
sovereign right.

Life was and still is worth zero for Russia!

On Nov 11, 1999, China veto against the UN international humanitarian aid
to Chechnya, claiming that Chechnya is an internal affair of Russia. In
fact, China is protecting its iron fist policy on Tibet, East Turkistan
-with 50 millions Muslims- , Hong Kong, and its claims on Taiwan.

4. Russia claims that the main reason behind this War is the invasion of
the Chechen fighters to neighboring Daghestan and the call of the holy
Islamic war JIHAD. In fact, Russia bombed two Daghestani villages on August 7th, which are on the borders of Chechnya and Azerbaijan, killing the civilians. Chechens lead by Shamil Basaev felt the obligation towards defending the
Daghestanis. Chechen and Daghestani tribes have historic mutual relations
in defending each other against Russia, especially that both were led by
Imam Shamil of Daghestan for 25 years till the year 1864.

JIHAD is not an expansion and aggression holy war against the world, as
the world media portraying. What NATO is doing is exactly the "Jihad" in
Islam. When one member faces an aggression, the rest of the members
should defend him. The world media calls NATO an alliance, meanwhile
calls the same Islamic notion of Jihad a terrorism! Why this double
meaning!

5. Chechens were accused of kidnapping foreign reporters and aid workers
for exchange of millions of dollars. In fact, Chechens honor their guests traditionally. Many of these reporters and workers were thankful for the Chechens during the last War, which was showed in their writings and published books. But, the borders of Chechnya were open since the War and the Russian KGB had a strong presence there. The KGB agents acted as Chechens and video taped their actions of kidnappings in order to show the world these
actions by the name of the Chechens. The world media and politicians are
believing Russian claims de facto without questioning the Russians to
give a prove!

It's the Chechen interest to keep these foreign reporters in Chechnya to
show the world the Russian massacres to the Chechen people. By these
artificial kidnappings, Russians succeeded in preventing the reporters
from reaching the massacres scenes in the same way that Serbia did in
Kosovo.

6. Russia claims that its hammering Chechnya in the same way that NATO
bombard Serbia. But NATO bombing did not erase Serbian towns and flatten
them like the Russians did in Chechnya.

The Russian public is visibly joyful, uplifted by its military's
performance which is portrayed by the government or the flag-waving
Russian media. The Russian steely leaders had the chance to blow in the
empty pride of the Russians. " We will show the West that we are still a
superpower" say the Russian commercials regarding the Chechen War, which
is a revenge of the NATO performance in Kosovo in ousting Russia and its
Orthodox Christian allies.

The Russian moms are saying: "Kill the Chechens all, even their babies".
I wonder if these moms would say that when their sons' corpses start to
arrive Russia. In fact, the Russian generals are hiding their soldiers
corpses until the War finishes, in order to prevent any opposition of the
Russian public opinion. Then, the Russian moms will share the grief with
the Chechen moms for the rest of their lives. The loss of a child.

7. Russia claims that Chechnya is a part of Russia. In fact, on November
1990, the representatives of each town and city in Chechnya met to
declare their independence from the Soviet Union, which was collapsed in
1989 upon the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Soviet Union was officially
dissolved in December 31, 1991. By the virtue of Article 72 of the Soviet
Constitution, nations who were seeking the independence were given that
right.

Meanwhile, Russian Federation was established on March 31, 1992, after a
year and a half of the Chechen independence. So legally, Chechnya is not
a part of Russia. It was separated from the Soviet Union and not from
Russia which the later was not yet born! ^

WHAT ARE THE ACTUAL REASONS BEHIND THE CHECHEN WAR (1999-...)? WHY CHECHNYA WAS HAMMERED SO BRUTALLY BY RUSSIA? 

1. Russia today is in a failure economic condition. When China attracted
$40 billion of foreign investment in the year 1998, Russia attracted only
$2 billion due to Russian brutality and bloody nature. Russia is in a
desperate economic need for the Caucasus oil.

In an independent Azerbaijan, British Petroleum and Amoco oil companies
built huge oil facilities in Baku, preparing this oil for the coming
century. The main pipeline of the oil during the Soviet era was coming
from Baku to the Black Sea, passing through Grozny. This route was
encouraged by the Russians, but without passing through Grozny.
U.S. and Britain started to search for a new pipeline route, away from
the Russian control and away from the War in Chechnya. So, the new route
was suggested to pass from Baku, through Georgia, to Turkey. Inorder to
sign an agreement with Turkey, the U.S. energy secretary Richardson was
in Istanbul during the first earthquake in Turkey in late July of this
year. This triggered the anger of Russia.

The presence of independent Chechnya forms a natural barrier against
Russian control of the oil fields and the pipeline. Russia would not stop
its aggression at the point of crushing Chechnya's resistance, but it
intends to continue to dominate Georgia by assassinating its president
Eduard Shevardnadze. Russia already bombed a Georgian village on the
borders of Chechnya few days ago, signaling its intentions. It also
plotted a car bomb for Shevardnadze in earlier years.

2. Russia signed a peace agreement with Chechnya in 1996 for recognizing
Chechnya as independent state in five years (in the year 2001) Today,
Russia is using the terrorist attacks on Moscow as propaganda against
Chechnya's independence to prevent the world from recognizing Chechnya.

3. Russian officials failed to bring economic prosperity to Russia upon
the collapse of the Soviet Union. With the rise of the nationalism and
Communism tides against what we so call the "reformers", Russia started
to search for a "war hero" to be elected in the next presidential
campaign next year. Russians assign Vladimir Putin the new Prime Minister
last August and assigned to him the task of invading Chechnya.

4. A global over reaction to the matter of the Islamic terrorism threat.
There is a huge unfair campaign around the world against Islam. This
campaign is waged by the entertainment and film industry, politicians,
college books and professors, publishers, and the media. Any terrorist
act around the world accuses the Muslims as the first suspects. They are
harassed every where including the airports.

On one hand it's the fault of the Muslims themselves that they do not
bring these accusations into justice and law. On the other hand they do
not clear to the world the message of Islam. Thus, nations like the
Chechens are paying the heavy price, because the world's image about
Muslims is terrorism and crimes, so the world does not sympathize. Islam
is the message of mercy and peace for the world, and not the terrorism.

5. Israel who is on the edge of a twisting peace in the Middle East is
intending to get rid of any strong Muslim opposition to annexing East
Jerusalem and the Muslim shrines to Israel. Chechens along other Muslims
around the world would reject this annexation. Based on that, Barak; the
prime minister of Israel, visited Moscow in August 2nd and discussed
openly with Boris Yeltsin of Russia the issues of Iran, Iraq,
Chechnya...and any other spot might Russia influence. Followed that,
Russian officials who were bribed by Israel, fired the Irani students
from Russian colleges, forced the Russian professors to leave the Irani
colleges, Moscow started to use the language of threat against Chechnya,
the first bombing of the Daghestani two villages on the borders of
Chechnya was on August 7th, and the first explosion of an apartment
building was on August 31st.

In late July 1999, the Israeli foreign minister met with the Russian
ambassador and told him publicly that Chechnya is not only a dangerous
state for Russia but also its dangerous for the existence of Israel
because it has Islamists. Chechnya should be eliminated! (unquote)
Israel signed an agreement to update the Russian military and defense for
this reason. ^

Ferdous Shabaz Adel