What About the Chechens?

Part of a Blog by David Frum: 20 may 2003


What About the Chechens?

It is a very strange fact that the bloodiest terror attack of the past two weeks is the one that has received the least attention. While 28 innocents were killed in the Casablanca bombing and 34 in Riyadh, and a total of 12 Israelis in the five most recent attacks in Israel, 60 were killed by a single truck bomb in Chechnya on May 12. The casualty toll may yet rise higher as the injured succumb to their wounds and post-Soviet medical care.

What are we to think of the Chechen terror-bombers? The Russians are very clear about what they want us to think: “It is becoming ever more obvious that a terrorist international with al-Qaida at its head is trying to shift to a counterattack against the entire civilized world after the defeat in Afghanistan,” said a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. And indeed the Chechen terrorists are linked to al-Qaida and they do commit uncivilized, horrific acts of murder.

But then, as Anne Applebaum keeps trying to remind us, the Russians committed some pretty horrific acts of murder against the Chechens not so very long ago: In fact, they probably killed half the Chechen population. And yet, on the rare occasions that we talk about the war in Chechnya, the historical background to the war goes unmentioned.

The Chechens are rapidly coming to rival the Palestinians in the terrorism World Series. Yet while the Palestinians find endless volunteer apologists and eager, credulous audiences in the United Nations, the European Union, and American campuses, the Chechens find … nothing. How odd.

The Russian war against Chechen independence has killed at least twenty times as many people as have died on the Palestinian side in the three years of fighting since the fall of 2000 – yet there is little condemnation or even interest in what Russia is doing. Odd again.

Odd that Russia’s suppression of Chechnya is so seldom cited as a source of Islamic grievance – even as ethnic Chechens have proven themselves some of al Qaida’s toughest and most stubborn fighters. Odd too that Russia is now to be one of the four members of the “quartet” charged with pushing Israel along the road map to a Palestinian state – even as it denies Chechen independence with not a single squeak of protest from the outside world. It’s just generally odd all around, isn’t it?


I do find this apparent inconsistancy a bit odd...but Im hoping there are enlightend people here at IW to help me out of this ignorance [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-20-2003, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

[johnny]

I have too little background info on this whole issue, and i think it's the same with most people. There's almost no footage from what's going on overthere. Plus i think most people don't care about what's happening overthere.

To me it looks like the Russians are trying to whipe out an entire race of people. They completely destroyed Grozny and killed everyone who "looked" like he/she could be a rebel. I'm not sure if you can call the Chechens terrorists though. So far i haven't heard of attacks on other than Russian targets. And correct me if i'm wrong, but í think the Russians had that coming to them.

Well, to me the situation looks an aweful lot like what the Palistinian and Jewish situation is. and the Chechians are linked to Alqueda, and they are mostly Muslims from what I understand...so Im thinking, if you are gonna support the Palistinian cause...how can you in good conscience leave the chechians out in the cold...and WHY is the western Media not screaming to high heaven about this? What makes the middle east muslims more relevent? its not like Palestinians and Jews are major oil resources....I also am short on knowledge about this situation, but I know we have some fabulously informed people here at IW [img]smile.gif[/img] Im hoping they can help us out [img]smile.gif[/img]

[johnny]

I don't think you can compare this with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli's are not trying to kill as many Palestinians as possible (although some people will disagree on this), and i don't think you'll find any mass graves in that area. You WILL find those in Chechnia, the only problem is that the Russians don't allow any reporters near the place where it all goes down. Ethnic cleansing, that's what the Russians are doing.

But i don't think anyone will give them a hard time about it, or ask them about the situation.

[Jorath Calar]

Okey, I remember reading in Times about the time when they attacked the Moskow opera house, they had a very good story about the background of this "war". Unfortunatly I don't remember the details but it's basicly a case of a nation deciding they want a democracy and a split from the Russians but Yeltsin wouldn't let them, I don't remember why Chechenya is so valuable to them, but I remember it said like you already mentioned it's mostly muslims that live there... but why do you say the chechens are linked to Al Quaeda (or howerver it's spelled)? I had not heard that before...

Sorry I don't remember the details... hut I read the article on a coffee break at university...way too long ago... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Vaskez]

America only cares so much about Israel because it has very close relationships: there are a lot of Jews in America and so it is almost a home affair.

[johnny]

Originally posted by Vaskez: America only cares so much about Israel because it has very close relationships: there are a lot of Jews in America and so it is almost a home affair.

But how about us Europeans ? Everyone knows there's something similar going on like what happened in Kosovo and Bosnia, yet noone seems to care.

Originally posted by Vaskez: America only cares so much about Israel because it has very close relationships: there are a lot of Jews in America and so it is almost a home affair.

That cuts both ways Vaskie...The EU only cares so much about the Palistinians because they hate the Jews.


Ok see ...that isn't right...and neither was Vaskies assertion [img]smile.gif[/img]
There are Jews in the US, but they are in the UK, and France and other Nations too.

There was a time when the Israeli's getting their own land ment a lot to the nations of Europe too...that was before the Arab league decided to push the Jews into the sea...but...back to the Chechnians.....THey have been linked to Alqueda many times...I havent done a load of research on it though.

Originally posted by johnny: quote: Originally posted by Vaskez: America only cares so much about Israel because it has very close relationships: there are a lot of Jews in America and so it is almost a home affair.

But how about us Europeans ? Everyone knows there's something similar going on like what happened in Kosovo and Bosnia, yet noone seems to care. [/QUOTE]I think the US and the UN and the EU should all be interested in the thing with the Chechnians...I see it as a part of the larger issue...yes the Chechnians have old scores to settle with Russia...but most of the people who comitted those crimes were part of the Soviet Union and not Russia...the world has changed and this looks more to me like continued muslim extremist violence.

[Ar-Cunin]

The lack of support to Chechnya may be due to how badly they conducted themselves the few years they actually had independence (IIRC '96-'99).

Becomming a haven for criminals and trying to export muslim revolution to neighbouring russian republics lost them most of the goodwill they had.