The conflict between Russians and Chechens has been going on for the last two and a half centuries. The Chechen struggle is the expression of a people’s indomitable urge for freedom. The two wars in the past decade, the latest of a seemingly endless series of devastating confrontations, have hurled the Chechens into one of the greatest human tragedies.
Several human rights organizations point out that with 100,000 dead and 250,000 fleeing their homes in the latest war that broke out in 1999 Chechen population has fallen by 35 percent. The pro-Russian Chechen administration, though, claims an increase of 300,000 in Chechen population between 1999 and 2002.
Some reliable NGOs estimated the Chechen population in 1998 at 800,000 after the war claimed 100,000 lives and forced many more (between 150,000 and 200,000) to flee to neighboring countries. These reports, despite the discrepancies in the figures given by various agencies, challenge the pro-Russian claim about the growth of Chechen population in the years of war.
In the past years the Russian authorities have been following a mopping-up policy to wipe out the resistance to occupation by arresting every Chechen male, old or adolescent, capable of carrying weapons. This they do at routine checks made in towns and villages. The inhuman policy, aggravated by the reluctance of the Russian judiciary to investigate complaints against the army’s abuses, prompted the European Parliament to propose the setting up of a war tribunal in Chechnya in February 2003.
The Russian courts are used to dismiss most of the complaints from Chechen victims about atrocities by the Russian forces on the ground of “insufficient evidence.” The Institute of War and Peace in the Northern Caucasus has charged that only 97 cases among the thousands of complaints involving Russian war crimes in Chechnya in 2002 were investigated. Of this, 40 cases were dropped for want of evidence.
The Chechen refugees estimated between 200,000 and 250,000 at the camps in neighboring Ingushetia are under mounting pressure from the Russian Army and the pro-Russian Chechen government to return home. The authorities have adopted tactics such as closing down the camps in order to make the people in the outside world believe that Chechnya has returned to normalcy. They have also stopped supplying food, medicines and other essential supplies at the camps. The refugees are, however, not convinced and so refuse to return.
The refugees who sought shelter in Georgia are also facing pressure to go back to their homes. Apart from inadequate supply of food and relief materials there is police harassment too. The refugees are, therefore, staging demonstrations in those areas demanding better conditions and treatment.
An estimated 100,000 Chechen refugees were given citizenship in Kazakhstan since 1944 following Stalin’s repressive policies. However in 2002 Kazakh President Nur Sultan Nazarbayev denied 10,000 applications for refugee status from Chechens fleeing the Russian oppression.
The condition of the Chechens in Azerbaijan is no different.
They have been charged with “international terrorism”.
Meanwhile, Chechens suffer from countless health problems because Russians attack them with weapons containing highly toxic substances. It has been established that 86 percent of the Chechens suffer from psychological disturbances; this is 30 percent more than the number of people suffering from mental problems in the areas around the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine following the 1984 explosion.
Medical experts find the entire Chechen region too hazardous for health. Out of 521 babies born in the capital city of Grozny in 2002, 20 died and 80 percent of the pregnant women were suffering from various pregnancy-related ailments while the mortality rate of children below 12 years is on the increase. The number of those suffering heart attacks at an early age is also far higher than is the case in other regions. While the percentage of tuberculosis in Russia is 0.0086, it is as high as three in Chechnya. The World Health Organization has earmarked $3 million to fight the disease in Chechnya, but its activities are limited to the refugees in Ingushetia. Inside the region virtually no medical facilities to fight the disease are available as the war has destroyed hospitals, undermined medical supplies and killed or driven away qualified doctors and paramedics.
The treatment and rehabilitation of rapidly increasing number of disabled and maimed people (victims of incessant bombings and exploding land mines planted by the Russian Army) is another pressing problem. There are 33,000 disabled people in the region according to the pro-Russian administration in Chechnya.
As future becomes more and more bleak with no end in sight to the miseries, increasing number of Chechens are becoming drug addicts. It is officially estimated that there are about 10,000 heroin addicts in the region. Increased drug-trafficking has, in turn, led to the rapid spread of AIDS among them. More than 10 percent of them have tested HIV-positive. Complicating the situation further are crimes linked to drug trafficking.
This is the shocking picture of the Chechens living under the shadow of Russian war. Some 30-35 percent of the population has either perished or fled Chechnya. Health problems and general corruption are also on the increase. The situation is exacerbated by the brutal Russian policies that violate the most basic human rights.
Youngsters, who account for 30 percent of the Chechen population, will have no other option but resorting to guns and bombs. The struggle will continue and the human tragedy will aggravate as long as Russia fails to understand the consequences of its war on freedom and humanity in Chechnya.
