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Published on 13th June, 2002
Chechnya's
Endangered Refugees
By
Charmel Kava
With
the convenient trick of sticking the bogeyman 'terrorist' label to his
home-made enemies, Russian
President Vladimir Putin has won two important tactical battles in his
war against the Republic of Chechnya. Though Russian military forces
are no closer to winning the war than they were when Putin launched it
in Autumn 1999, Putin has crushed nearly all critical discussion of
the conflict in the Russian media. And though the corrupt and
undisciplined Russian forces carry on their war crimes and gross
violations of human rights against Chechen civilians, the European and
Bush governments have largely ceased to hold Russia accountable. This
doesn't stop the war and conflict still rages, nor does Putin come any
closer to becoming victor. But with no protests to his human rights
violations, the Russian president has taken full rein to contemplate
even greater steps of repression, acts that his forces shied away from
when Chechnya was deemed worthy human rights material to a then
watching world.
Russian Republic of Ingushetia
The craftiest,
cruellest Russian plan so far is taking place in the Russian Republic of
Ingushetia, bordering on Chechnya, where 200,000 Chechen refugees
presently live, including some 50,000 in camps. Russia has long wanted
to force the Chechens to go home, knowing full well that they would be
exposed to the brutal "cleansing" operations by the Russian
military forces - 'genocide' according to Svetlana Ganushkina (Center
for Human Rights), and this would also help Mr. Putin make the case
that the republic was returning to normal.
Fearing
Russian abuse, and mostly having no homes to return to in Chechnya's
devastated towns, the refugees until now have refused to budge. But
things began to change in April, when a former general of Mr. Putin's
Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the KGB, was
declared the winner of an election for president of Ingushetia, amid
credible allegations of fraud from Russian journalists and other
observers.
Almost
immediately the new president invited units of the Russian army to
deploy near the Chechen camps and met with Mr. Putin to discuss
sending the refugees home. Last week he signed an agreement with the
head of Moscow's puppet Chechen administration that calls for the
return of the refugees and the elimination of their camps by the end
of September.
Masked Attackers
Human
rights groups believe that those who do not volunteer for resettlement
will be targeted by the Russian troops, openly or in disguise. There
is evidence that this has already started, with masked attackers
causing trouble under cover of darkness.
The Russian
government's own human rights ombudsman, Oleg Mironov, has forecast
that if Mr. Putin's latest plan is implemented, one of the worst human
rights disasters in recent Russian history will be committed. But it
is far from clear whether there will be any significant opposition to
the operation, either in Russia or on an international basis. The
United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, which Russia is counting on to
cooperate, has not taken a position yet, though it has a policy of
opposing all forced movements of refugees. It definitely should oppose
this one-and so should the Western governments, Russia's new partners
in NATO, on whose silence Mr. Putin is banking.
*
previously a news item on Victory News
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