Second Chechen War
From Open Encyclopedia
The Second Chechen War is part of an ongoing conflict in the Chechen Republic (Chechnya) and Russia. At issue is the degree of autonomy Chechnya should enjoy with respect to Russian rule—whether Chechnya should remain within the Russian Federation or whether it should form an independent nation. Although most major combat took place from 1999 to 2002, violence continues to flare up to the present day.
As for February 2003, the Russian Union of Soldiers’ Mothers Committee estimated that some 11,000 servicemen have been killed [1], with another 25,000 wounded, since 1999. It estimated the civilian death toll at about 20,000 people. Chechen authorities quote a figure closer to 100,000 killed, with up to 240,000 injured.
These figures are not confirmed by independent sources. According to an official census, the population of Chechnya in 2002 was 1,103,686. The same census revealed that the number of Chechens in Russia in 2002 was 1,360,253, whilst the 1989 figure stood at 898,999 (results of census from Federal Service of the state statistics of Russia)
The official death toll for federal troops is about 5,000 during the Second Chechen War as for the period of 1999 to 2003.
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Historical basis for conflict
Image:Chechnya and Caucasus.png
The Russian Terek Cossack Host was established in lowland Chechnya in 1577 by free Cossacks resettled from Volga to Terek River. In 1783 Russia and the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which Kartl-Kakheti received protection by Russia. In order to secure communications with Georgia and other regions of the Transcaucasia the Russian Empire began spreading her influence into mountains of Caucasus. The Caucasus War was started in 1817. Russian forces first moved into highland Chechnya in 1830, conflict in the area lasted until 1859. Many troops from the annexed states of the Caucasus fought unsuccessfully against Russia in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878).
In 1922, months before the creation of the Soviet Union, Chechen Autonomous Oblast of RSFSR was established. Eventually, in 1936, Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia became the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Chechens were not aiding Nazi forces during World War II but were falsely accused by Stalin. In 1944, according to the decision of Soviet Government nearly all Chechens and Ingushs were deported to Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR. They were allowed to return in 1957, and their republic was reinstated.
Image:RussiaChechnya.png Coinciding with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chechnya declared independence from the Russian Federation. Simmering debate over independence ultimately led to civil war in 1993. The First Chechen War began in 1994 when Russian forces entered Chechnya to restore civil order and central rule. Following a 1997 ceasefire agreement, Russian troops were withdrawn from Chechnya.
The 1997 election of separatist President Aslan Maskhadov led to turbulence within the country and a chilly relationship with Moscow. Further tensions arose in January and February of 1999 as Maskhadov announced that Islamic Sharia law would be introduced[citation needed] in Chechnya over the course of three years. In March of that year, General Gennadiy Shpigun—Moscow's envoy to Chechnya—was kidnapped and ultimately killed. In the same time Maskhadov himself survived several assassination attempts.
Immediate causes
Terrorist activity in 1996-1999
Not looking at signing of peace agreements of 1996-97 terrorist activity of the Chechen forces in boundary Russian territories proceeded.
On November 16, 1996 Chechen terrorists had been blew up an apartment house in Kaspiysk (Dagestan), 69 persons, basically members of families of frontier guards, died.
On April 23, 1997 bomb has blown up in the Russian railway station of Armavir, 3 persons died.
May 28, 1997. Explosion in the Russian railway station of Pyatigorsk, two persons died.
In December, 1997 Chechen warlord(emir) Hattab attacked the Russian garrison of Buinaksk (Dagestan).
On March 19, 1999. An explosion in the Central market of Vladikavkaz (Ossetia), 64 persons died.
Conflict in Dagestan
In August and September of 1999, Shamil Basayev (who served as Commander of the Chechen armed forces in 1996 and was a Minister of Chechen Government) led a small military force—not more than two thousand troops—from Chechnya into the neighbouring Republic of Dagestan in order to help local Wahhabi villages under attack from federal forces.
Bombings in Russia
At the same time as the incursion into Dagestan, a series of bombings took place in Russia (in Moscow and in Volgodonsk) and in Buynaksk (on September 4, in an apartment building housing members of families of Russian soldiers, 62 dead.) The bombs targeted four apartment buildings and a mall, and in total killed nearly three hundred people. The Russian government (including then-President Boris Yeltsin) blamed Chechen separatists for the bombings, though there is some question about whether this assignment of responsibility is accurate. Shamil Basayev has denied involvement in the attacks. Some high-profile individuals (including the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky[2] and U.S. Senator John McCain[3]), have suggested that the FSB (a Russian intelligence service) staged the bombings to provide a pretext for an invasion of Chechnya[4].
On 12 January 2004 Moscow City Court, in a hearing which was closed to the public and the press, sentenced Adam Dekushev and Jusuf Krymshankhalov, who allegedly delivered explosives to the residential buildings, to life sentences. Both were the members of Karachaev-based Wahhabi group. The alleged mastermind of the bombings, Achemez Gochiyaev, has never been apprehended [5]. The bombing trial, however, has raised questions by observers [6] [7]. One week prior to the trial, the lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin, who represented a victim's family and claimed to have obtained evidence of FSB involvement, has been arrested [8] on what later proved to be a fabricated charge of gun possession [9]
War
In late September of 1999, the Russian military began bombing targets within Chechnya. Ground troops followed soon after. In response, martial law was declared and all eligible men were conscripted. President Maskhadov declared a gazawat (holy war) to face the approaching Russians.
Grozny
Hoping to avoid the significant casualties which plagued the First Chechnen War, the Russians advanced slowly and in force. The Russian military made extensive use of artillery and bombs in an attempt to soften Chechen defenses. It was not until November that the Chechen capital of Grozny was surrounded, and more than two additional weeks of shelling and bombing were required before Russian troops were able to claim a foothold within any part of the heavily fortified city.
By February 2000 much of Grozny had been reduced to rubble by nearly incessant artillery fire and bombing. Surviving Chechen rebels sought to escape into the hills surrounding the city. In March, the Russian army began to allow residents to return to the city.
Guerilla war
Despite the destruction of Grozny, fighting continued, particularly in the mountainous southern portions of Chechnya. Rebels typically targeted Russian officials and pro-Russian members of government and the security forces.
In September 2001, Chechen troops launched bold attacks on the Chechen cities of Gudermes and Argun. Rebels also shot down a helicopter, killing a number of senior Russian military officers. In the days following the attacks, approximately four hundred individuals suspected of involvement were arrested by Russian forces.
In March 2002, one of the leaders of the fundamentalist Islamic rebel operations, the Jordanian national known as Amir Khattab, was killed. Abu al-Walid, who replaced him, was also killed in April 2004.
Russian officials have accused the bordering nation of Georgia of allowing Chechen rebels to operate out of Georgian territory, and permitting the flow of troops and matériel across the Georgian border with Chechnya. In August 2002, Russia launched air strikes on purported rebel havens in the Pankisi Gorge very close to the Georgian border.
Restoration of federal government
Direct rule
Image:KadyrovAA.jpg Russian President Vladimir Putin reestablished formal, direct Russian rule of Chechnya in May 2000. The following month, Putin appointed Akhmat Kadyrov interim head of the local government.
Constitution
On March 23, 2003, a new Chechen constitution was passed in a referendum. The 2003 Constitution granted the Chechen Republic a significant degree of autonomy, but still tied it firmly to the Russian Federation and Moscow's rule. The new constitution entered into force on April 2, 2003.
The constitutional referendum was strongly supported by the Russian government but met a harsh critical response from Chechen separatists; many separatists chose to boycott the ballot.
International opinion was mixed—enthusiasm for the prospect of peace and stability in the region was tempered by concerns about the conduct of the referendum and fears of a violent backlash.
Chief among the concerns are the forty thousand Russian soldiers that were included in the eligible voters' list (out of approximately 540,000). As well, no independent international organization (neither the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) nor the United Nations) officially observed the voting. (The OSCE sent a small team, but was unwilling to make a statement about the conduct of the referendum.) The OSCE, the United States State Department, and the United Kingdom's Foreign Office all questioned the wisdom of holding the referendum while the region was still unsettled.
2003 Elections
On October 5 2003, presidential elections were held in Chechnya under the auspices of the March constitution. As with the constitutional referendum, the OSCE and other international organizations did not send observers to monitor proceedings. The Kremlin-supported candidate Akhmat Kadyrov earned a commanding majority, taking about eighty percent of the vote.
Critics of the 2003 election argue that separatist Chechens were barred from running, and that Kadyrov used his private militia to actively discourage political opponents.
2005 Elections
The latest Chechen parlamentary elections were held on November, 2005. The independent observers said that there were plenty of Russian troops and more journalists than voters at polling stations. This week, Lord Judd, a former Council of Europe special rapporteur on Chechnya, regarded the elections as flawed. "I simply do not believe we will have stability, peace and a viable future for the Chechen people until we have a real political process," he said. [10]
The Russian-backed president Alkhanov was reported to again have won the elections with almost 74%, with over 85% of the people having voted according to Chechen elections commissions head Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov [11].
Continuing tension
War crimes
Russian officials and Chechen rebels have regularly and repeatedly accused the opposing side of committing various war crimes including murder, rape, and assorted other breaches of the laws of war. International and humanitarian organizations (including the Council of Europe and Amnesty International) have criticized both sides of the conflict for blatant and sustained violations of humanitarian law.
One of the earliest war crimes trials to be held was that of Salman Raduyev, a field commander for the rebel Chechen forces. He was convicted in December 2001 of terrorism and murder charges, and died in a Russian prison a year later [12]
In 2001 the U.S. Holocaust Museum has placed Chechnya on its Genocide Watch List [13]. According to the statistics compiled by American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, the scale of atrocities committed during the Chechen wars has surpassed that in Kosovo [14].
In 2003 Russian Colonel Yuri Budanov was tried and sentenced for the abduction and murder of Elza Kungayeva, a Chechen woman whom Budanov claimed was a rebel sniper. Legal proceedings against Budanov, who underwent several retrials, lasted a total of 2 years and 3 months.
In October 2004, the European Court of Human Rights agreed to try cases brought by Chechen civilians against the Russian government. The first trial concluded in February of 2005 - the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Russian government violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including a clause on the protection of property, a guarantee of the right to life, and a ban on torture and inhumane or degrading treatment, and ordered the Russian government to pay compensation to the six plaintiffs of the case. [15]
Assassinations
Former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was killed by a car bomb in Qatar on February 13, 2004. A Qatari court convicted two Russian government agents in the bombing. The Russian government denied involvement in the attack, blaming infighting among rebel factions or a dispute over money. Moscow had at the time been involved in a bid to extradite Yandarbiyev to Russia to face terrorism-related charges.
President Akhmat Kadyrov was killed in a substantial bomb blast in a Grozny football stadium on May 9, 2004 during the celebration of Russian V-Day. President Kadyrov had survived two preceding bomb attacks, one on his Grozny headquarters in 2002, and one by a suicide bomber at a religious festival in 2003. His successor, acting President Sergei Abramov, was targeted by yet another bombing in July of 2004; Abramov survived the attack.
Hostage takings
The Moscow theater hostage crisis
On October 23 2002, gunmen took more than seven hundred hostages prisoner at a Moscow theater. The hostage-takers demanded an end to the Russian presence in Chechnya, and threatened to execute the hostages if their conditions were not met. The siege ended violently on October 26, when Russian troops stormed the building. More than one hundred of the hostages perished in the fighting that followed and from the incapacitating effects of knockout gas used by the Russian forces. Russian officials blamed Maskhadov and Baseyev for the attack; both initially denied responsibility and insist that the attack was the work of independent rebels and terrorists. On November 2 Baseyev recanted his statements, assuming responsibility in a statement on his web site and apologizing to Maskhadov for not informing him of the plan.
The Beslan school siege
On September 1 2004, approximately thirty individuals seized control of Beslan's Middle School Number One and more than one thousand hostages. Most of the hostages were students under the age of eighteen. Following a tense two-day standoff punctuated by occasional gunfire and explosions, Alpha unit of the OSNAZ raided the building. Fighting lasted more than two hours; ultimately 331 civilians, 11 commandos, and 31 hostage-takers died.
Once again, Russian officials publically linked Baseyev and Maskhadov to the attack, and Baseyev again claimed responsibility in a September 17 website publication. Maskhadov denounced the attacks and denied involvement.
Ceasefire?
In February of 2005 Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Baseyev issued a call for a ceasefire lasting until at least February 22: the day preceding the anniversary of Stalin's deportation of the Chechen population. The call was issued through a separatist website and addressed to President Putin. Fighting between Chechen and Russian military units has not apparently ceased in the region.
On 8 March 2005, Maskhadov was killed in the Chechen community of Tolstoy-Yurt, northeast of Grozny. His death took place during a raid by Russian security forces.
"Caucasus Front"
The recent strategy Chechen leadership rebel draws heavily on widening the conflict as far beyond the Chechen conflict, using local insurgents in the other republic under general Chechen command. This included succesful 2004 raid on Ingushetia and more recently, failed October 2005 Nalchik attack. Regular clashes between federal forces and a local militants continue in Dagestan.
Influence on Russian politics
Early conflict
Among ordinary Russian citizens, there existed a strong perception that Chechnya was firmly a part of Russia. The notion that it might secede was implausible and unacceptable, even after events of the First Chechen War. The violent acts of Chechen militants were portrayed within Russia as having been carried out by dangerous, unrepresentative fringe groups.
Within the Russian government, there was a concern that allowing Chechnya substantial autonomy might lead to a domino effect—other regions within the already-fragmented former Soviet Union might choose to follow suit.
Motivated by these factors, President Yeltsin authorized the invasion of Chechnya. Many argue over whether Yeltsin genuinely believed that victory would be swift and decisive, or that his assertions to that effect were simply meant to assuage the concerns of Russian citizens. Despite assembling a much larger and better-supported force than was brought to bear in the First Chechen War, the Russian army sustained appreciable losses but won the bloody battle for Grozny.
Election of Putin
The election of Vladimir Putin to the Russian presidency changed the tenor of the Chechen conflict. Putin was often less concerned about Western public opinion than Yeltsin, and continued to prosecute the war. Nevertheless, he permitted human rights investigations to take place in Chechnya.
Putin officially reestablished Russian rule in Chechnya in 2000. This development met with early approval in the rest of Russia, but the continued deaths of Russian troops dampened public enthusiasm.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, Putin was able to attract more foreign support for his actions in Chechnya by highlighting the links between Chechen rebels and Islamic terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda.
Hearts and minds
Although large-scale fighting within Chechnya has ceased, daily attacks continue. The local government is not stable, and Russians are mindful of the potential for renewed conflict. Russia continues to maintain a substantial military presence within Chechnya.
President Putin and newly-minted Chechen leaders face a difficult task restoring stability to the region and in convincing Russians in and out of Chechnya that they can manage the situation effectively. Currently the FSB has taken over operations in Chechnya. Most soldiers in Chechnya are now kontraktniki (contract soldiers) as opposed to the earlier conscripts.
External links
Background
- BBC Timeline: Chechnya
- American Committee for Peace in Chechnya Backgrond
Human rights issues
- Council of Europe Resolutions on 'The human rights situation in the Chechen Republic'
- Amnesty International recommendations on Chechnya
2005 ceasefire events
- Moscow News ceasefire announcement 2 February 2005.
- BBC News Aslan Maskhadov's death 8 March 2005.
Articles
- Caucasian Secrets of Russian Intelligence
- Critical media coverage of Chechnya stifled
- The Terror of 9/99: Fact Sheetde:Zweiter Tschetschenienkrieg
es:Segunda Guerra Chechena fr:Seconde guerre de Tchétchénie id:Perang Chechnya II ja:第二次チェチェン紛争 pl:II wojna czeczeńska fi:Toinen Tšetšenian sota sv:Andra Tjetjenienkriget
