Women moved by family not ideology: Chechen violence breeds 'black widows'

[HuckleB]

Women moved by family not ideology -- Chechen violence breeds 'black widows'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1294685,00.html

"Dusk was falling over the Chechen village of Kirov-Yurt when the Russian troops approached Uvais Nagayev, 32, at the gate of his family house. They asked him and his friend Zaur Dagayev, 29, for their passports, beat them to the ground, and dragged them to a nearby cemetery.

They made the men lie down on gravestones and shot them. Mr Dagayev was killed outright. Mr Nagayev, wounded, managed to crawl home under cover of darkness. Six days later, on May 3 2001, he was taken from his home again by Russian troops. This time he did not return.

His family heard nothing more of him until a Russian security officer told them he had been tortured, forced to confess some unspecified crimes, and killed. His body was blown up with explosive, a common tactic to hide the identity of victims.

Mr Nagayev's fate, recorded by the human rights group Memorial, would have passed unnoticed were it not for the action of his sister. The authorities suspect that passenger 28 on flight 1303 from Moscow to Volgograd last Tuesday may have been one of the two suicide bombers who blew up this aircraft and another bound for Sochi. They found on this passenger's remains a passport in the name of Amant Nagayeva, 30, from Kirov-Yurt.

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In the end, we have to remember that the Chechen situation is not easily defined, and we are not being given accurate reports of all that is happening there, and the underlying reasons for what is happening there, by the world's main press agencies.

[HuckleB]

1. Torture and rape stalk the streets of Chechnya

Torture and rape stalk the streets of Chechnya

Polish writer Krystyna Kurczab-Redlich visited the region where she witnessed the brutal work done by Russia's soldiers in their fight against separatists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/chechnya/Story/0,2763,820277,00.html

"At 5am on 14 April 2002, an armoured vehicle moved slowly down Soviet Street. A young brown-haired man, covered in blood, his hands and feet bound, stood onboard. The vehicle stopped and the man was pushed off and brought over to a nearby chain-link fence. The car took off and there was a loud bang. The force of the explosion, caused either by a grenade or dynamite, sent the man's head flying into the neighbouring street, called Lenin's Commandments. 'It was difficult to photograph the moment, though I have grown somewhat accustomed to this,' says a petite greying Chechen woman, who has spent years documenting what Russia calls its 'anti-terrorism campaign'.

Blowing people up, dead or alive, she reports, is the latest tactic introduced by the federal army into the conflict. It was utilised perhaps most effectively on 3 July in the village of Meskyer Yurt, where 21 men, women and children were bound together and blown up, their remains thrown into a ditch.

From the perspective of the perpetrators, this method of killing is highly practical; it prevents the number of bodies from being counted, or possibly from ever being found. It has not always succeeded in this respect, however. Since the spring, dogs have been digging up body parts in various corners of Chechnya, sometimes almost daily.

Meanwhile, the more traditional methods endure. On 9 September the bodies of six men from Krasnostepnovskoye were found, naked, with plastic bags wrapped around their heads. In June, a ditch containing 50 mutilated bodies was discovered near the Russian army post in Chankala. The corpses were missing eyes, ears, limbs and genitals. Since February, mass graves have been found near Grozny, Chechen Yurt, Alkhan-Kala and Argun.

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[HuckleB]

2. The Smashing of Chechnya

The Smashing of Chechnya
http://mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq5.html


This piece looks at the full background of the Russian conflict with Chechnya.

[HuckleB]

3. Putin points the finger in the wrong direction

Putin points the finger in the wrong direction

Despite President Vladimir Putin's assertions to the contrary, Russia's latest wave of terror attacks has little, if anything, to do with al-Qaeda. But it has everything to do with Mr Putin's disastrous policy in the north Caucasus
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3150096

"...

All this was enough for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, to call the latest statements attributed to the group “a fact confirming the link between certain forces operating in Chechnya and international terrorism.”

That is a flimsy claim at best. Though there has been evidence of al-Qaeda links to some Chechen terrorists, the American State Department’s annual “Patterns of Global Terrorism”, considered a standard reference, has never made any reference to the Islambouli Brigades.

In fact, the only signs that the group exists are three internet statements, of unconfirmed provenance, made in its name. Moreover, the attacks in Russia, like several previous ones to which no outside group lays claim, were carried out by young Chechen women. Many of these so-called “black widows” have lost family members in the conflict. For instance, it has emerged that the suspected suicide bomber on one of the planes had a brother who disappeared after being detained by Russian forces.

Though the identities of the bombers suggest the recent attacks have much to do with Russia’s policy in Chechnya and little to do with global terrorism, the leaders of France and Germany had nevertheless been warmly supportive of Mr Putin when they joined him for a press conference on Tuesday, hours before the metro bombing. “In Chechnya, a political solution is essential,” said President Jacques Chirac. “That is what Russia is striving for. It is completely open to any discussions about a political solution.”

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[HereSince1628]

4. So tryanny breeds terror. Neither is defensible.

Killing innocents on the 2 flights places dreadfully little cost upon the Putin government and its many tendrils who may (in fact have) have committed atrocities.

Kidnapping and worse the occupants of a school is the same.

There is NOTHING honorable about what is going on.

[HuckleB]

5. Who said it was defensible. That's not really a question.

It's more of a diversion, at this point. No one is questioning that.

How do we make it stop? Now that's the question at hand.

[HuckleB]

6. Chechnya Gripped by Stalinist Terror, or WhereDo Suicide Bombers Come From

Chechnya Gripped by Stalinist Terror, or Where Do Suicide Bombers Come From

http://www.mosnews.com/feature/2004/09/01/terror.shtml

"Why are women traveling from a remote southern Russian region all the way to Moscow to put on explosive belts and kill themselves, taking innocent bystanders’ lives with them? Oleg Orlov of the International Society Memorial, Russia’s top human rights organization, sheds light on the reasons that push Chechen suicide bombers to their drastic actions. The number of quiet, undocumented kidnappings of people from their homes by federal forces in Chechnya is comparable to statistics for the peak of Stalinist repressions in 1937-1938.

“Over the past one and a half years it’s become the biggest plague,” says Orlov of the kidnappings. Before, Chechen civilians used to be subjected to a different kind of horror, known as zachistki, or “mop-up operations.” As a way of combating guerillas, the military blocked off entire villages and then searched every house, checked everyone for ID, randomly detained people and questioned them. The questioning was more often than not combined with beatings and torture.

Then Russia’s president Vladimir Putin finally responded to mounting international pressure to improve the human rights situation in Chechnya and pointed out that the military must not swoop down on the entire population, but, rather, go after specific targets. In theory, that makes sense. But in Chechnya, targeted work has turned into targeted kidnappings. “People come in armored vehicles without license plates and take people away. Like in Stalin’s times,” Orlov says.

Memorial estimates that approximately 3,000 people had vanished in Chechnya during the four years from 1999 to 2003. Given Chechnya’s estimated population of 700,000, that works out to approximately 43 disappearances per every 10,000 people. During the height of Stalinist terror, people were plucked from their beds at night and taken away, never to be seen again; the figures for those years are, 44 disappearances per every 10,000 people. Back in those days, slander or hearsay information from a malevolent neighbor or co-worker was often enough to doom someone.

..."