10.11.1999 21:00 Ministry for the Federation and Nationalities ON THE ETHNO-POLITICAL AND HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN THE CHECHEN REPUBLIC
The Chechen Republic is a fully-fledged subject of the Russian Federation. Its status was defined by the Constitution of the Russian Federation adopted at a referendum on December 12, 1993.
The Chechen Republic is the legal successor to the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic restored by the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet dated January 9, 1957.
On November 27, 1990, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic was transformed into the Chechen-Ingush Republic. After the self-dissolution of the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush Republic and its actual division into two independent republics, power on the territory of Chechnya was seized by supporters of the United Congress of the Chechen people headed by Djohar Dudayev.
On October 27, 1991, presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Chechnya in which no more than 20 percent of the Republic's electorate took part. The Russian Federation refused to recognise those elections. Djohar Dudayev proclaimed himself president of Chechnya.
All the subsequent decisions of the "president and parliament of Chechnya" were illegitimate and did not reflect the opinion of the majority of Chechen citizens. The Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation ceased to operate de facto on the territory of Chechnya.
All this had a negative effect on the development of the ethno-political and humanitarian situation in the Chechen Republic and acted as a catalyst for the overall aggravation of the situation in the North-Caucasian region.
When Dudayev came to power, the level of crime in Chechnya rose sharply. It demonstrated an obvious ethnic taint. Non-Chechens were driven from prestigious jobs, their homes were attacked, and the cases of robbery and violence became more frequent. This caused a massive flight of the non-Chechen population from the Republic.
Whereas according to the 1989 population census the population of Checheno-Ingushetia numbered 1,270,000 people, of which Russians made up 336,000 people, by 1994 the Russian population shrank to 100,000-120,000. Nearly all Armenians, Jews and representatives of some other nationalities were forced to leave Chechnya.
In February 1997, after the signing of the Khasavyurt accords in August 1996 and the withdrawal of Russian military units from Chechen territory in December 1996, the Chechen people elected Aslan Maskhadov as the Republic's president hoping that he would be able to implement the principles set forth in the Khasavyurt accords and effect a return to normality in Chechnya as an inalienable part of the Russian Federation.
However, the terms of the Khasavyurt accords were violated by the Chechen side. The commitments assumed by the Chechen leadership to combat crime, terrorism and manifestations of national and religious enmity were not fulfilled. Moreover, since 1996 to 1999, the ethno-political and humanitarian situation in Chechnya deteriorated.
The Republic has found itself factually divided between various groupings of paramilitaries. Maskhadov's power existed only on paper. Relief sent by the federal Centre to the Chechen population (including funds for paying pensions and social allowances) was never received by those for whom it was intended, landing instead in the hands of the militants' leaders.
Instead of being restored, the Republic's economy became openly criminal. Processing of oil stolen from the Baku-Rostov pipeline, the money received through trade in hostages, sale of drugs, and theft of cars became its main sources of revenue. Murders, attacks, robbery and violence became common in Chechnya. Nearly every day bandits from Chechen territory made raids against the adjacent regions driving away cattle and taking servicemen and civilians hostage. The murder of hostages, including foreigners, and the torture and humiliation of captives became known all over the world. The right to freedom of conscience and religious faith was crudely and cruelly suppressed. Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church were taken hostage many times. Actually there are no functioning Orthodox Church parishes left in Chechnya.
The majority of the Chechen people eked out a miserable, next to medieval existence. Children and young people received no education, health care was virtually non-existant. The people had neither money nor jobs. The Chechen authorities tried to make people believe that this situation was the result of the blockade on the part of Russia. However, there was no blockade. The Chechen people realised only too well the reasons for this situation. After 1996, the republic was left by the majority of the Russian population remaining there and by the majority of Chechens, too. By September 1999, there were no more than 20,000 Russians left in Chechnya. According to estimates, the Chechen population in the Republic does not exceed 300,000-350,000 people (out of the total one million Chechens in Russia).
Devastation, anarchy, a rampage of crime and total unemployment became feeding grounds for the spread of religious extremism. Chechnya was gradually turning into a cesspool of crime and banditry and an actual springboard for international terrorism.
The Russian Federation did everything possible to settle the situation in the Chechen Republic by solely peaceful means. Aslan Maskhadov was repeatedly offered help in the struggle against crime and banditry. In July 1999, a meeting between the Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Aslan Maskhadov was nearly prepared. An interim commission and a respective working group were formed by order of the Russian government to conduct talks on the settlement of relations between bodies of state authority of the Russian Federation and those of the Chechen Republic. V. Mikhailov, Minister for the Federation and Nationalities, was appointed the commission's head. The first contacts with Chechnya's respective agencies took place. However, soon after that, the militants' groups led by the international terrorists Shamil Basayev and Hattab invaded the Dagestani regions bordering on Chechnya. Aslan Maskhadov's acquiescence with these actions reduced to nothing the Russian leadership's efforts to resume the negotiating process with the Republic.
The current military operation aimed at liberating Chechnya's territory from the bandits entrenched there is unconditionally supported by the Russian Federation's population and the majority of the Chechen people. Local self-government bodies and beginning to spring up on the territories freed from bandits and terrorists. The federal Centre is doing its utmost to bring life back to normal in the regions liberated from bandits, restore citizens' constitutional rights and freedoms, develop the socio-economic sphere and ensure the population's employment. Forced migrants and beginning to return to the liberated Chechen regions.
With support of the local population, the federal Centre's firm and resolute actions aimed at destroying the militants' units and eliminating the sources of political and religious extremism will create real conditions for the political settlement of the situation in the Chechen Republic and promote the social and spiritual revival of the Chechen people.
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