18.01.2000 16:00 ON ENVIRONMENTAL SITUATION IN THE CHECHEN REPUBLIC
BORIS N. ALEKSEYEV - Major General, Chief of the Environmental security department of the RF Armed Forces
ALEKSEYEV: The environmental situation in the Chechen Republic is very complicated. It did not shape overnight; it shaped eight years ago, the time of uncontrolled exploitation of the natural resources that Chechnya has. Its territory is criss-crossed by gas and oil pipelines. The locals cut into the pipelines and build small refineries.
There are 15,000 mini-refineries operating in Chechnya. They refine oil into gasoline and furnace fuel. Their quality is far below that we are used to. The technologies they use are primitive. They simply evaporate light fractions. The heavier fractions, which cannot be evaporated by conventional means, are poured down the slope to collect in the rivers Argun, Sundzha and Terek. In some places in Terek, their concentrations exceed the maximum allowable 1,000 times over.
I can only describe the situation in Chechnya as environmental terrorism.
There are 176 mini-refineries in the environs of the Bachi-Yurt village, and 200, near the Goragorskaya village. The local population is grateful to us for closing down these mini-refineries. Women say that when they are in operation, the freshly washed linen, hanged out to dry, fast becomes black.
Closing of the mini-refineries means undermining the economic basis of terrorism. Normalising the situation in Chechnya is not for the army. The military can only protect the more environmentally hazardous installations against strikes that can entail long-term consequences.
Saving Chechnya's territory against an environmental catastrophe is an objective for the state. The Emergencies Ministry, the State Environmental Committee, the Armed Forces cannot tackle it on their own. Unless funds are allocated and work gets underway, there will be a catastrophe in the Caspian. There is a huge pocket, up to 12 metres deep and close to 30 square kilometres in area that contains petroleum products and gradually migrates towards the Terek. If and when it gets there, there will be bad trouble. QUESTION: A lot is said of chemical weaponry, which rebels are using in Chechnya: chloride explosions, etc. How bad are the consequences? The impression is that there is no fauna in Chechnya. Is there any fish or wildlife left?
ALEKSEYEV: There is still some. I saw a fox in the mountains. And of course, there is some fish. But in areas around pipelines, there is no living thing, not even green grass. There is no fish in some places in rivers. The situation is awful, but there is still some fauna. The environmental situation is okay wherever there are no oil refineries.
I would not describe what they are doing as the use of chemical weapons. They use homemade stuff. No chemist would think of mixing ammonia-laced water with gasoline. The two do not mix, yet they pour the two substances into a barrel and explode. As a result, there appear vapors of ammonia, which are expected to kill. But the military do not suffer: they are well protected organisationally and technically and soldiers have been trained. The population is the one to suffer: chloride, for one, is a heavy gas, it seeps into cellars. I would say that its use is a provocation, rather than the intention to hurt Russian troops. REN-TV NEWS: You use the term environmental emergency zone. If there are degrees, what degree is it?
ALEKSEYEV: There are criteria devised by the State Committee of Environmental Protection. Environmental emergency entails consequences that are incompatible with the existence of all living things and their development. The notion of environment in its broad sense is everything connected to the life of people, social aspects included. Military environment includes criteria of the situation at military installations. We try out the ways and means of protection. The Armed Forces and the Ministry of Atomic Energy run major protection systems not unlike the environmental safety system, but this country does not have a single such system. There is a score of agencies that tackle separate tasks. Some of them are control bodies that do nothing to resolve the problem, e.g. the State Committee for Environmental Protection. Some are into monitoring, e.g. the State Committee of Meteorology. Still others protect the atmosphere or waters, but there is no single system.
The military have endeavored to build a system of environmental safety composed of four objectives. One is to protect the personnel against environmental hazards. Two is to preclude pollution that accompanies any human endeavor, the Armed Forces included. Three is to clean up the negative consequences of previous activities. Four is nature protection, which includes the protection of flora and fauna, and the natural resources. Go to any testing ground and see for yourself that the military are unparalleled in protecting wildlife. Any testing ground is a natural wildlife preserve.
RIA NOVOSTI: You have named the figure - 15,000 mini-refineries in Chechnya. How many of them are operative, or are they all in the territory controlled by the federal troops? Have there been assessments of what it would cost to make the territory habitable again?
ALEKSEYEV: Assessments are being done, a programme is in the making. Everything depends on how fast is the programme to be adopted. The figure 15,000 is very approximate. Nobody can say how many of them are operative. Come to Bachi-Yurt. Its commandant is a spetsnaz man. He has a map to show the refineries' location. They are placed a hundred yards apart. There is the canyon in the Terek Ridge with the pipeline passing alongside. There is a mini-refinery behind every rock. All wastes flow from it to the nearest brook and from thence to the river. The mini-refineries are destroyed. Soon they spring up again. The spetsnaz would destroy them again.
I don't want to speak badly of the Chechens. But in Daghestan, for one, every village is engaged in a craft. People in one village make daggers, in another, engraving, and in still another, scythes. Can you name a village in Chechnya that would be known for a craft? But if you look at a Chechen village, you will see nice houses, two or three cars at every home. Whence the money? From oil production and refining and trade in petroleum products.
ITAR-TASS: How bad is the environmental situation in Grozny? How much harm have hostilities done? Could you comment on the rebels' numerous statements that the federal troops are using chemical weapons in Chechnya?
ALEKSEYEV: The 'reports' on the use of chemical weapons are a lot of bull. Chemical weaponry is highly potent. But there is no need - or use - to use it. Using it against the rebels where we will soon fight is a folly.
The harm done to Chechnya by the hostilities in the past eight months is approximately 1% added to the overall environmental pollution - the areas polluted by the troops. I can recite the harm done to Yugoslavia. It has been accurately calculated there that the radioactive contamination zone is hundreds of square metres in area. The substances used there harmed the atmosphere because strikes were delivered at chemical enterprises and clouds of combustion products rose high into the air.
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Do you have any data to indicate how much oil has been spilled in Chechnya, in tonnes?
ALEKSEYEV: I have data for some areas. In the vicinity of Grozny, for one, 2 million tonnes of petroleum products have been spilled to collect in the afore mentioned pocket.
FEDERAL NEWS AGENCY: What are your expectations of the new Duma?
ALEKSEYEV: My vision of the Duma is positive. But if you are talking about the environmental committee, which has been functioning for two terms, i.e. eight years, and which has been chaired by Tamara Zlotnikova whom I deeply respect, I must say that it has not done a lot of good. I therefore expect the new Duma to make really decisive steps to organise a system of environmental safety for the country.
RADIO RUSSII: The previous war in Chechnya has proved that there are parts of Chechnya where waging hostilities is deadly: burial grounds, cemeteries, burials of plague cases and of nuclear wastes, etc. Have you identified areas where you prefer to have rebels than explosions of something?
ALEKSEYEV: There is an environmentalist on the staff of every unit. He advises the commander on environmental issues. We as the central military control body have issued a General Staff directive listing installations that are taboo for strikes. I think you mean the burial grounds at Tolstoy-Yurt with 120 curie of radioactivity, four tanks for solid radioactive waste, two for liquid wastes and nine for biological waste. But only solid radioactive waste and no liquid or biological waste were stored there.
Rebels have tried to use the burial grounds for a shelter. The area was made taboo even for mine strikes. We want to take stocks of waste there. When we seized the area, we found signs of recent activities there: locks have been broken and new covers installed. The level of radioactivity inside it is very high. We suspect that when the area was under bandits, radioactive waste was buried there. Burying radioactive waste is a very expensive affair these days. This business is no less lucrative than oil production.
FRANCE PRESSE: How many mini-refineries have been destroyed lately? Who is in charge? How harmful is the destruction of the refineries?
ALEKSEYEV: All refineries in the territory controlled by us have been exploded. Of course, any explosion does harm to the environment. But by exploding a mini-refinery, we are conserving nature: it would not contaminate nature any more. The commandant of a district is responsible for the destruction of the mini-refineries. Some of them are representatives of the Justice Ministry and the Defence Ministry.
RADIO LIBERTY: Are there petroleum products in the pipe? The question of which uses war gases - the rebels or the federal troops - is open, because both sides make accusations. My question is not who does what. My question is harm done to the population.
ALEKSEYEV: The military have never had any chloride. Using it senseless. If something has to be used, there are other substances. RADIO LIBERTY: But the rebels are not crazy either.
ALEKSEYEV: Their objective is formidable. They are after resolving a propaganda task. Two wars are being fought in parallel - an information war and a shooting war. I don't know which one is more important. You can be told a lot of things. But believing them all is silly.
As to the pipe, we have not had the time to build a detour pipeline in Chechnya. This will cost us a real pretty penny. There are oil fields in Chechnya, and the quality of crude is superior. It is better than the Siberian crude. Dozens of small pipes 60-70 centimetres in diametre lead to the trunk pipeline. They simply lie on the surface and that is where the cut-ins are made. Chiefs of larger bands have wells of their own. There are wells there and they are producing oil.
QUESTION: Do you know of examples where the peaceful population would help?
ALEKSEYEV: In the Goragorskaya area, a half of the refineries found have been shown by the locals, because the terrain there is very complicated. The people are sick and tired of them. But there are some people who make good money on operating the mini-refineries.
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