11.02.2000 15:00 Russia@America ¹ 8 SEVERAL ASPECTS OF THE SITUATION IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
The Russian Acting President on the Situation In Chechnya
Russian Acting President Vladimir Putin is certain that the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya will soon be over.
"The end is near, believe me," he told a news conference last week, "but we are setting no deadlines and will act according to what we think is politically and militarily most expedient our main concern is to minimise the troop and civilian casualties. Our final goal is to uproot terrorism and this is something we are definitely going to do..."
Putin also stressed the need to combine military action with a "political process". "We are constantly being urged to start a political dialogue, and that's exactly what we are now doing," Putin said, "including with local town and village authorities".
Nearly 90 percent of the Chechen population now live in liberated areas, and "social and economic issues are taking centre stage... especially now that the Chechen people are cooperating with the federal authorities and the Russian troops to drive out and, in certain cases, to destroy the bandits. We now have local militias, which are taking up arms to liberate their areas of the bandits. Which makes us even more committed to help out the ordinary Chechen people..."
Putin expressed appreciation the role played by Chechnya's neighbour, the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, which, he said, "was the first to stand up against aggression by the Chechen separatists", whose unproved invasion in August led to coursed many civilian casualties in that southern republic of the Russian Federation.
Foreign Hostages in Chechnya
The Head of the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime under the Russian Ministry of the Interior, Vladimir Kozlov, made this comment on the problem of rescuing foreign nationals held as hostages on Chechen territory.
"Today some 700 people are captives of the terrorists. It's known for sure that at least 12 of these people are foreign nationals from Turkey, France, Slovakia and Israel. It's hard to say now what brought them to Chechnya and what kind of activities they were engaged in. Take the Turkish nationals, we have repeatedly made inquiries with the Turkish authorities about them. But our information has never been confirmed, though we have reliable data that several Turkish nationals, including businessmen and a correspondent, are being held hostage on Chechen territory. These people were evidently in Chechnya before the attack on neighbouring Daghestan and the retaliatory anti-terrorist operation of the federal authorities."
The world was shocked by the murder of four employees of the British Granger Telecom Company. According to the information at the disposal of the Russian law enforcement agencies, what happened was this:
The Chechen side failed to pay for the work done by the company to equip the republic with cellular communications, though the company had signed corresponding contracts with the Maskhadov government and worked on an official basis. The estimated cost of the project was 178 million pounds. The employees must have decided that high earnings justified the risk, though London officially warned them that trips to the region were not recommended. As a result, these people were murdered by their "partners", who did not want to pay them a large amount of money under the contract.
All the criminals have been identified, but so far they remain actually under the protection of the local authorities on the part of the Chechen territory not yet liberated by federal troops. This is another reason why the antiterrorist operation must be carried through.
Displaced Persons Return Home
Sergei Khetagurov, Deputy Minister for Emergency Situations comments on the situation of displaced persons from Chechnya.
The anti-terrorist operation in the area compelled most of these people to flee to regions of Russia neighbouring on Chechnya, first of all, to the Republic of Ingushetia. Many have been accommodated in the private sector and at the centres of temporary residence. Seven such centres in Ingushetia have accommodated some 24.5 thousand people. They are well equipped for the winter. Therefore there is no question of a humanitarian catastrophe whatsoever. This has been repeatedly emphasised by all the Russian and international missions that have visited the area. The Russian government is channelling considerable amounts of money to help these people. It has like situation under control.
At the same time we are today faced with the problem of enabling a displaced persons to return to the areas of Chechnya cleared of terrorists. In approximately half the settlements there homes are now receiving gas and electricity, and schools and hospitals have reopened. Over 35 thousand people have returned to their permanent places of residence. Their number is constantly growing. We have begun to arrange centres of temporary residence on Chechen territory. Three such centres are already operating.
The Russian government has not appealed to the West for aid. Yet the world community is preparing large-scale relief supplies. On the Russian side this operation will be coordinated by the Ministry for Emergency Situations. The problems of customs clearing and of the delivery and distribution of relief supplies has been solved. Contacts have been established with well-known international organisations, such as Physicians Without Frontiers and the International Red Cross.
The Russian Customs Service Contributes to the Anti-Terrorist Operation
The activities of Russian customs officers in the North Caucasus are commented on by Yuri Azarov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Customs Committee.
If it had not been for the reinforcement of the Chechen separatists by foreign terrorist organisations with mercenaries, weapons, ammunition, and funding, the bandits would never have been able to unleash aggression against neighbouring Daghestan last August.
Probably the threat of separatism would not have arisen in the North Caucasus at all.
It is particularly disturbing that the separatists are supported from abroad with drugs, which they quickly convert into cash. Russian customs officers have placed barriers around Chechnya and on the roads leading to it, blocking a considerable part of flammable material that keeps alive the fire started by terrorists.
Customs officers check all the cargoes going to Chechnya or via the North Caucasus. In the past three months alone, the customs, along with other law enforcement agencies, have confiscated millions of cartridges, 500 kg of explosives, 24 kg of heroin, and over 6 kg of hashish. In late November they arrested a large transit shipment of weapons to Georgia lacking appropriate documents. No documents confirming that the detained cargo belonged to Georgia.
As for relief supplies, these are forwarded to Chechnya without any delay. In the first half of December alone the customs service cleared a total of more than one thousand tons of such supplies, coming from Germany, Spain, Turkey, the United States, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, and Georgia.
Russian Muslims Support the Federal Authorities in Chechnya
On behalf of all Russian Muslims, the Russian Council of Muftis has voiced support for the policies of the federal authorities and their anti-terrorist operation aimed at clearing Chechnya of terrorists.
Ravil Gainutdin, Chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis, says that Muslim clergymen support Russia's territorial integrity and the elimination of the bases of illegal armed units in Chechnya. In connection with the events in the North Caucasus the Russian Council of Muftis has repeatedly aired its position in the mass media. We proceed from the fact, its statement says, that Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, is a religion of peace. Unfortunately, today the word "Islam" is often used along with such words as extremism, terrorism and banditry, which in reality have nothing to do with Islam. But it's also a fact that extremist actions are carried out by people who relate themselves to Islam. Are these people real Muslims? Ravil Gainutdin asks this question, referring the actions of the so-called Wahhabites in Chechnya and Daghestan. We are acting together with the federal and local authorities, he says, because, after the war, we want to establish peace on the territory of Chechnya. We also want to establish peace in people's hearts, we want to eliminate hostility toward Russians and their country. Ravil Gainutdin believes that since the federal authorities took control of the situation on the liberated territories, they must take care of the civilians there. They must provide them with heat and electricity, food and wages and every necessity of a normal life. This is being done by the federal authorities in the areas cleared of bandit units.
The Chechen Diaspora about the Developments in Chechnya
Members of the Chechen community in the city of Volzhsky in the Volga area have come out with a political statement on the situation in Chechnya, which says in part:
The summer and early autumn of 1999 were marked by particularly brazen activities of the criminals who call themselves warriors of Allah against the population in Chechen Republic and in neighbouring regions of Russian Federation. This was a result of the activities of political adventure seekers in Chechnya, who in August 1991 pulled the Chechen people into a prolonged bloodbath on the wave of pseudo-democratic processes cynically dubbed "the growth of ethnic awareness". The situation was used by special services in some Islamic countries and by private centres controlled by them. These created an enclave of international political, military and ordinary banditry on Chechen territory. Under the cover of Islamic ideas criminals are trying to make the Chechen people accept their image, destroy the nation's identity and unique culture. In the heat of the bloody fratricidal conflict between the Russians and Chechens, amidst the slanderous fabrications of Udugov's propagandist machine, they are distorting historical facts and reality, sowing seeds of hatred among nations. The appeal ends with a call to all Russian and C.I.S. Chechen communities to support the slogan "Unity for the Sake of Life!" and declare war on separatism and banditry.
Foreign Extremists Try to Held the Bandits in Chechnya
Our correspondent in the North Caucasus comments on the attempts of foreign extremists to help bandits encircled in Chechnya:
The position of the bandits in Chechnya has aggravated dramatically, especially now that federal troops have began special operations in the republic's mountainous areas, the last stronghold of the militants. Federal forces have off the road from Chechnya to Georgia, by which, the military say, the militants received reinforcements in mercenaries, money, weapons and ammunition. Simultaneously with a motorised division, frontier-guards were flown into the area by helicopters. The separatists found themselves trapped in the mountain gorges. This must be the reason for statements about "neutrality" made by some field commanders, who, far from making any attempt to put up resistance to the advancing federal troops, have agreed to provide them with guides.
Having no illusions about what is in store for them in the event of a total defeat, the irreconcilable terrorists have sought to enlist support coming from foreign organisations. What is meant are non-governmental "charity funds" that, which in fact, belong to radical Islamists from the international extremist organisations "Hamas", "Hezbollah", "Al-Jihad" and "Al-Islami". An important role in the "export" of mercenaries, money and weapons has been played by the well-known international terrorist Usama bin Laden and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan who helped so-called "Wahhabites" to organise an armed mutiny and the attack by Chechen terrorists Basayev and Khattab against neighbouring Daghestan. That prompted the Russian federal forces into launching the current anti-terrorist operation to drive back the aggressors and restore constitutional order in Daghestan and Chechnya.
The West, however, has chosen to turn a blind eye on the facts and continues to insist on the "need for a political dialogue" and "suspension of military operations". But it is crystal clear that no dialogue with terrorists is possible at the current stage and even a pause in the operation would enable the militants to reground their forces, international extremists to resume their help, and instability in the region to increase.
Dealers in Counterfeit Dollars Detained in Tula
A group of Chechens with a large sum of forged US dollars have been detained in the city of Tula, not far from Moscow.
Information about a deal in which the criminals were going to exchange the forged dollars for real ones reached the local department for economic crimes two months ago. The "connection" was traced to militants in Chechnya, a republic from which considerable amounts of forged currency had been smuggled to Russia for several years. The banknotes are usually of high quality, and are sometimes hard to detect for a bank machine.
Every move made by the criminals was monitored with the help of a local detective, who had managed to infiltrate the gang and policemen acting as local gangsters. The money for the deal was furnished by a local bank. The criminals, however, were cautious: twice they chose not to show up at the appointed time and then arrived but without the forged dollars. Finally, the meeting did take place in a small town on the border of the Tula region and members of the gang were detained.
The counterfeit dollars - 180 thousand - were expected to go to currency exchanges and banks in the Tula region, and the real ones, to return to Chechnya.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, similar operations now underway in a number of other Russian regions have in the majority of cases revealed that the counterfeiters are located in Chechnya, in the bandit-controlled districts.
What a Stop to the Military Operations in Chechnya Would Mean
The first point of the so-called "Vollebaek plan" for a "Chechen settlement" that the Chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe presented at a conference of the G-8 foreign ministers was to stop military operations in Chechnya.
Similar calls had been heard from western politicians before. And they sounded louder as the position of the militants worsened. Now that 90 percent of the territory of Chechnya had been cleared of the bandits, they were ringing with renewed strength.
What would a halt to the current anti-terrorist operation mean to Russia?
There is hardly a surgeon who would decide to interrupt surgery already well underway. Once started the operation must be completed, which is the case with Chechnya. Otherwise the "body" of Russia will still bear a "sore spot", a smouldering focus of a possible future conflict. That was the case in 1996 when federal forces did not see the matter through and signed an agreement with the separatists leaving them an opportunity to try to build a sovereign state. Such a policy resulted in a complete loss of any control of the republic, prompted a mass exodus of people (more than a half), turned the republic's territory into a "camp" for training bandits and terrorists and at last, brought on the invasion of "Wahhabites" into the neighbouring Russian republic of Daghestan.
As for the West's expressions of concern over the "humanitarian side of the matter" and suffering among civilians, they can hardly be taken seriously against the background of the recent developments in Yugoslavia where an undisputed humanitarian disaster followed NATO's aggression last spring. There is nothing of the kind in the North Caucasus, which has been confirmed by all officials who visited the region as representatives of international organizations, starting from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to the Islamic Conference Organisation.
Refugees are already coming back to the liberated areas where they receive substantial assistance from experts of the Emergencies Ministry, the Health Ministry, other regions and big companies such as Gazprom and Unified Energy Systems. Hospitals and schools are being reopened, and electricity and gas supplies are being resumed. And the sooner the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya is over, the sooner its people will be able to return to normal life. A "suspension of military operations" can bring nothing but new suffering to the region.
After the events of 1995-1996 and the withdrawal of the federal forces from Chechnya under the Khasavyurt Agreements, the Russian inhabitants of that republic became the main target of the permissiveness-crazed secessionists. Many gifted scientists, physicians, engineers, and teachers had to flee their homes. Those who remained suffered great humiliation and oppression.
More than 21 thousand Russians were executed in Chechnya, according to the official figures released by the Ministry for Nationalities and Regional Policy. The bandits seized more than 100 thousand apartments and houses that belonged to Russians, and also to Ingushes and Daghestanis. Upwards of 50 thousand of their neighbours were turned into slaves by the bandits. Slaves were used in the construction of the mountain road across the Main Caucasian Range from Georgia, at improvised factories with their health hazards, and to cultivate the poppy and hemp plantations belonging to the Basayev brothers and Khattab.
More than 60 Chechen armed bands, numbering a total of over 2500 men, are engaged in kidnapping. By November of last year, 1289 people had been abducted in the North Caucasus. In the vast majority of cases, the hostages were held by the criminals in Chechnya, Since January 1997, 61 foreigners have been kidnapped, 50 have been freed, and four have been killed, (From a report by Nikolai Morozov, who heads the Main Directorate for Countering Organized Grime within the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation.)
From a manual of Khattab's subversion centre: "Parallel with the construction of new bases, we must work to establish research and production centres for developing weapons of effective warfare and thereby eliminate the problem of the supplies of captured weapons, for these purposes, it is necessary to form small but highly mobile groups to identify specialists in this area. They must be either hired or taken prisoner and made to work for the defence of Daghestan. Chemists, physicists, mechanics, and skilled workers are needed to create various types of gun-powders, easily transported cannons, and explosives. It is necessary to form subversive groups and organize high-precision subversive operations in places where bands of the colonialists are concentrated, blow up sewage systems, heating systems, tunnels and cable communications, set fire to factories, mills, and forests, and set off explosions on bridges, at airfields, and railroad stations.
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