AFF's Doublethink

September 11 was a shocking demonstration of the dangers of lawless countries and ungovernable regions, which are easy targets for Islamic fundamentalism and breeding grounds for terror. In the war on terror, President Bush has committed the U.S. style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> to draining these terror swamps. style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> ought to be on his radar screen as the next front in the war.

In its ongoing war there, the Russian military has brutalized the Chechen people, radicalizing that conflict and creating an environment where international terrorism can thrive. A secular and democratic independence movement is changing, as radical Islam and terrorism are being embraced by a desperate populace. Most alarmingly, there are clear indications that al Qaeda regards majority-Muslim Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> as fertile ground for recruitment and a potential base for operations.

A HISTORY OF CONFLICT

Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> has been intermittently at war with style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> for centuries, with the most recent conflicts taking place from 1994 to 1996 and 1999 to the present. It is now a nation of warlords and anarchy. In the last nine years, between 180,000 and 250,000 Chechens have been killed and 350,000 have been displaced, out of a population of just 1.1 million. That means that roughly half of the population has been killed or displaced by fighting. Compare that to Kosovo, where 0.6 percent of Kosovars were killed, and you get a sense of the nightmarish brutality of the conflict.

With that conflict has come a human rights disaster of historic proportions. Amnesty International reports, “Men, women, and children have also been tortured, including raped, in detention in ‘filtration camps.’ Over a thousand simply ‘disappeared’ in custody. The dead bodies of some people who have ‘disappeared’ after being detained by Russian forces are later sold to the relatives by the military or are found in mass graves.” According to the International Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, “The numbers of disappeared Chechens in recent months indicate a continuing assault against the Chechen people that borders on genocide.”

Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> has deployed approximately 80,000 troops to this region the size of Connecticut style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>, and atrocities are common. Almost every village and town in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> has repeatedly endured so-called “mopping up” operations, during which Russian troops loot, beat, rape, extort, and illegally execute and detain Chechen civilians. One more frightening statistic: Russian authorities have designated approximately 73 percent of Chechen territory as environmentally contaminated.

THE style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>TERROR style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>SWAMP style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>

Already, Chechens have turned to terror tactics, including a deadly attack on a style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Moscow style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> theater last fall. Still, the Chechen diaspora in Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> (estimated at 10,000 people) has rarely carried the war outside the region’s borders–surprisingly enough, considering the brutality of the Russian occupation.

But of even greater concern for the West is the possibility that style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> could serve as a base and recruiting ground for al Qaeda or other terror networks. In March, Chechen foreign minister Ilyas Akhmadov, speaking at a New Atlantic Initiative meeting in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Washington style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>, said that while Chechen terrorism is now rare, the tenor of the conflict could make it more common. Because Chechens have “no right except to die,” the “path to radicalization is open,” Akhmadov said. “Russian policies toward style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> have been a factory for creating terrorism.” Akhmadov warned that young Chechens have no other training but in war. This generation has grown up with ever-present violence that has included the torture and death of family members, and Russian cruelty is pushing many moderate Chechens into the arms of extremists. As they seek to protect their families from violence and humiliation, radical methods and attitudes begin to appear more acceptable. A Chechen foreign ministry document states, “Four years of indiscriminate warfare, ethnic cleansing operations, and international indifference to Russian atrocities have created an atmosphere of hopelessness and desperation.”

In this era of worldwide terror networks and alliances between disparate, disaffected groups such as Colombian rebels and the Irish Republican Army, it should be clear how this bitter and terrorized people could align with terrorists. The warning signs are already there. In December 1996, al Qaeda’s second in command, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, investigated transferring the terror network’s headquarters to style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. In the fall of 1999, three of the eventual September 11 hijackers were sent by al Qaeda to the style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>U.S. style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> after their first assignment–fighting in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>–was determined to unnecessary. Mounir El Motassadeq, who last fall became the first man to face trial for the September 11 attacks, told a Hamburg court that Mohammed Atta, who is believed to have piloted the first plane into the World Trade style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Center style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>, declared that he “really wanted to go to Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> to fight.” Motassadeq said that other suspected terrorists also wanted to fight in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> “because of the massacre that the Russians were committing there.” In November 2002, bin Laden himself invoked style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> in a message broadcast on al Jazeera. “As you look at your dead in Moscow, also recall ours in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>,” he told the Russian people.

THE NEW class=GramE>AFGHANISTAN class=GramE>? style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>

The proximity of the Caucasus style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> to style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Afghanistan style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> makes it likely that displaced terror training camps and cells will relocate to style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. Jean-Louis Bruguiere, style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>France style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s top investigative judge for terrorism cases, said, “I fear that style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> could become the new style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Afghanistan style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. The threat is moving to the style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Caucasus style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> because the jihad system needs a new battleground.”

At the same time, radical Islam–never popular in secular style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>–seems to be gaining a foothold. Long beards are appearing on men, while some women are wearing the Arab-style hijab, a head-to-toe black dress that leaves only the eyes uncovered.

A Chechen foreign ministry document drew a grave picture of the potential for terrorism in that country: Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s policy of collective terror and total lack of accountability is turning style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> into a fertile ground for terrorism. The style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Moscow style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> hostage-taking clearly demonstrates style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s extreme desperation and fast-growing radicalization. Undoubtedly, continuation of the war will turn at least a part of class=GramE>Chechnya class=GramE>‘s armed resistance to irrational … violence of vengeance independent of the political agenda, which neither President Maskhadov nor anyone else would be able to control. Ending the war and solving the conflict are surely the only way to prevent this.

Moscow interprets these developments not as an indication that its war is backfiring, but as further justification for the campaign in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy: as the war creates more brutality and pushes style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> further into extremism, the likelihood of terror increases, which Moscow then uses as an excuse for further intervention.

The rise of Chechen extremism has also caused style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Washington style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> to turn a blind eye to Russian brutality in the region. Moscow has gone to great lengths to draw comparisons between style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>America style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s toppling of the Taliban to its war in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. Sergei Ignatchenko, deputy chief spokesman of Russia’s FSB security service–the successor of the Soviet KGB–recently remarked, “We are talking about an international network that shares the same sources of funding, political support, weapons, training, and ideology, operating in Chechnya, Afghanistan, and many other places.”

With Moscow’s aid in the war on terrorism–use of Russian bases in Central Asia, acceptance of American troops on its borders, etc.–and America’s naturally increased sensitivity to terrorism, Washington seems to be willing to see Chechnya the way the Kremlin wants it to. Two weeks after September 11, the President Bush remarked, “Our initial phase of the war on terrorism is against the al Qaeda organization, and we do believe there are some al Qaeda folks in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>.” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer reinforced Bush’s comments: “There is no question that there is an international terrorist presence in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> that has links to Osama bin Laden.” He demanded that Chechen leaders “immediately” sever ties with terrorists.

POLITICAL SOLUTION WANTED

Yet this conflict must be kept in context. The Chechens’ war is one of secession, not of Islamic fundamentalism. Their goal is an independent state, not the destruction of the United States style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> or the West. After all, Chechens receive most of their support from the European Union and the style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>United States style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>, drawing very little official aid from Muslim countries. While style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Afghanistan style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> was flooded with thousands of foreign Muslim fighters, there are relatively few in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. The Kremlin estimates the number of foreign fighters in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> at 700, while outside experts place the figure at 200. “What Putin calls international terrorism is actually a very specific form of Chechen national terrorism,” explains Yevgeny Volk of the Heritage Foundation in Moscow. “Any comparison with September 11 is artificial. Chechen resistance is quite different in demands, style, and performance.” Alexander Iskanderyan, director of the independent Centre for Caucasian Studies in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Moscow style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>, describes the war as an independence movement: “The penetration of outside money and [Islamic] ideology occurred later, and to some extent was an inevitable consequence of style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s deterioration. But the Chechen rebellion remains, at its heart, a secessionist struggle. It therefore needs a political solution, not a military one.”

In addition, the Chechens are traditionally not very religious, with families and clans playing a bigger role in their society than religion. Chechen resistance did not begin with the rise of radical Islam or international terrorism. Michael Gordon, who has covered the conflict for the New York Times, says that there’s “no question that there is an Islamic link to the conflict in style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. There are [Islamic] groups around the world that raise money for the Chechen cause. There are some people who have gone to volunteer to fight alongside the Chechens. However, if you were to take that way, if you subtracted the connections with Islamic militants and extremists, the conflict would be going on pretty much as it is and the Chechen people would be resisting Russian government of their republic.”

The history of Chechen resistance proves this point. As the Russian empire was expanding in the 18th century, Chechens resisted for years before being finally absorbed into Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. In the 1830s, they renewed their efforts for independence, a struggle that lasted until 1859, and even afterwards sporadically continued. Under communism, life for the Chechens did not become easier. In 1944, Josef Stalin deported all Chechens to central style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Asia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. Thousands died either resisting or during the journey. (In 1957, Nikita Khruschev allowed them to return to their homeland.) As a Chechen foreign ministry document has stated, “The fact that not only the present generation, but also nearly every previous generation since 1707 has made similar sacrifices for the very same goal [of independence] makes acceptance of autonomy within Russia even more unthinkable. In Chechens’ minds it would be a betrayal of the whole struggle and history and, most important, the memory of the loved ones.” Blaming the Chechen conflict on the rise of international terrorism and radical Islam is to ignore the centuries of abuse style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> has suffered from Russian hands.

In March, Chechens voted on a constitution that would declare the republic an inseparable part of Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. The proposal passed by overwhelming margins, but international observers say the vote was marked by large-scale fraud and intimidation, and the results were rejected by style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s political leadership and guerillas.

Because of the brutality of the two wars, style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s political leaders consider the relationship with Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> to be poisoned. The Chechen government offered a different formula for peace. Pleading for international attention and action, Foreign Minister Akhmadov wrote in a peace proposal published on March 18, “Moscow style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>’s policy of collective terror against the Chechen people is turning some elements of Chechen society toward irrational and undifferentiated vengeance. While the government of Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov has and will continue to condemn any terrorist acts, regardless of who may perpetrate them, a just peace is ultimately the only way to prevent this deeply alarming trend” [emphasis in the original].

Akhmadov was in Washington style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> in March to promote this proposal, which recognizes the security threat style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> poses to style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Russia style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>, and the haven style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>Chechnya style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> could become for terrorists. Because of these concerns, the proposal is for a conditional independence with a period of several years of international administration that would include both UN peacekeeping troops and civilian administrators. This proposal ought to receive a fair hearing from Moscow, Washington style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>, and the United Nations.

President Bush has declared that the community of nations is either with us or against us in the war on terror. But surely that formulation should allow for a variety of approaches in fighting terror and supporting states that seem likely to collapse in Afghan-style lawlessness. The Chechen people are clearly being pushed into extremism by a brutal Russian occupation. American gratitude for Russian help in the war on terror should not trump the clear national security interest the U.S. style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘> has in forestalling the rise of radical Islam in the Caucasus style=’font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”MS Mincho”‘>. The Chechens can be “with us” in the war on terror, but only if Washington accepts that in this case, there are true and longstanding grievances that need to be addressed.