STOP
HEINOUS ACTS BY RUSSIANS AND CHECHENS
An
Boston Globe Op-Ed
by Khassan Baiev
November 9, 2002
I am a Chechen
doctor who treated many wounded and dying people -- Russian soldiers, Chechen
fighters, but mainly innocent civilians -- during Russia's two recent wars with
Chechnya.
Like many others, I watched the recent hostage-taking horror in Moscow on television.
I felt for the victims crammed into a theater auditorium and terrorized by Movsar
Barayev and his followers. Along with most Chechens, I condemn this barbarous
act, which is the latest atrocity in the brutal conflict that has raged since
December 1994 when 300,000 Russian troops invaded Chechnya. In January 1999,
I too was taken hostage by Movsar's uncle, the late Arbi Barayev, who condemned
me to death in a makeshift Islamic court for treating Russians. The reason Barayev
spared me was because he needed me to treat his wounded men. Arbi Barayev, like
the hostage takers in Moscow, claimed to be a Muslim. In my eyes, and in the
eyes of most Chechens, terrorism is an insult to our faith. Islam is a religion
of peace, even if some fanatics have hijacked it to justify their evil deeds.
Tragically the hostage-taking in the theater fuels President Putin's effort
to depict Chechens as Islamic extremists and will be another excuse to mount
reprisals against us. If you believe the Russian media, Chechnya is a hotbed
of terrorists funded by the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. This is a distortion
of the facts. Moscow prevents both Russian and foreign journalists from going
to Chechnya, so it is hard for the world to know the truth, which is that the
vast majority of Chechens want nothing more than to be allowed to live their
lives peacefully.
Chechens adopted the Sunni Muslim faith in the 18th century, but adjusted it
to fit the Adat, a body of Chechen customary law that has regulated our lives
for centuries. The Wahabbis, as we call Arabs from Middle Eastern countries,
arrived in Chechnya after the first war ended in August 1996. During the second
war, which began in August 1999, there were never more than 200 foreigners in
Chechnya from Arab countries, some of whom have fought beside Chechens.
We are grateful for humanitarian aid from Middle Eastern countries, but most
Chechens have rebuffed the efforts of the Wahabbi to introduce extremist ideology
into Chechnya's way of life. We are a very independent people.
For hundreds of years we have fought against the Russians telling us what to
do. We don't welcome other nations telling us how to behave, even if we share
the same faith. The Wahabbis tried to seduce our young people with money, and
it is true that some men joined them to support their families. But our elders
constantly spoke out against the presence of these troublemakers and asked them
to leave the villages.
While I condemn the tactics of the Moscow hostage takers, I support any call
for Russia to withdraw the more than 100,000 of her troops still based in Chechnya.
Their continued marauding under the guise of "mopping-up" operations
terrorizes the population and hardens attitudes against Moscow. This brutal
conflict, in which an estimated 200,000 Chechen civilians have died, not to
mention Chechen fighters and Russian soldiers, must end.
Each week dozens of Russian soldiers die in Chechen ambushes, and Chechen men
routinely are abducted off the street to be ransomed off to their relatives
or executed. This happens beyond the view of the rest of the world, but it is
an international tragedy.
Hostage taking is no way to resolve this conflict. Violence breeds violence.
We need the international community to help bring an end to the bloodshed.
As a surgeon during the two wars, I witnessed the mangled bodies, the shredded
innards, the amputated limbs, and children burned beyond recognition. I recall
the boy whose hair turned white overnight from fear and the girl who screamed
whenever a bird flew overhead, thinking it was the Russian helicopter that had
killed her mother. I will not forget the face of a man whose daughter was raped
before his eyes, or the terror of a wounded young Russian soldier I treated
who believed I was about to execute or castrate him, which is what his superiors
said would happen if he fell into Chechen hands.
Unless steps are taken to end this barbarity through political negotiations,
the killing of the innocent will continue. The reprisals by Russia have already
started, and there may well be more desperate acts of terror, designed to draw
international attention to this forgotten war. The circle of violence will continue
unless a political resolution can be found.
Unfortunately, the United States appears to have reached an understanding with
Russia whereby the United States will no longer criticize the human rights abuses
in Chechnya in return for Russia's support of the US battle against global terrorism
and efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, the innocent suffer.
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