Chechnya's long battle for freedom
On February 23 1944 the NKVD, Stalin's secret police began an operation to deport the Chechen and Ingush people en masse from their homelands in the North Caucasus.
By March 1, almost half a million had been loaded into cattle trucks and sent to Central Asia for "resettlement". The Soviet Republic of Chechen/Ingush was abolished and erased from all maps, and the Chechen and Ingush nations officially ceased to exist. Tens of thousands of other peoples of the region suffered the same fate, including the Karachai, Balkars, Kalmyks, Tatars and Meskhetians.
This brutal and tragic episode in the history of the North Caucasus is commemorated this month. (See below for details of London meeting).
Despite little coverage in the western media, Putin's present Chechen war has escalated and has now reached a barbarous impasse. Every week up to fifty Russian soldiers, many of them young and unwilling conscripts are being slaughtered and others maimed and wounded. Chechen casualties are less, since their tactics involve surprise ambushes against the often inexperienced, ill-equipped and demoralised Federal forces.
Russian bombardment has reduced the capital Grozny and other towns and villages to rubble. As our report from a French aid convoy illustrates, the plight of the 250,000 refugees, both inside Chechnya and on the borders is dire.
Chauvinism
In last year's presidential elections, Putin rode to power on a wave of government-led chauvinism and hysteria - portraying all Chechens as murderous bandits intent on destroying the Russian Federation.
Solidarity in action, as
Union convoy brings in vital aid
French trade unionists organised an aid convoy to bring desperately needed food to refugees from Chechnya. Xavier Rousselin, who will be speaking in London later this month, tells the story .
The lorry arrived at the Customs authorities in Vladicauvcase, North Ossetia, on Wednesday, November 8. It would not get through to its destination, the refugee camp at Nazran in Ingusettia, for 9 more long days.
First they had to wait until Emercom, the Ministry of emergency services in Moscow, sent a document through. By Thursday it had still not arrived, so they decided to ask the North Ossetian authorities to intervene on our behalf with Customs.
Customs officers had taken a sample of flour to analyse its quality. The result was OK. But the Vladicauvcase laboratory also had to make an analysis to determine the radio activity level of the flour and to quantify its heavy metal content. This takes at least three days. So the lorry was obviously unable to move until after the weekend.
Why it is so difficult to enter Russia with flour?
Firstly, Russians don't like imported food products. Secondly, in Vladicauvcase they are afraid of anything that could help the Chechen fighters.
Thirdly ,and maybe most importantly at the present time, the Customs had rejected a train of 48 wagons, with 2,957 tons of US flour given by the World Food Program, the UN body in charge of food aid.
This flour had a high heavy metal content, and its quality was poor. At this time the WFP and the Russians were negotiating since the Russian authorities had categorically refused to accept this flour and the WFP wanted to send it to another country.
These delays were very tiresome but gave some of us the chance to visit near by refugee camps. The conditions are really bad.
Food distribution is totally inadequate. In Karabulak the kitchen is out of order. Refugees are obliged to cook in their tents. There is very little space around tents to cook outside.
The children cannot play football or any other kind of sport which requires space. Tents in this camp have heating, but winter is coming. The first snow fell on the Caucasus plains on November 9.
The sanitary situation is appalling. In Karabulak there are only 24 showers for 6,318 people and the womens' toilets are closed. In another camp made up of carriages there are only 12 showers for 4,568 people. There are schools in these two camps, but only for children aged 7 to 12.
On Monday, the analysis of the flour was complete. The heavy metal content and the radio activity rate were below the Russian maximum levels. We were told the lorry would be allowed to leave on Tuesday.
At this point Eric and Vincent had a problem with their visas needing extensions. But the person in Nazran who is responsible for this could not do anything because she did not have the key of the cupboard where the stamps are kept!
By Thursday, the key had still not been found, so they decided to ask for a UN escort. They went to Vladicauvcase with a UN representative and - miraclulously - were allowed to leave. They crossed the border at night. And then on Saturday morning they got their visa extension - a second miracle!
The distribution of the flour finally began on Sunday.
It took us 9 months to reach our target. We got a lorry loaded with 22 tons of flour through to the people who needed it.
And it is obvious that the problems we had getting there are nothing compared with the difficulties of Chechen refugees. Our long road is an illustration of the terrible isolation of the Chechen people.
And our job now is to publicise the facts. A small organisation like ours was able to send a lorry. Why then do the UN, the EU, our rich governments do nothing for these people?
Why are the Chechen refugees going to spend the freezing winter in tents? Why have the refugees received no food aid for three months? Why are the wealthy countries unable to give $6.2 million to the world food program?
As trade unionists, we want to shout out to our governments, but we also want to do what our governments should be doing. Our lorry was in a camp, surrounded by refugees and we told them that as trade unionists we will not let them down.
Campaign to stop the war in Chechnya
Public meeting
To commemorate the mass deportations of Chechen and Ingush people by Stalin in 1944.
Saturday February 24, 2-5 p.m.
University of London Union
Malet St, (nearest tube Goodge St)
Speakers
Xavier Rousselin - French aid convoy to Chechnya.
Rob Ferguson - Campaign to Stop the War in Chechnya
Bob Myers - Workers Aid for Bosnia
Stop Putin's war
Withdraw Russian troops
For a just peace and self determination for the peoples of Chechnya
Open the borders for refugees and aid
Worried that the military has apparently bungled the war and that the media has not been completely gagged, Putin has now put his old ex-KGB mates in charge.
They may not do any better for him, given the determined resistance of the guerrillas. But we can expect increased activity of some sort , perhaps a spring offensive when the snow melts.
Today's war reflects a long history of conflict between Tsarist, then Soviet and post-Soviet Russia and the North Caucasus. The region provided a natural mountainous border and a source of raw materials, including oil. Historically, Russia contained the region through its 'sword and samovar' tactics of conquer, divide and rule.
For a brief period after the 1917 Russian revolution the Socialist Confederation of Caucasian and Russian people brought unity through common development.
But this was destroyed by Stalin's forced collectivisation and terror of the 1930s, culminating in the 1944 deportations, which were justified by false allegations of collaboration with the Nazis.
After their eventual rehabilitation in the Khrushchov era, Chechens and most others were allowed to return and rebuild their homelands. In Chechen towns, especially Grozny, oil revenues brought some prosperity, but rural areas remained poor.
However, by the 1980s the Soviet Union was experiencing economic and political crisis, which affected both the Union Republics and the Autonomous Republics of the Russian Federation.
In 1991, as the Soviet Union broke up, the Union Republics opted for independence.
However, the Autonomous Republics, economically tied and dependent on central government for subsidies opted to stay in the Federation, though with greater autonomy.
This was the first option of Chechen leaders such as the two future presidents Dudayev and Maskhadov. However, Dudayev's uncertainty over Russia's intentions and his own developing belief that Chechnya could survive as a separate state pushed him to seize power in 1991 and declare independence. At the same time Chechnya separated from Ingushetia, which stayed within the Federation.
Russia first reacted by sending in troops, but later struck a deal ,which however left the status of Chechnya unresolved.
This has had two tragic outcomes. Firstly it meant Chechnya has not been able to build itself as a viable, independent state. Since it was not formally recognised as separate by Russia, no one else in the world would recognise it either.
Tied
So it could not get outside trade and investment or even aid, and remained tied in many ways to the Federation. The most damaging result is that the economy have been plundered by the new gangster capitalists of restorationist Russia, in collaboration with equally corrupt Chechen elites.
Secondly, Russia was able to threaten the weak Republic with an economic blockade and withdrawal of Federal subsidies. In 1994 it used the pretext of the threatened integrity of the Federation to send in troops to bring Chechnya back under its control.
Despite de facto independence and open and fair elections in 1997, giving Maskhadov the presidency, Russia has used this same issue of threatened integrity to justify the present war.
The war is being waged for numerous reasons - to gain Putin popularity, to assert Russia's right to control its own backyard, and with an eye on Chechnya's position in the present Caspian oil deals. (Although Chechnya's own wells are now almost exhausted, it is still important for its refineries and pipelines).
However, neither the majority of the Chechen people, nor the wretched Russian soldiers reluctantly fighting them, nor the thousands of cold, hungry and homeless refugees can gain anything from the continued carnage and destruction.
Both Federal troops and Special Forces (which are the ones responsible for the reported atrocities) must be withdrawn immediately, to allow a just settlement, giving Chechnya the right and the means to decide its own future.
At the same time regional borders must be open for refugees to escape the conflict and for aid to reach those in need.