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Czech political response to the conflict in Chechnya

By Ondřej Soukup, Institute of International Relations, Prague

Special to Prague Watchdog

Introduction

Some skeptics claim that it is impossible to summarize Czech policy towards current events in Chechnya. This is simply because the policy is not a clear and consistent one. That’s certainly true, but the same can be said about any country’s or international organization’s policy on Chechnya. For a number of reasons, no country wants to spoil its relations with Russia simply because of human rights violations in Chechnya. It is probably impossible to expect that the attitudes of independent countries would differ very much, but some differences, due to different historical experiences, can be found.

Czech experience with Russia

In Czech society there is a certain cautiousness towards Russia, stemming from experiences over the last century. Czechs are especially sensitive about anything that that carries even the slightest hint of imperialistic ambitions on the part of Moscow. Prague was among the first to acknowledge the independence of the Baltic countries and also holds a rather negative attitude towards the idea of Russian/Belarusian integration. The Czech people have also had some experience with the behavior of Russian soldiers due to the twenty year presence of the Soviet Army on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia. In addition, environmental damage is still being cleaned up in the former Soviet satellites today. For these reasons the Czech policy towards Chechnya has been somewhat more active than in some comparable West European states.

Individual participants

Czech foreign policy towards Chechnya isn’t formulated only by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is also, to varying degrees, influenced by the President, Parliament and various non-governmental organizations. Following is an examination of these various participants.

The President

Former dissident Václav Havel has always been interested in the situation in Chechnya. After the outbreak of the second Chechen war he missed no opportunity to draw attention to the humanitarian disaster in Chechnya and Ingushetia and massive human rights violations by the Russian Army. He took advantage of an opportunity to bring up the issue at an OSCE summit in Istanbul, has taken bilateral action when possible, (for example a joint declaration of Czech and Mongolian President in December 1999), and even mentioned the subject in his traditional New Year’s speech. He also didn’t neglect to mention the problems in Chechnya in a congratulatory telegram to Vladimir Putin upon his election as president. On several occasions the President’s Office has provided office space and materials for non-governmental organizations striving to inform the Czech public about the situation in Chechnya. The President himself donated a significant sum of money to help Chechen refugees. In an interview in May 2000 he went as far as pondering the possibility of eventual Chechen independence. It was the first (and also the last) comment from a Czech representative disregarding the doctrine of territorial integrity of the Russian Federation. Following a very sharp protest from the Russian side, Havel has not ventured any further in that direction. Still, he maintains a keen interest in the region. His attitude on the subject was again expressed in November 2000 when he awarded the state Order of Merit to Petra Procházková and Jaromír Štětina, journalists that regularly report about the situation in Chechnya, often at a risk to their own lives.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also been quite active. As one of the first it declared a resolution about disagreement with the continuing attack of the Russian army in October 1999. The long-term position of the Ministry can be roughly summarized like this: The Czech Republic fully respects the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation and definitely denounces all forms of terrorism regardless its motives. ”However, the procedure of the Russian military and security forces in Chechnya hasn’t been for a long time an internal matter of the RF because of the obviously extensive and repeated violation of human rights that has been taking place there and because the conflict leads to the suffering of the civilian population.” At the same time there is an appeal to a political solution with the participation of the Council of Europe and OSCE. This attitude isn’t in contradiction with the acceptance of the Chechen Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ilyas Akhmadov, because the ministry considers him to be ”a legitimate representative of the Chechen administration” that is, however, a part of the Russian Federation. The ministry also took an active part in helping Chechen refugees and released for their needs 2,000,000 Czech crowns in 2000 and intends to continue in their support.

The Parliament

Neither house of Parliament has declared an official attitude towards the Chechen crisis. However, individual members of Parliament, mainly Senators, have spoken out on the Chechnya situation often. An appeal for the defense of a Radio Free Europe journalist, Andrei Babitski, was signed by Senators from all of the political parties except for the Communists. In general, it is safe to say that disagreement over Russia’s handling of the Chechnya issue is runs across the political spectrum, with former dissidents in individual parties being especially active.

People in Need Foundation and other NGOs

Non-governmental organizations play a key role in informing the Czech public about events in Chechnya and in forming public opinion. The People in Need Foundation (PINF), which began operating in the region during the first Chechen war, plays the main role in this regard. PINF became one of the first humanitarian organizations to help refugees in Ingushetia, and was also the first to launch activities in Chechnya proper. PINF organized a public collection to raise money for refugees and organized many discussions, documentary films and demonstrations against the Russian military operations in the province. It was the Foundation that extended the invitation to Ilyas Akhmadov to come to Prague. Other groups such as Amnesty International or the spontaneously organized S.O.S. Chechnya group also organized protests and public events. PINF activities are supported both by the President’s Office and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Akhmadov Case

Just as the attitudes of individual towards the Chechen crisis differ, so to do the attitudes and official positions in countries the Russian Federation on activities often labeled as “interference in internal affairs of the Russian Federation“ or as “support for terrorism.“ Such phrases can hide anything from criticism of the behavior of Russian troops in Chechnya to printing an interview with Aslan Maskhadov. These slight differences became evident during the visit of the Chechen Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov to Prague in November 1999. Akhmadov arrived in Prague at the invitation of the People in Need Foundation and during his stay he met with representatives from the President’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several members of Parliament. His stay in Prague was a part of his tour around Europe when he also visited France, Belgium, Poland and Lithuania. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged official protests against all of these visits, but its note to the Czech government in protest was by far the sharpest. The protest concluded by saying that Moscow would make conclusions from this event regarding future relations with the Czech Republic. This evoked a wave of irritation in the Czech Republic, with, for example, senator Michael Žantovský responding, that Russia shouldn’t make such threats considering its history in the region. In the following diplomatic skirmish both sides maintained their positions. This incident only emphasized a long lasting cooling of relations between Prague and Moscow. Of course, this situation didn’t arise only because of the Chechen crisis, no matter how much, for example, the Czech journalist Petra Procházková was threatened by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs with losing her accreditation because of interviewing Basayev and Khattab during the fighting in Dagestan. It stems more from a perceived renewal of imperialistic sentiments in the Russian élite, where key positions are often occupied by people with close ties to military or nationalist circles. The Czech Republic is a thorn in Russia’s side for a great number of reasons.

Entering NATO

Due to a hysterical campaign in the Russian media during the crisis in Kosovo, NATO is considered the biggest security threat for Russia. The entrance of former Soviet satellites to the Alliance is often viewed as a betrayal within a framework of imperialistic seclusion. The author of this text heard Czechs described in Russia’s State Duma as “tergiversates,“ and this term was one of the milder expressions of disagreement.

Introduction of visa

The Czech government showed a certain lack of dexterity during the introduction of visas for citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. This introduction made mutual relations worse. It would have been possible to co-ordinate the introduction of visas with states of the “Visegrad Four“, because as it turns out, Russian foreign policy places only small importance on Czech policy in the framework of this group. This stems from Russia’s inability in certain instances to treat individual countries as equal partners. Even greater irritation has occurred with Czech efforts to slightly reduce the number of accredited Russian diplomats to the Czech Republic, which is nearly five times higher than the number of Czech diplomats in Moscow. It is obvious that a great number of Russian diplomats are engaged in other activities than what is officially declared.

Summary

As a consequence of worsening bilateral relations, Czech diplomats try to point out the Chechen problem in international organisations such as the UN, OSCE or the Council of Europe. However, they do not do this in an aggressive manner, but rather try to gain the support of other European countries for their position. The key to stopping the war in Chechnya, however, lies in Russia and not outside its borders – endeavours on the part of the international community can only contribute to solving the problem.