CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Chechens as targets

The U.S.-led war on terrorism is providing useful camouflage for the suppression of core civil liberties in many of the world's trouble zones, the much-respected group Human Rights Watch contends. But no one should be surprised that the abuses occurring in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya have stirred particular concern.

Chechnya's name may not always have been familiar to President George W. Bush. But he did seem to agree, until a few months ago, that Russian authorities battling Chechnya's stubborn insurgency were not earning points for their observance of human rights. Several times during his presidential campaign, he rebuked Moscow for its ruthless conduct in Chechnya, and as recently as last June the United States supported a United Nations resolution echoing the condemnation.

Sept. 11 changed all that. Mr. Bush's criticism of Russian heavy-handedness evaporated into silence with the realization that many Chechen rebels are Islamist extremists, possibly with ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. And to be fair, Mr. Bush was not alone. Both German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said that after Sept. 11, Russian brutality in Chechnya needed reappraising.

So perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Bush's new friend, now believes it is open season on Chechnya's civilian population. That's certainly the impression to emerge from the annual survey of New York-based Human Rights Watch, released last week. Among the 66 countries scrutinized, nations as diverse as Israel, Saudi Arabia, China and Zimbabwe all earned black marks for their abuse of human rights in 2001. But the worst offenders, it seems, were three key U.S. allies: Egypt, Uzbekistan and Russia.

In Chechnya, Russian sweep operations have resulted in "widespread looting, arbitrary detention, torture and an alarming number of disappearances," the group states in its hefty, 670-page report. Two other rights groups, both Russian, said much the same last week. The organization Memorial accused the Russian military of killing and beating civilians, wrecking buildings and defiling a local mosque. The Association for Russian-Chechen friendship also reported widespread abuse.

None of this is new. When Russian troops first moved into Chechnya in 1994, they quickly destroyed most of Grozny, the capital, with indiscriminate shooting and shelling. Forced to withdraw in 1996, they launched a fresh offensive in 1999 after a series of deadly terrorist bombings that Moscow blamed on Chechen rebels. Ever since, Russia has been accused regularly of atrocities, including several large-scale massacres of detained civilians. In all, a minimum of 3,500 Russian soldiers and 11,000 Chechens have perished in the past two years. Rights groups say the real, unconcealed total is far higher.

A tide of refugees has been fleeing the upheaval, with an estimated 180,000 homeless people now spending their third winter in the adjoining Russian republic of Ingushetia. "The plight of the displaced population has lost the attention of the international community," the charity group Doctors Without Borders said last week.

The same seems true for Chechnya's grievous human-rights record. Through repeatedly comparing the events of Sept. 11 with the war in Chechnya, Mr. Putin is pushing all the right buttons in the White House, the immediate reward being something that looks a lot like a nod and a wink.

No question, some Chechen separatists are terrorists; proof is found in a long string of atrocities. But in Mr. Putin's view they all are, certainly all the leaders.

Not true, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers on Friday, after meeting with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and describing him as "a key person" in any peace settlement. But along with a few other world leaders, it suits Mr. Putin for the term "terrorist" to have a wide application. That creates scope to pursue a military strategy in Chechnya that can only be described as overkill.