CHECHNYA LINKS LIBRARY

Propaganda All the Way Down

With Afghanistan's Northern Alliance making impressive gains, the war on international terrorism seems to be going well. However, the need to distinguish between truth and lies is as great as ever. CNN and the BBC, the two giants of world media, have done surprisingly little to provide the public with objective coverage. Their attempt to connect the brutal Taliban regime with Chechen fighters is particularly unethical. The most striking example is CNN New Delhi bureau chief Satinder Bindra's report, which said that 'about 60 Chechens fighting alongside the Taliban drowned themselves in the Amu-[Darya] River rather than give up'. Nothing could be more ridiculous or farther from the truth.

There are no Chechen fighters in Afghanistan. The Chechens are fighting, in Chechnya, for the legitimate rights of their nation against the genocide of the Russian army, which has systematically been committing war crimes and crimes against humanity - a fact that the international community is unable to admit, let alone punish. The Chechens have no business in Afghanistan. They are fighting at home for the same values the West is defending in its war against terrorism. The Chechens want to be free of oppression, arbitrary rule and insecurity. They want their rights as much as America or any other civilized nation does, and they deserve them no less.

The Chechens are not suicides. It is insane to suggest that Chechens would drown themselves in rivers. Neither in the present war in Chechnya nor in the previous one has any Chechen fighter ever done so. CNN and the BBC should stop being tools of Russian propaganda and instead report the crimes of the Russian war machine in Chechnya. They will find a country covered with thousands of fresh graves, will find Russian soldiers selling the mutilated bodies of Chechen civilians back to their families; thousands of victims of Russian rape and torture; Nazi-type executioners in Russian concentration camps. They will listen to many thousands of Chechen refugees forced to live in unbearable conditions in refugee camps, to mothers whose children have been brutally murdered, to orphans who still ask where their parents are, to young girls who no longer have dreams… Then they can ask the Chechen fighters whether they want to fight for the Taliban, instead of fighting for their nation in Chechnya.