Chechnya in the context of international terrorismThe terrible tragedy of New York and Washington has not only shocked the world. It has pushed the issue of terrorism into front place worldwide. The grief of Americans over the loss of scores of thousands of lives is shared by Russians. We understand it well for we too have suffered from the deviltry of terrorists. More about this from Oleg Gushchin.
Just a few days ago the people of Moscow paid tribute to the memory of the men, women and children who perished when an apartment building in the southeast of the city was blown up. And tomorrow candles will be lit at a ceremony on the site of what was house in Moscow that terrorists blew up in the night. In both cases the casualties ran into the hundreds.
Russia's leaders said at the time, and before that, and have repeated many times since, that the tragedies were not only Russia's but the whole world's, and that it was a crime to try to depict the murderers as freedom fighters. The western nations have every time nodded in assent but continued to argue that the Chechen militants probably have their reasons for fighting and it might be better to negotiate with them. Yet even then it was clear that no one negotiates with murderers and fanatics.
The Chechen militants, the Afghan Talibs, the Basque ETA, the Islamic Jahid, the Medelin Cartel in Colombia are all links in one chain. And it's difficult to distinguish where outright banditry ends and political banditry begins. The Chechen separatists, the Talibs, and the Kosovo Liberation Army know very well how to combine religious and nationalist slogans with drug trafficking, the counterfeiting of money and kidnapping. According to President Putin's assistant, Sargei Yastrzhembsky, the attempts to turn Chechnya into an enclave of the bandits threatening Russia must be traced back to the financial resources and tremendous human, political and propaganda potentials of international terrorism. The world is one, and the contagion of terrorism spreads quickly in all directions. Now unfortunate that realisation that nothing but coordinated efforts can check it has come at such a terrible cost!
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