 |  |  |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
| | |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
On October 7, Chechen President Maskhadov sent a letter to the NATO Secretary-General, George Robertson, calling on NATO "to intervene in accordance with the new world order established by NATO" (ORT TV-News, 7/10/99 and "Newsline", 8/10/99).
In 1722 Czar Peter the Great incorporated Daghestan [and other nearby ethnic regions] into the Russian empire. Ever since Chechnya has been used as a crowbar to force a way into Russia from the south and to invade the country.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and during the wars of intervention that followed, English and French warships disembarked troops in the Caucasian harbours of Sukhumi and Novorossisk. They were repelled and the Red Army was acclaimed as victors in Chechnya in 1920 (Le Monde Diplomatique, January 1995).
In 1942 the German Nazis occupied part of Chechnya. Many Chechens collaborated and joined German volunteer units, fighting the Red Army (Etudes Marxistes/Marxistische Studies, September 1996, p 125).
In 1989 the American press demanded that the Soviet Union be dissolved and opened up to the free market and Western multinationals. The first republics to secede were Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and they received support from a General of Chechen origin, Diokhar Dudaev.
In August 1991, Dudaev supported Yeltsin's coup d'etat which brought an end to the Soviet Union. In December 1991 he proclaimed the independence of Chechnya and declared himself its President.
Ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Western powers have set out to break up the Russian state in order to secure their control of Eurasia.
The US strategist, Zbigniew Brzezinski, phrased it this way: "A more open Russian confederation, consisting of a European Russia, a Siberian republic, and a republic in the Far East, would speed up its development." (Zbigniew Bzezinski, The big chess-board, 1997, in Etudes Marxistes/Marxistische Studies, January 1999, p 124).
Chechnya no longer recognised the authority of Moscow and appropriated the petroleum transported through its territory. In December 1994 the first Chechen war left 70,000 victims.
In April 1996 a Russian missile hit Diokhar Dudaev, while he was placing a satellite phone call. Elected as the new President in 1997, Aslan Maskadov signed an armistice with the Russian General Lebed.
In 1998 a group of Chechen war lords led by Shamil Basaev demanded that President Maskhadov resign, because of his conciliatory position towards Moscow.
In August 1999 the war lords, Basaev and Khatab, invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Daghestan. They murdered police officers and hoisted the green flag of the "Islamic republic".
In the Russian cities of Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk bomb outrages killed 292 civilians in September. Russia imputed the bomb attacks to the Chechens and replied with mass retaliatory bombardments on Chechen villages as well as on the capital of Grozny.
A Holy War for oil
The two thousand soldiers of Shamil Basaev who invaded Daghestan were remarkably professionally trained, supplied, and armed. They had at their disposal Stinger-2 rockets, reserved by NATO for its most loyal member states. It recalls the period when the CIA overtly supplied Stingers to the Afghan resistance opposing the Soviet troops.
The money appears to have come from the pro-Western regimes of the Arab oil countries. General Khatab originates from Jordan, where he organised King Hussain's Chechen body-guard.
The invasion has allegedly been sponsored with US$20 million from Jordan. According to the Italian newspaper La Republica one of the financiers of Shamil Basaev's troops is the Saudi oil billionaire, Bin Laden.
"His favourite residence is Afghanistan. However, his contacts with the Chechen war lords date from 1997. In February the World Front of the Jihad was raised in Pakistan with the help of Bin Laden. It supports the armed rebellions in Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, Daghestan, and Chechnia."(La Republica 10/9/99)
In Afghanistan Bin Laden had fulfilled the role of ally for the United States against the Russians. Meanwhile however he became a nuisance and was chased ... to Chechnya.
"His position", La Republica writes, "has become more and more difficult in Afghanistan. The US has decided to use every means, including diplomatic, to exert pressure on Pakistan and force the Taliban to extradite him.
"The Afghan soil became too hot for him and he would have chosen Chechnya as a safer haven. The Russians have no say in the matter and the US won't bombard him as it is Russian territory."
The Chechen war lords declared as their objective "to establish a Muslim state and to chase the Russians from the Caucasus".
This objective perfectly fits the scheme of the American and European oil multinationals. They want to control the petroleum fields and oil pipe- lines in the Caucasus and eliminate the pipe-lines on Russian territory.
All oil would then have to be transported through Georgia or Turkey, two states controlled by the US.
The import of petroleum to Russia does not necessarily have to run through Chechnya. For a long time Russia has been planning an alternative pipe-line through Daghestan to the east.
Since Basaev invaded Daghestan last August, not a single petroleum company intends to invest a cent there.]
Karachay-Cherkess
Chechnya could also be bypassed to the west by means of a pipe-line through Karachay-Cherkess. Is it a coincidence that there also a separatist movement blazed up?
According to the historian Rachid Khatuev, the first aim of the secession is control over the Baku-Novorossisk oil pipe-line.
During the elections in Cherkess even the Prince of Jordan came, Ali Ben Hussain, the brother of King Hassan. He called for a vote for the separatists.
Azerbaijan
The oil state of Azerbaijan has tried to reconquer Nagorno-Karabakh, officially belonging to Azerbaijan but being occupied by militias of the Armenian population. Russia supplies arms to Armenia.
On June 17 the Azerbaijani Minister of Defence Safar Abijev asked that "NATO be involved in solving the conflict".
Earlier an Azerbaijani spokesmen proposed to NATO that it set up a military base there and Azerbaijan has suggested that its soldiers participate in manoeuvres in Canada within the framework of NATO's "Partnership for Peace".
Afghanistan
From 1979 to 1989 a guerilla war was waged against the Soviet troops occupying Afghanistan. The insurgents were armed by the United States with Stinger rockets and financed by the Saudi wealth of Ben Laden (www.stratfor.com, 12/10/99).
The US and Saudi-Arabia supported the Taliban operating from Pakistan (Le Monde 8/10/96). In October 1996 the Taliban captured the capital Kabul and Ben Laden became a national hero. The Taliban then advanced on the north and now threaten the neighbouring country of Uzbekistan.
Tadjikistan
In 1992 the Islamic Party of the Resurrection seized power. They were supported from Iran, where the same language is spoken.
Furthermore, there were ties with the secessionist movements in the Baltic states and support was received from "democrats" such as Yeltsin.
However, Kolkhoz farmers rose in armed revolt and brought President Rakhmonov to power. The Islamic opposition fled to Afghanistan. Later on they returned, "now sponsored by Pakistan, in neat American uniforms, with Stingers and night watchers, Motorola radio stations and jeeps" (Alexander Sivov, eye-witness account in "Patriot").
A bloody civil war followed, causing 200,000 victims and 500,000 refugees. In June 1997 Rakhmonov conceded one third of the ministerial offices to the Muslim opposition.
The country has since become a focus of unrest for its neighbours. The Russian border units appear to be incapable of stopping infiltrations.
The Group of Shanghai
In response to the offensive to surround and break up Russia from the south, new alliances are being drawn. The "Three" (China, Russia, and India) are lining up against the "Seven" (the G-7). China realises that if the West succeeds in carving up Russia, China becomes the next target.
Among the Uigur population of China agitation is rising in favour of an "own, independent, and Islamic" state of Turkestan in Central Asia.
India, traditionally an ally of Russia, fights a conflict with Pakistan concerning Kashmir.
The "Three" and their allies
On August 25 the fifth summit of the "Group of Shanghai" took place in Kirghizia, comprising the Presidents of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, and Tadjikistan. They discussed the question of terrorism in their respective countries.
They objected to "the pretext of human rights to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries" and pleaded the cause of a "multi-polar world".
This clearly means: against a world dominated by NATO. The alliance was sealed by the sale of Russian C-30 jet-fighters to China.
The "Seven"
The "Seven", comprising the NATO countries, are seeking support points for their offensive in the region. Turkey counts Georgia and Azerbaijan among its sphere of influence while Afghanistan and Pakistan are a base for the Muslim war lords, who are to "chase the Russians from the Caucasus". And obviously, Chechnya.
In a declaration the Russian Communist Workers' Party said that Chechen terrorism is being caused by Yeltsinism.
"A series of terrorist outrages started with the explosion in the commercial centre of Moscow. It continued with explosions in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk. It merely announces the escalation of what has been developing in Russia and the former Soviet republics for a long time.
"A new feature is the fact that civil wars and bloody violence used to take place at the borders of Russia only, but now spill over to the capital.
"The real reason for these events is the destruction of the socialist society. Before, power and law were directed towards the equality of people on a social and national level. However, at present, a society is being built on the basis of overt inequality and property.
"This has invoked the meanest tendencies among people, a cruel power struggle, the separatism of national elites and, centrally, the principle of `divide and conquer'.
"In all conflicts opposing civilians and nationalities in the former Soviet Union the currently ruling regimes of the Commonwealth of Independent States are guilty. Mainly culpable is the clique of Yeltsin and his Western sponsors.
"It has been known for a long time that the best friends of the Russian "democrats", the United States of America, makes plans to dismantle, after the Soviet Union, Russia as well.
"In this they attach an important role to the region of the Caucasus as well as to the Islamic factor. The US attempts to divert the Muslim terrorists from American imperialism and direct them against Russia.
"The motives of the Kremlin and the Chechen rulers are identical. They hunger for power and profits and are afraid to take responsibility for their actions. The shelling of the parliament building by Yeltsin in October 1993 was a no less shameful and grievous crime than blowing up residential areas."
In order to answer the question, "Who benefits from this?", one has to start from the following remarkable results.
Firstly, attention is diverted from the social problems and the regression the Russian people now suffer. These have caused millions of victims already and will cause many more. Attention is diverted from the scandals and financial affairs in which high-ranking officials are involved.
Secondly, tension and fear are created in society. This tension serves to consolidate society around the current regime, which pretends to fight terrorism.
Thirdly, the repellant image of the "terrorist-extremists" is impressed into social conscience. The horror of such figures is easily transmitted by the media to political opponents who assume a radical position, in particular, the communists.
Fourthly, it creates the conditions for martial law by which to suppress the opposition.
The origin of these bloody tragedies is the ruling regime and its policy of restoring capitalism in Russia. To stop the tragedy the power of the anti- popular forces has to be broken at all levels, from Yeltsin to Maskhadov. The workers have to re-establish the real power of the people in the shape of Soviets (Trudovaya Rossia 23/9/99).