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In Chechnya, a welcome fallout

EVEN AS WAR clouds were gathering ominously over Iraq, there were intimations of peace in another hot spot triggered primarily by America's need at that juncture for friends and allies. There is no guarantee that peace is on the way but after 12 years of a bloody civil war, the population of Chechnya in the Russian Federation has the promise of a respite from terrorist violence and killings. In a referendum in which more than 50 per cent of the population in the breakaway region participated, there was overwhelming support for a new Constitution that will return the province to Russia. The vote, held on March 23, was called by Moscow to approve a political blueprint for Chechnya that promised a degree of autonomy under a regional constitution. The Kremlin hailed the referendum as a resounding success and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, declared that the vote had resolved "the last serious problem related to Russia's territorial integrity". Not everyone within his own country agreed with his verdict, but few would doubt that this was one big step in the effort to bring some peace to a region torn apart by a terror campaign led by Islamic radical groups.

Mr. Putin, who won the presidential election riding on the success of his hardline policy in Chechnya, received a major boost to his referendum campaign when the U.S. included three Chechen militant groups in the list of international terrorist organisations hardly a week before the vote was scheduled to take place and, not insignificantly, on the eve of the war on Iraq. Moscow had been seeking such a declaration for a long time, its case strengthened in the wake of the war on terror that followed the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. The three groups which the U.S. chose to declare as terrorist were directly involved in the capture of over 800 hostages in a theatre in Moscow in October last year that ended in a blaze of gunfire when Russian forces stormed the venue. It was a controversial action by Moscow that again had the stamp of Putin the Pragmatist. If Washington's decision flowed from its urgent need for friends and allies, Moscow was ready to welcome the beneficial fallout from the impending war. For several months, Russia had been warning of the danger of the terror campaign spreading, pointing out that the rebels were running training camps in the region bordering Georgia. When Washington's endorsement came, the world's attention had been diverted to Iraq.

Separatist groups, which boycotted the referendum, called it a political farce and human rights groups in Europe criticised Moscow for staging a major election in a region still roiled by war and by atrocities by both the militants and the Russian security forces. Mr. Putin, who has admitted that his soldiers might have committed "mistakes", has promised to pull out most of the army once the follow-up measures on the referendum were in place. It is nearly a decade since Moscow launched its first military campaign in Chechnya in 1994 to bring the secessionist region under control. Boris Yeltsin signed a peace settlement within two years when the campaign was proving to be too costly in terms of men and material. The de facto independence ended in 1999 when Chechen rebels began to extend their campaign of violence and Mr. Putin, then Prime Minister, launched the second conflict. His hardline stance towards the separatist rebels won him the presidency within months. The campaign has cost the Russians more than 4,000 lives, with the military claiming to have killed about 15,000 rebels. Caught in the crossfire, civilians have died in countless number. Mr. Putin has said that his battle against the militants is a battle for the international community. He will gain wide support if he follows up the referendum with the initiation of the political process so that the Chechen region in the folds of the Caucasus can gain a measure of permanent peace.

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• Stamping out dissent
• In Chechnya, a welcome fallout
• Why dissent fails
• The changes in China - II
• War termination
• Baghdad... the gift of God
• Indifference to war
• Indefensible
• Demolition move
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