Posted on 09/04/2004 4:04:53 PM PDT by dennisw
Chechen Rebels Want Own Muslim State, Laws
Fri Sep 3, 8:53 PM ET
MOSCOW - Rebels linked to the school hostage-taking seek independence from Russia and most want to make Chechnya (news - web sites) a sovereign Muslim nation.
The first war between Chechen rebels and Russian forces in the past decade had less of a religious element than the current conflict, which began in September 1999.
In the 1994-96 war, separatists led by Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev appeared to be driven primarily by centuries of resentment of Russia, whose czarist army subjugated the region, and its Soviet successor, whose dictator Josef Stalin ordered the wholesale deportation of Chechens to Central Asia in 1944.
Although most Chechens are Muslim, Aslan Maskhadov, who became president of Chechnya after Russian forces withdrew in 1996, was seen as relatively secular. However, he came under increasing pressure from radical Islamic factions led by warlord Shamil Basayev and eventually declared Sharia law, or Islamic law, an idea that has less support among the public at large than it does among the rebels.
Basayev was a leader of the Chechen insurgents who mounted a raid into neighboring Dagestan in 1999 with the aim of establishing an Islamic theocratic enclave. That raid was one of the Kremlin's justifications for trying to forcefully regain control of Chechnya and touched off the current conflict.
Maskhadov, despite tensions with Basayev, opposed Russia's offensive. Although he is believed to still hold some fighters' loyalty, those who answer to Basayev are believed to be a far larger and more violent contingent.
What they need is a small part of hell.
Who in their right mind would give a nation to people who murder children?
Hey, if Canada has Sharia law, then they must too!
Total ignorance question here:
When the Soviet Union fell apart and it began splitting up into several different nations, why didn't Chechnya separate itself then?
Why did Russia refuse them separation and fight the first war?
Wouldn't it have solved a lot of problems?
Yeah, agreeing to their demands at this point will only prove that killing children is a successful means of "rebellion".
Forget that,Russia should just root them out and kill them.
Question: are the Chechans today the same Crimean Ta(r?)tars that were deported by Stalin in the 40's? Like the Balts, they were staples of conservative anti-soviet arguments way back when. Times change...from victim to villain to child killers in 60 years....
First sign of trouble - declare war and blow them into oblivion.
Anybody else want their own country?
Hey Ragheads, what's in the box?
State or territory it doesn't really matter.
I wonder how many more Ameriacn dead it will take until we are forced to implement the final solution to the "Islamic" problem.
My guess is a couple of hundred thousand to a million.
Apparently the 3,000 dead in an hour on 9/11 and the 1000 since then haven't even made a dent in the leftist imbeciles dementia as to what is going on.
I guess the ragheads will eventually get their point across.
>When the Soviet Union fell apart and it began splitting up into several different nations, why didn't Chechnya separate itself then?
It did. Chechnya declared independence in 1991, Russia did not recognize it.
>Why did Russia refuse them separation and fight the first war?
Many reasons. Primarily because Chechnya was part of Russian Federation itself and not a separate Union Republic of the USSR, like other currently independent former Soviet states.
But Chechnya also became a gray zone, neither truly independent nor part of Russia, a haven for criminals, smuglers and terrorists, where Chechens raped, killed and robbed defenseless Russian population (400 thousand Russians lived in Chechnya before 1991. Now they almost all left)
Russia could not tolerate this for long and after spending three years trying to negotiate with Chechen leadership and brief involvement in a civil war in Chechnya on side of the opposition, Russian forces invaded Chechnya in December of 1994, triggering the First Chechen War.
>Wouldn't it have solved a lot of problems?
It would, but if only Chechens were capable of ruling themselves in a civilized manner without posing clear and present danger to their neighbours...
Another post stated that the Russians tried that in the mid '90s, but the Chechens couldn't govern themselves, became involved in all manner of criminality outside their borders, and attacked neighboring regions--including most famously, Dagestan. Apparently, that's what brought the Russians back.
It is like Palestine--independence won't work--they'll be a murderous nuisance to those around them.
Google Chechnya History and spend 15-20 minutes with the results.
From Encycolpedia.com
Recognized as a distinct people since the 17th cent., the Chechens were the most active opponents of Russia's conquest (1818-1917) of the Caucasus. They fought bitterly during an unsuccessful 1850s rebellion led by Imam Shamyl. The Bolsheviks seized the region in 1918 but were dislodged in 1919 by counterrevolutionary forces under Gen. A. I. Denikin .
After Soviet rule was reestablished, the area was included in 1921 in the Mountain People's Republic. The Chechen Autonomous Region was created in 1922, and in 1934 it became part of the Chechen-Ingush Region, made a republic in 1936. After Chechen and Ingush units collaborated with the invading Germans during World War II, many residents were deported (1944) to Central Asia. Deportees were repatriated in 1956, and the republic was reestablished in 1957.
In 1991, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Chechen-dominated parliament of the republic declared independence as the Republic of Ichkeria, soon better known as Chechnya. In June, 1992, Russia granted Ingush inhabitants their own republic (Ingushetia) in the western fifth of the territory.
Tensions between the Russian government and that of Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev escalated into warfare in late 1994, as Russian troops arrived to crush the separatist movement. Grozny was devastated in the fighting, and tens of thousands died. Russian forces regained control of many areas in 1995, but separatist guerrillas controlled much of the mountainous south and committed spectacular terrorist actions in other parts of Russia. Fighting continued through 1996, when Dudayev was killed and succeeded by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The Russians withdrew, essentially admitting defeat, following a cease-fire that left Chechnya with de facto autonomy.
Aslan Maskhadov, chief of staff of the Chechen forces, was elected president early in 1997 but appeared to have little control over the republic. In 1999, Islamic law was established. Terrorism, including a series of bombings in Moscow, erupted again, and after Islamic militants invaded neighboring Dagestan from Chechnya, Russian forces bombed and invaded Chechnya, capturing Grozny and forcing the rebels into mountain strongholds. The rebels have continued to mount guerrilla attacks on Russian forces, as well as terror attacks in Moscow and other Russian cities outside Chechnya. Both sides have been accused of brutality and terrorizing noncombatants. In Mar., 2003, voters approved a new constitution for Chechnya, and in October Akhmad Kadyrov was elected president, but the election was generally regarded as neither free nor fair. Both the constitution and the president were backed by Russian government.
I hope this serves as a wake-up call to all of those who think we are less safe because of our actions in Iraq. Russia refused to join the coalition, and they are still a target of Islamic terrorism.
Any word from any of the practitioners of the so-called "religion of peace" condemning the actions of their sub-human brethren?
Yes, Sharia law has worked so well everywhere that it has been tried. One can hardly count the nations with Sharia law that have given so much to the world.
Yeah, child-murderers have proven their ethical case to the world why they should be a sovereign nation. They are as deserving as the Palestinians.
A small, cramped, unfashionalble part of hell.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Jamais reculez á tyrannie un pouce!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! Never give an inch to tyranny!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Ah, so you think murdering children is the way towards Independence? I think it's the road to Hell.
Ask not for whom the Islamic bells toll in Michigan.
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