Posted on 09/30/2001 11:39:29 AM PDT by Pericles
West is silent as Russia hits Chechens
RUSSIA has launched a series of powerful offensives in Chechnya after rebel forces ignored a deadline to lay down their arms.
Supported by artillery and helicopter gunships, special forces units struck 15 locations across the province, with Moscow claiming 27 rebel dead as fighting continues to rage.
The battles came minutes after a 72-hour-deadline to surrender set by the president, Vladimir Putin, expired on Thursday night.
The hardest fighting was around the entrance to the strategically important Vedeno gorge, the main rebel supply line south to bases in neighbouring Georgia. Russian helicopter gunships rocketed positions there while special forces battled for control of hilltops. The helicopters, one of the most feared weapons in Moscow’s armoury, were also in action further north in Chechnya.
Commando raids hit rebel units around the key cities of Gudermes and the capital Grozny, which is still infested with guerrillas despite being captured by Russia more than a year ago. Attacks also struck at several southern villages, which are now ringed by troops.
The defence ministry said that 69 suspects have been arrested by regular army and police units during the operation. Rebel troops quickly struck back, killing a district governor, Salman Abuev, and a deputy district governor, Sheikh Dubayev.
"We are determined to fight terrorism," said the defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, underlining Russia’s hard line. "We are fighting terrorists, we are not fighting Islam."
The past two months have seen a series of bloody rebel strikes against Moscow, in which scores of Russian troops have been blown up.
Russia has been at pains to stress the links between the Chechen rebels and the terror suspect Osama bin Laden. His affiliated organisations have long been blamed for pumping funding and men into the province.
Fighting alongside the rebels in this war are squads of so-called Wahabists, volunteers from the Middle East, and their senior officers have prominent positions in the Chechen command structure.
A few weeks ago, Moscow’s offensive would have risked triggering a round of criticism from Western capitals. Russia is already under pressure from the Council of Europe, which earlier this year came close to recommending its membership be suspended.
This time, the silence is deafening. With the United States and Russia now locked in what both see as a common fight to root out terrorism, it is difficult for Washington to contemplate bombing Afghanistan while criticising Russian action in Chechnya.
Mr Putin made his ultimatum earlier this week, at the same time as he promised support for the US plans to strike at bin Laden in Afghanistan.
But while Moscow has now deployed the "stick" with devastating effect, it has not given up on the "carrot" in trying to persuade the rebels to disarm.
Russian planes have dropped 100,000 leaflets across the province promising amnesty, a message reinforced by a television appeal yesterday by a district governor, Ahmed Zargaev.
"We will make all the conditions for the Chechen fighters so they can come back to their homes," said Mr Zargaev.
The signs are that the rebels plan to ignore them. While the suffering of the Chechen people has been great, the rebel army is undefeated.
Earlier this year, Moscow transferred command of the war from the army and passed to the FSB, the renamed KGB.
But the security service has proved no better at subduing the rebels than the army. Plans to pull out three-quarters of the 80,000-strong army in the province have been quietly shelved, as have plans to re-open the government in the ruined capital, Grozny.
Meanwhile, there are growing fears that the war may spread to Georgia, where the Chechens operate safe bases in the north of the country. Georgian forces and aid workers have reportedly pulled out of the region, home to base camps and supply dumps for the Chechens.
Georgia yesterday said it was handing over 30 captured Chechen fighters but Russia is likely to ask for more, following reports that a senior Chechen commander, Ruslan Gerlief, has now moved his headquarters to Georgian territory. Russia earlier this year said it might consider striking at targets across the border unless these bases were closed.
Chris Stephen In Moscow
Saturday, 29th September 2001
The Scotsman
Chechen Rebels Launch New Attacks on Russia Forces
Chechens Ready to Talk With Russia "disarmament talks-a small number of rebels already surrendered"
Chechen Rebels Confirm They Have Contacted Russians About Possible Peace Talks
Russia, Chechen Rebels Negotiate "if the rebels fail to show up for talks, they must be destroyed"
Chechen rebel president names negotiator for talks with Russia (Putin:You have 3 days to surrender)
"Al Qaeda has exploited the war in Chechnya, may have even helped to provoke it" Bush Official
BUMP
The old shoe banger took the measure of a young JFK at Vienna and then promptly humbled him at the Bay of Pigs. The ex-KGB thug Putin learned a good deal earlier this year in Slovenia -- now he is maneuvering the West along the classic lines of his Chekist roots.
Mister Khrushchev said, "We will bury you..."
Chechen freedom fighters continue to battle the Russian onslaught under the leadership of democratically elected president Aslan Maskhadov. Moscow's phony offers of peace fool no one -- except the American public. Reports that the Chechens seek to negotiate are amusing at best to those that know the score.
The Chechens will never surrender -- they continue to kill dozens of Russian soldiers every week. Moscow merely uses the tragedy in America to their benefit -- as do many "friends" of the US now.
Like the Kosovo Liberation Army, Chechen freedom fighters engage Slavic forces with impunity -- scoring victory after victory. The fact that Russia does not permit Western journalists to cover the conflict does not mean it is not happening.
The West is being subtly maneuvered by Eastern experts now. One must only ask how it looks to America's enemies to see how easily the US policy towards the Russian genocide in Chechnya was shifted. This does not make America stronger -- only very much weaker.
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.
The common Russian or Ukrainian will tell you the people the Russians are fighting in Chechnya are thieving murderous liars, that cannot be dealt with peacefully by civilized people.
We are only now beginning to have to deal with this problem ourselves. Our treasonous media has kept us from the truth of the Chechnya conflict for years by portraying them as freedom fighters. If they should win that conflict you will see another rogue nation with terrorist training camps and a ruling Taliban.
The true freedom fighters will always fight to rid our world of hate filled murderous liars. If they have their way we will be in the darkest age of world history, with everything we hold sacred, forbidden.
I understand you boys got a problem with some al-Queba varmints down south. My advice?
Fry em.
Waste em.
Atomize em.
Need pictures of their hideouts?
As it stands it's generally defined(de facto) as those who use violence to cause political change.
Some words are already defined as violent due to their hateful content.
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