Re: <nettime> Chechnya

[Tjebbe van Tijen <t.tijen@cable.A2000.nl>]

Dear Josephine Berry

my guess is that your question is meant as an opinion on the selective
nature of protest, also in circles like the nettime forum.. 

This should not come as a surprise. Several reasons could be imagined: 

-an Islamic new nation can not easily count on support from 'western world
people'; 

-doubts about what this new republic with its strange mix of possible
bandits and anti-communists represents; 

-a general lack of a critical attitude towards the inheritors of the
former state-communist power system among 'western' people with left-wing
sympathies, which relates to a tradition of acceptance of imperialism by
'anti-imperialists' (however contradictory this may sound) when performed
by the communist heirs of the empires of the Russian Czars and the Chinese
emperors, because this form of empire building and maintaining was
supposedly done as a part of the utopic plan to free all human kind, this
in contrast to American imperialism, which is still predominantly
explained as keeping human kind in the shackles of the capitalist system; 

-Western 'progressives' and 'radicals' and even Western peace movement,
have not been able to escape from their fixed role in the cold war split
of the world in two oversimplified camps (capitalist and socialist), they
would tend to be very critical of their 'own' power structure, and have
second thoughts before protesting activities by states from the so called
socialist camp, Afghanistan seemed to be much more remote than Vietnam; 

-ten years after the alleged fall of the communist system, this attitude
seems to live on; 

-there seems to be a close link between power politics as expressed by
leaders of the Western world and protest movements... the last ones tend
to follow and to illustrated the issues that have been posed by the
Western political leadership.. It does not matter what their attitudes
are.. pro or contra involvement of Western powers, the choice of issues is
made primarily by the actors on the world stage, rather than by activist
groups; 

-to my knowledge there is no network (yet) between Chechnian partisans and
Western activist groups. 

When I compare the Russian army attacks on the split-off republic of
Chechnya from 94 up to now and try to come up with some figures, than the
issue gets even more wry... 

I happen to do research on all aerial bombings on civilian targets in this
century and have been working recently in updating my data on Chechnya.. 

There are sources that report 20.000/30.000 civilian death in Grozny
during the aerial bombardment in 1995/1996 (this is supposedly a number
published by the Russian Memorial group... I am still waiting for a reply
on my message to friend on Moscow check this number) 

http://users.evitech.fi/~giorgig/ich_rap7.html has this note

63. The only organization that has made a systematic study of the civilian
losses during the battle for Grozny is Memorial. They claim that from 25
December till 25 January, in Grozny alone, at least 25,000 people have
perished by bombing and shelling. 

---------
Now compare with NATO bombing in the Kosovo conflict this year which to my
knowledge could have made between 500 a thousand civilian death..
---------


In 1996 by Amnesty International has a number of 20/30.00 civilian death
in the Chechnian conflict. 
http://www.amnesty.it/ailib/aipub/1996/EUR/44602096.htm


The Chechen republic has an English language website, you might now,
otherwise it is http://www.amina.com/amina/

It does carry some images of the destruction of the town of Grozny, but
there are not concrete details on casualties...  or an inventory of the
damage.. 


I found some recent book titles on the issue, but I have not been able yet
to get hold of them, nevertheless I give the references from my Unbombing
database

http://www.igc.apc.org/hrw/pubweb/Webcat-83.htm Three Months of War in
Chechnya This report is the third in a series on the conflict in Chechnya. 
As the war in the break away republic enters its third month, Russian
forces continue to commit gross abuses against the civilian population. In
the early weeks of the war, Russian bombs and artillery fire laid waste to
Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and outlying villages, destroying
apartment buildings, hospitals, and other civilian objects - killing,
maiming, or injuring thousands of civilians. (D706) 2/95, 26 pp.,
$5.00/£2.95 Order online

WAR IN CHECHNYA New Report from the Field This is the second in a series
of reports documenting violations of human rights and humanitarian law by
all forces in the war in Chechnya. Conducting fact-finding missions in
Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and in Ingushetiya, interviewing refugees
who fled from Grozny and the surrounding regions, our researchers describe
in the victims' own words the indiscriminate bombing and shelling of
Chechnya that has inflicted devastating suffering on civilians. (D702)
1/95, 14 pp., $3.00/£1.95 Order online

RUSSIA'S WAR IN CHECHNYA Victims Speak Out The first in a series of
reports that document violations of humanitarian law by all sides in the
war in Chechnya, it describes how Russian forces have shown utter contempt
for civilian lives in the break away republic of Chechnya. Eyewitness
testimony described Russian bombs, shells or mortar fire levelling
apartment buildings, entire neighborhoods, and single-family homes in
Grozny and hitting civilian areas in outlying villages in Chechnya and in
neighboring Ingushetiya. Russian forces also destroyed at least two
hospitals and part of a third, an orphanage, and several markets. They
have inflicted hundreds of civilian deaths, gruesome casualties, and
caused an estimated 350,000 people to flee. (D701) 1/95, 8 pp.,
$3.00/£1.95


Well This is still very haphazard... but I thought I better react to your
statement quickly... I am of course interested to see what can be done to
apply some butterfly effect on public opinion in this matter


Nice greetings

Tjebbe van Tijen

Imaginary Museum Projects (IMP), Amsterdam

Background information on:
http://www.iisg.nl/~tvt/index.html


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