For many years now we have been witnessing the reports of various human rights organizations on violations of human rights in Chechnya. Annual memorandums of Human Rights Watch for the UN Human Rights Commission have already become traditional. But these memorandums probably have to be printed on toilet paper to make the UN Commission use them somehow.
But actually, the bureaucrats from the human rights organizations are not bothering too much when drawing them up. Especially when they have a hard time with terminology, it takes them a year to prepare a memorandum to admit that the violations of human rights that the Russian invaders are committing in Chechnya fall under the definition of war crimes.
But so far the reports by human rights activists about the actions of the Russian side, consisting of war crimes and having all signs of genocide, are called nothing but «violations made by federal forces».
The section called «violations by Chechen militants» is unchangeably present in such reports. Sure, you have to agree with the fact that coverage of any violations must be unbiased, whoever is behind them. The only problem is that by putting the invaders and the Chechen people, fighting for their survival, on the same level, the human rights activists have not been able to present a single real fact that would show crimes that Chechen troops could have committed against their people, – except for some unsubstantiated allegations.
The human rights activists explain the absence of such facts in a pretty unique way. In the 2002 memorandum about violations of human rights by Chechen troops contains such passage: «Chechens are very reluctant to tell about violations committed by the militants, they are apparently afraid of revenge».
Turns out that Chechens are very willing to tell about the crimes of Russian invaders, because the danger of revenge on their part is allegedly absent, and they are afraid of them less than they are afraid of the ‘militants’. But this is a lie. What’s more, it is outright blatant lie. Anyone who is somewhat familiar with the situation in Chechnya knows full well that the invaders are the ones taking revenge, and they are not doing it selectively, but they carry out mass executions of entire villages.
The human rights activists are not embarrassed of bringing up rare examples of «crimes committed by the militants». For example:
«Human Rights Watch managed to talk to a few direct witnesses of such incidents. Wahid told about the murder of his elderly father Musa in the summer of 2001; a day before the head of the local administration was killed in the village. The day before the murder Musa was highly praised by the local commandant. Other members of the family were working at the [pro-Russian] police department; they were warned that they had better leave Chechnya because they were ‘blacklisted’».
According to the logic of human rights activists, elimination of a national traitor, an agent of the invaders’ secret services, who was «highly praised by the local commandant», is a violation comparable to grave crimes against humanity that Russia is committing. If Russia has killed a quarter of Chechen population and still keeps killing – it turns out to be an illegitimate reason to eliminate the accomplices of Russian invaders, whether they would be on staff or just volunteer snitches who help foreign invaders in killing their fellow people.
All that the victims of Russian aggressors and their loved ones have to do is just address to Human Rights Watch and wait, - maybe they will be mentioned in the memorandum next year.
In another memorandum, this time for the year 2003, the section about ‘Chechen violations’ looked like it was copied from the previous one, for the year 2002.
«Chechen peaceful civilians are reluctant to tell about violations committed by the militants. Many refer to the fear of revenge from the latter if it turns out that they reported anything to a human rights organization. During the previous missions Human Rights Watch managed to get some information firsthand, but during the last trip they did not get a chance to do that».
So, that’s the thing: if they are not telling, it means they are afraid. And they more they are afraid of them than they are afraid of the Russian invaders who have killed hundreds of thousands of peaceful civilians. Human rights activists cannot name a single case of revenge or claim by the Chechen troops (Mujahideen) against anybody for addressing the human rights activists. There is one single reason why: there are just no such cases period. The references that the citizens are afraid of revenge from the ‘militants’ are a usual lie and a wish to put the Chechen Army on the same level with the Russian invaders.
The main and unchangeable accusation of violations of human rights allegedly perpetrated by Chechen Armed Forces is their opposition to the Russian troops. Chechens are depicted as the guilty because after they carry out attacks against the invaders, Russian troops attack the civilian population, which leads to casualties among innocent civilians.
There is logic in it, and the main thing is that it totally coincides with the message that the invaders have been sending to the Chechen fighters: «if you keep attacking us, we will be killing your elderly, your women and your children». This is the Russian tyranny where the human rights activists are spotting the violations of human rights committed by… Chechen Armed Forces. Among such human rights activists there are even some who constantly develop and promote this subject, such as Anna Politkovskaya, for example.
‘Good cops’ from human rights organizations are using the methods of the game of «good cop and bad cop». This is the method that they are using all around the world. Along with the aggression and occupation of certain territories, all sorts of comforters are being sent there as well. The population under an aggression is being covertly suggested the same accusations that the invaders are constantly bringing up. Thus, the complex of guilt is being imposed, the public opinion is being tested, and so is the readiness for adopting political settings of the invaders.
The main mistake that the ‘good cops’ have made is the fact that they decided to use similar methods towards the Chechens. If the Chechens were naïve and did not have a clear picture of what is going on, they could not have been able to mobilize and conduct a successful fight against the largest state in the world for the past ten years. Chechens know that the UN does not recognize Russia as a violator of human rights for the simple fact that Chechen refugees living abroad will be supposed to be recognized as victims and human conditions will be supposed to be created for them. And this does not fit into the entire program of the war against Muslims, and hence against Chechens.
Maybe some poor people may be found in Chechen refugee camps, who will believe that the ‘good guys’ from the US and from the Western states will vote in the UN in the interests of the rights that Chechens have, and that their satellites from Africa are blocking the passing of resolutions and are not letting them defend their rights. But the thing is that the residents of these refugee camps are not the ones conducting that armed fight. The fight is being conducted by those who know the true price of these memoranda, these commissions and other hypocrites who from time to time put on a mask of ‘well-wishers’ of the Chechen people.
Aset Ismailova,
Kavkaz-Center
beautiful article, defines the hypocricy of west in “condeming” the rusian atrocities.