Islamic terrorism and the question of national liberation, or problems of contemporary Chechen terrorism

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

Volumn 28, Issue 6, 2005, Pages 515-532

  Mukhina, Irina ^a  

^a BOSTON COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 27944493580     PISSN: 1057610X     EISSN: 15210731     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10576100500236923     Document Type: Review

References (76)

1. For various discussions of Muslim Terrorism in China and actions of Chinese government in media and press, see, for example, BBC News coverage, available at (www.bbc.co.uk).
2. On numerous occasions the argument has been presented that the Russian government stages acts of terrorism to justify its war on oil-rich Chechnya.
3. Besides these four "directions," there were numerous individual attempts to present explanations for persistence of Chechen terrorism. For example, Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal argue in Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucuses (New York: NYUP, 1998) that the primary causes of the Chechen conflict were Yeltsin's fatigue, emotions, sickness, drunkenness, and resulting inability to judge, combined with Yeltsin's desire to boost his popularity in a way similar to Clinton. Yeltsin's advisers wanted to use an American invasion of Haiti as a sample, an action that at little immediate cost boosted the popularity of President Clinton.
4. The works are numerous; see, for example, Pavel Aptekar. "Voina bez kraia i kontsa," Rodina 1-2 (2000), pp. 161-167;
5. Elena Eliseeva "Chechnya: vooruzhennaia bor'ba v 20-30 gody," pp. 118-175;
6. Ben Fawkes, ed., Russia and Chechnia [sic]: The Permanent Crisis. Essays on Russo-Chechen Relations (Palgrave Macmillan, 1998);
7. Chechnya: Belaia Kniga (Moscow: RIA Novosti, 2000);
8. "Moscow Reaps the Chechen Whirlwind," Guardian Unlimited (UK Watch Group), 24 October 2002, available at (www.guardian.co.uk).
9. John B. Dunlop argues in Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict, Volume I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) that the long history of Russo-Chechen conflict is of primary importance, but adds that the "machinations among advisers and ministers around Mr. Yeltsin" should also be taken into consideration because they undermined any serious inquiry into Chechen sentiments. If this inquiry was undertaken before the First Chechen War, the repetition of the conflict might have been avoided.
10. See also general discussions of this perspective in A. Blinskii, ed., Rossiya i Chechnya: 200-letnaya voina (St. Petersburg: Satis, 2000), pp. 1-225;
11. A. S. Orlov, Istoriya Otechestva (Moscow: Prostor, 1997);
12. and I. A. Zaichkin and I. N. Pochkaev, Russkaya istoriya ot Ekaterini Velikoi do Aleksandra II (Moscow: Misl', 1994).
13. This information is drawn from the author's many discussions about the roots of the Chechen terrorism with Russians and some Americans. See also Miriam Lanskoy, "Anti-Terrorism as a Pretext: Russia Taking Aim at the South Caucasus," Central Asia and Caucasus Analyst, 2 February 2000;
14. Amina Publications (or Chechen Republic on Line, sponsored by Chechen government), available at (www.amina.com);
15. numerous publications by Human Right Watch International Organization, available at (www.hrw.org).
16. This is the most commonly cited cause in newspapers. See, for example, Masha Gessen, "Ignorance Perpetuates the Chechen War," The New York Times, 1 November 2002.
17. Other important readings: "Coping with Conflict: A Guide to the Work of the Local NGOs in the North Caucasus," Forced Migration Projects (Open Society Institute, New York: 1998);
18. Arthur C. Helton and Natalia Voronina, Forced Displacement and Human Security in the Former Soviet Union: Law and Policy (New York: Transnational Publishers, Inc, Ardsley, 2000.
19. Anatol Lieven, in Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) cites the factor of destroyed economy as the most important, but he also incorporates the factors of long-lasting history of conflict and money/oil interests of Russia in Chechnya.
20. See, for example, Sebastian Smith, Allah's Mountains: Politics and War in the Russian Caucasus (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998);
21. James Turner Johnson, The Holy War Idea in Western and Islamic Traditions (University Park, PA: PSUP, 1997);
22. Alexander Malashenko, Islam Revival in Modern Russia, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Moscow: 1998).
23. Vladimir Ustinov, Obviniaetsia terrorism (Moscow: Alma-Press, 2002), p. 98.
24. Because the most common criticism of the information on Chechen terrorism among Western scholars is the unreliability of the Russian sources, this work includes only those cases of terrorism that found their way in the international press organs and other international organizations as well as those for which Chechen rebels claimed responsibility, especially as advertised on the website of the Chechen government. available at (www.amina.com). The international sources include the reports of Amnesty International, Radio Free Europe, the U.S. Department of Justice, Red Cross, CNN, BBC, ABC News, the Counter-Terrorism Committee along with Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (parts of UN Security Council), the Threat Assessment Center (a.k.a., Center for Research of Contemporary Factors of Risk), and others. This work, however, does utilize Russian news organs and official Russian sources. These Russian sources are used solely for supporting evidence for terrorist acts that were independently confirmed by international organizations and for additional information linked to terrorism indirectly. The author resorted to this selection of sources for protection from widespread "Western" criticism that the author relied on untrustworthy Russian sources. This approach, however, has its limitations. The most important of them is the inability to use much information found in local Dagestanian and Southern Russian newspapers. For example, a small local newspaper from the Caucasus, Novorossiiskii Rabochii, provides information on 16 bomb explosions in neighboring towns in September 1999. Yet CNN, BBC, and others, while mentioning this fact as cited in Russian press, never provided their audience with any details about these explosions or the number of victims involved. Because of this, most Russian officials and ordinary people believe that the number of causalities of the terrorist acts must be at least double the number presented in this work. It must be noted, however, that inclusion of all suspected terrorist acts does not change the overall dynamics of terrorism on which this research is based and hence does not alter the findings of this research.
25. This research is limited to the areas outside of Chechnya and also to 1991-2002. As a historian, the author is reluctant to go beyond this date and hence present the argument in the context of historiography of and about that decade.
26. This finding is the reason why the author feels a need to use the term "terrorism" instead of "struggle for liberation," "fight for freedom," or simply "violence." Many scholars find the term "terrorism" to be "politically incorrect"; they argue that for Chechens, this struggle is a war for independence, and hence "terrorism" is not applicable to various acts of violence committed by Chechen rebels.
27. Ustinov, Obviniaetsia terrorism, p, 137.
28. Anatoly Guskov, "Laws to Combat Terrorism," originally presented at the "International Terrorism: New Assessments" Conference, 24-26 March 1997, Moscow,
29. and later published in Low Intensity Conflict & Law Enforcement 6(2) (London: Frank Cass, Autumn 1997).
30. Liema Usmanov, Nepokorennaya Chechnya (Moscow: Parus, 1997), pp. 125-126.
31. Amelia Gentleman, "Who Is Bombing Russia?," Guardian Unlimited, 12 September 1999;
32. Michael R. Lucas, "The War in Chechnya and the OSCE Code of Conduct," Helsinki Monitor 2 (1995);
33. also numerous reports in the Russian media, for example Yavgenia Borisova, "Dudayev's Threats Dismissed As Emotional Rhetoric," St. Petersburg Times, 12 December 2001.
34. Many argue that it was done under the pressure from NATO, expressed in Final Communiqué, Issued by the North Atlantic Council in Ministerial Session at Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 30 May 1995, available at (http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/49-95/c950530b.htm).
35. "Yeltsin Pledges to Withdraw Troops," Izvestiia, 12 October 1955;
36. also Robert Cottrell, "Chechnya" How Russia Lost," The New York Review of Books, 24 September 1998..
37. "World: Europe Profile of Chechnya," BBC News, 4 October 1998. available at (http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/186124.stm);
38. see also NUPI - Norwegian State Center for Russian Studies, Publication for 1995, available at (www.nupi.no).
39. Barton Gellman, "Arrest Shifts Focus to U.S. Sources of Atomic Isotopes," The Washington Post, 11 June 2002;
40. see also Barton Gellman, " ABC News, November 1995.
41. "Chechen Terrorist Salman Raduyev's Case Goes to Trial," Pravda, 13 August 2001.
42. This incident and Yeltsin's order were reported in all major newspapers, yet the precise amount of help varied a little from one publication to another. This figure of $3.4 billion appears to be the "middle figure" out of all presented and is taken from Time International, 5 February 1996, 147(6).
43. General Alexander Lebed argued in his memoirs (My Life and My Country, New York: Regnery Publishing, Inc., October 1997) that Yeltsin's decision to end the First Chechen War was closely linked to the 1996 Presidential election. In early 1996, the Presidential election was already underway amid considerable antiwar sentiment. To win the election, Yeltsin concluded a pact with antiwar General Lebed who came in third after the first round of the elections, and sent him to Chechnya to sign a peace accord with Dudayev. Yeltsin's choice was also supported by Lebed's prior career - he, like Dudayev, was a former career Soviet military officer who served with the leader of Chechnya in ill-fated Afghan War of 1979-1989. This peace accord secured Yeltsin's victory over his Communist opponent Gennady Zyuganov in the June 1996 Presidential elections.
44. Because Appendix A shows all the casualties, this information is not repeated in the body of the text.
45. Vita Bekker, "Putin, CIS Security Chiefs in Town To Talk Terrorism," The St. Petersburg Times, 28 October 1999.
46. Izvestia and ABC News from April 1997.
47. Associate Press, 13 September 1999.
48. "Who is Bombing Russia?" Guardian Unlimited of the United Kingdom, 12 September 1999.
49. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, March 14, 2000.
50. "Captured Rebel Leader Raduyev Hopes for 10 Years," Dagestanskaya Pravda, 13 November 2000,
51. as reprinted by Gazeta.ru, 15 November 2000.
52. Gazeta.ru, Ibid.
53. Anatoly Surikov, Crimes of Russia: The International Implications, as printed in
54. Robert Seely, Russo-Chechen Conflict, 1800-2000: A Deadly Embrace (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2001), p. 185.
55. "Report of the Interior Ministry of Russia," published in The St. Petersburg Times, 19 October 1999.
56. This information is based on a statement by Sergei Skvortsov, a deputy head of a GUBEP department dealing with counterfeiting, as published in "Central Focus," The St. Petersburg Times, 19 October 1999.
57. I had a chance to witness such a sale in the summer of 1994 on a trip to Moscow.
58. A total of $1,245,100.
59. This information is based on a statement by Alexei Kutilin, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry's anti-organized crime squad, as published in "Central Focus," The St. Petersburg's Times, 19 October 1999.
60. From the Report of Ahmed Dakaev, the Chief of the MVD of Chechnya,
61. as printed in I. N. Eremenko and Yu. D. Novikov, ed., Rossiya i Chechnya (1990-1997 godi): Dokumenty svidetel'stvuyut (Moscow: "Duhovnoe nasledie," 1997), p. 112.
62. "Report of the Interior Ministry of Russia."
63. "Chechnya Conflict Threatens Caucasus Region, U.S. Official Says," U.S. Department of State, International Information Programs, 9 May 2002, p. 3. To be precise, the official version says that there are many fighters in Chechnya "who have been linked to international terrorist circles."
64. Robert Seely, Russo-Chechen Conflict, 1800-2000: A Deadly Embrace (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2000), p. 182.
65. Tamara Makarenko, "The Changing Faces of Terrorism Within the Russian Federation," Cornell Caspian Consulting (Caspian Brief No. 18), July 2001, available at (http://www.cornellcaspian. compub/18_0107Terrorism. html)
66. Rolan Jakkar, Imenem Usamy ben Laden: Sekretnoe dos'e na terrorista, kotorogo razyskivaet ves' mir (originally published in French by Agence de l'Est and Jean Picollec Editeur, 2001; reprinted in Russian by "Olma-Press, " 2002), p. 9.
67. The sources are numerous; see, for example, "Alliance enters Konduz; Taliban prisoners revolt," CNN News, 25 November 2001, available at (http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/ central/11/25/ret.afghan.konduz);
68. Don Dahler, "Reporter's Notebook: High Ground. Waiting With Northern Alliance Fighters," ABC News, available at (http://abcnews.go.com/ sections/wnt/WorldNews Tonight/strike_notebook4_dahler_011018.html), 6 November 2001;
69. "Al Qaeda Arrests Worldwide," Fox News, 22 November 2002, available at (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64199,00.html).
70. Izvestia, 10 January 1995, based on the information provided by the "official sources" (ofitsial'nie istochniki).
71. Seely, Russo-Chechen Conflict, 183.
72. Dmitri Utekhin, "An Interview with Chechen Man Named Musa" (New Boston Times, 6 March 1998), p. 19.
73. Patrick Tyler, "In Caucasus Gorge, a Haven for Muslim Militants," The New York Times (28 February 2002), pp. A1, A10.
74. It must be noted that inevitably, the entire story of the Chechen terrorism cannot be told in this work for the lack of information and space (if we look at a single terrorist, Raduyev's "service record" took as many as 130 volumes to describe for the court).
75. Ustinov, Obviniaetsia terrorism, p. 136.
76. Tom Templeton and Tom Lumley, "9/11 in Numbers," Guardian Unlimited, UK, 18 August 2002, available at (http://www.observer.co.uk/ waronterrorism/story/0,1373,776451,00.html).