[Second Issue of the Day]

#4
The Independent (UK)
20 September 2001
Letter: Reasons for peace
BY GEOFFREY HOSKING

Sir: Almost exactly two years ago Russia suffered from a wave of extremist
Islamic terrorism which included the blowing up of tall blocks of flats with
heavy loss of life. Rightly, like us today, the Russians decided they had to
react forcefully.

They launched all-out war, not just against the terrorists, but in effect
against the Republic of Chechnya and its people. They did not back up this
military effort with any political process, arguing that they could eradicate
terrorism by military means.

Today we can see what this has meant: devastated territory, a cowed and
resentful population (many of whom initially welcomed the Russian army) and
continuing terrorist outrages, to which Russian troops respond with a
brutality that has been criticised by Russia's own human rights commissioner.
No end is in prospect.

Afghanistan is many times larger and more complicated than Chechnya. I hope
that we, led by the USA, are not about to fall into the same trap.

GEOFFREY HOSKING
London NW1

 
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