#6532
#4
Wall Street Journal
November 4, 2002
Editorial
Russia's New War
After the theater siege in Moscow left 119 hostages dead, the Russian government understandably needs to reassure its citizens it is doing everything to stop future attacks by Chechen terrorists. The response from the Kremlin, however, is turning out to be more a test of whether civil society can survive in Russia than whether the state can fight terrorism.
Ordinary Russians, stunned and angered by the scenes at the theater, naturally want to know that their state will protect them. President Vladimir Putin gets good marks in Russia for his handling of the crisis, along with considerable sympathy from abroad. Questions about the tactics used to free the hostages and the wisdom of pursuing the war in Chechnya are getting drowned out.
That's a pity. More than ever, the Russian state needs closer scrutiny of its policies by its people and its foreign partners. There are few supporters of terrorism in Russia or abroad. But many observers find disquieting the signs that the Kremlin is using the threat of terrorism to trample on weak democratic freedoms and escalate the war in Chechnya.
The Russian government has relentlessly moved to brand Chechen leaders as terrorists. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the president's spokesman, last week vowed Russia would "wipe out" Chechen separatists and ruled out negotiations with anyone. "I don't know of any such person," he said.
The Kremlin says Aslan Maskhadov, who was elected Chechen president in 1997, was behind the hostage-taking. Whether true or not, Mr. Maskhadov no longer is seen to be acceptable as a negotiating partner. Even his aides, citing three years of punishing war in Chechnya, claim the president no longer controls the militants within his camp. An unconfirmed web site message reports that Shamil Basayev, an outspoken terrorist, on Friday claimed he ordered the theater attack and apologized to Mr. Maskhadov for not telling him.
Yet, Russia needs to fight terrorism, not silence the legitimate voices of the Chechens. The Kremlin was furious that Denmark let the World Chechen Congress meet in Copenhagen during the theater siege, even though the Chechen delegates -- unable to gather in Russia -- explicitly condemned terrorism. Moscow has also pressured Qatar, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan to crack down.
The case of Akhmed Zakayev, one of the delegates at the Copenhagen meeting, raises especially troubling questions. Mr. Zakayev, a well-traveled international emissary of President Maskhadov, was detained last week in Denmark on a Russian Interpol warrant and awaits an extradition hearing from a jail cell. Russia claims the former actor was involved in the theater siege and "took part in several terrorist acts in 1996-99." Denmark didn't release any evidence supplied by Russia .
What's clear is that Mr. Zakayev was a frequent interlocutor with Russian authorities. He held talks with President Putin's representative in Moscow in November of last year. Mr. Yastrzhembsky, the senior Putin aide, recently called him "an honest and responsible man, an experienced politician with no rap sheet." Of course, that was all before the Kremlin's reaction to the theater attack.
The Kremlin's ostracism of the Chechen leadership and its hawkish rhetoric suggest Mr. Putin continues to believe the Chechen problem has a purely military solution. About 13,500 rebels and 4,500 Russian troops have died in the last three years of fighting, and the rebels show no sign of giving up their 150-year-old struggle. In last two months, they have shot down five helicopters, killing 130 soldiers. The war-and the atrocities committed by both sides-have devastated Chechnya and brutalized its people. Mr. Putin has yet to show the kind of enlightened leadership needed to end the war.
Ever since Boris Yeltsin sent tanks into Grozny eight years ago, Chechnya has been an albatross around the neck of Russia's young democracy. After the theater siege, hundreds of innocent Chechens have been subject to police harassment. Mr. Putin, to his credit, has urged tolerance. He should also firmly back more openness and freedom in all of Russia's regions.
From all appearances, Russia is heading in the other direction. On Friday, the Duma passed a new "anti-terrorism" bill that would curtail the freedom of the press. Independent media, who have bravely exposed atrocities committed by Russian troops in Chechnya, last week defied government pressure and reported on the use of a dangerous gas in the theater assault that killed hostages as well as terrorists. Mr. Putin's allies in parliament evidently don't welcome such scrutiny. These deputies also voted down an attempt to set up a commission to look into the police's behavior during the terrorist siege.
Such tactics might conceal problems, as similar repression did in the old Soviet days, but they won't solve it. It would be a shame if Russia's struggle to create a viable civil society becomes another casualty of the senseless war in Chechnya.
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