Politkovskaya on Maskhadov and extremism in Chechnya

[Chris Doss]

Novaya Gazeta
No. 81
October 31 - November 3, 2002
LACK OF NEGOTIATIONS PLAYS INTO THE RADICALS' HANDS
The irreconcilables and the Kremlin want Maskhadov out of the picture
Author: Anna Politkovskaya
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
THE ARREST OF ASLAN MASKHADOV'S ENVOY IN DENMARK MAY PUT AN END TO
THE PROCESS OF NEGOTIATIONS IN CHECHNYA. WHAT IS THE SEPARATIST
MILITARY-POLITICAL LEADERSHIP LIKE WITHOUT HIM? IT HAS BECOME
CONSIDERABLY MORE RADICAL SINCE MID-SUMMER, WITH YOUNGER AND ANGRIER
CHECHENS COMING TO THE FOREFRONT.
Hostage-taking wipes out any chance of Russian-Chechen negotiations

     The arrest of Aslan Maskhadov's envoy in Denmark may put an end
to the process of negotiations in Chechnya.
     Who is Akhmed Zakayev? First and foremost, he is a man who might
potentially participate in peace contacts, on Maskhadov's behalf. A
compromise figure, someone the Kremlin might have used if and when it
decided to get us out of the blind alley of Chechnya.
     What do we have without Zakayev? What is the separatist military-
political leadership like without him?
     It has become considerably more radical since mid-summer. Any
more or less reasonable men close to Maskhadov have been pushed into
the background, while Shamil Basayev has moved into the spotlight;
Basayev and his friend Movladi Udugov (residing in Qatar). Moreover,
Basayev appointed himself the "senior military emir" and began
threatening to punish Chechens for treason...
     Basayev and company soon pushed Zakayev into the background. By
autumn, Basayev had branded Zakayev as traitor and blamed him for
negotiations being too slow and inactive, accusing him of having sold
out to Moscow.
     Iljas Akhmadov, foreign minister in the government of Ichkeria,
found himself an outcast too.
     The so-called generation of "sons" has gained the upper hand and
begun replacing the "fathers" of Chechen resistance. That was how
things reached the point of the Nord-Ost hostage-taking: a situation
where there was nothing left to discuss with anyone, and where the
desire to die - killing as many others as possible in the process -
drowned out common sense.
     Barayev and other leaders of the "shakhid battalion" who ended up
in Moscow were part of the "sons", those who are angered by
Maskhadov's insufficient radicalism. The "sons" think that Maskhadov
issues too few combat orders, and money for that matter. In other
words, the presidency is all Maskhadov has, and that aspect is being
ignored more and more, even by his closest associates and followers.
     I heard people saying "To hell with Maskhadov! We will fight our
own war!" over and over in late summer and early autumn.
     I heard a similar cry - "Damn your Maskhadov!" - on October 25,
only meters from hundreds of people awaiting death in Moscow. Those
poor people who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time,
and were forced to pay for the second war in Chechnya, and for the
stupid methods of reproducing terrorism. They were also forced to pay
for the criminal incompetence of the Russian secret services, which
had once again permitted a tragedy to happen, due to an elementary
lack of knowledge of what they were facing.
     The "sons" who made it to Moscow in October are dead. How many
are left of these young men and women who live only for revenge, and
who view Maskhadov as an obstacle?
     There are hundreds of them. They are the suicide bombers, or
shakhids (call them what you like), in the grip of a simple idea:
sacrificing their lives for the sake of an end to the war... The group
which is gaining the upper hand in Chechnya nowadays promises us
massacres and bloodshed, living from one terrorist act to the next,
and the Kremlin's absolute rejection of the idea of negotiations. This
makes Maskhadov's future all the more predictable. On the one hand, he
must chose the reckless radicalism of the "sons" - or he himself will
soon become history. On the other hand, "Maskhadov's transformation
into a Barayev", which we are witnessing now, will lead us even deeper
into the suicidal abyss. The chances of a peaceful resolution are
zero. The Kremlin doesn't even want to listen. We will have to make a
much greater effort now if negotiations are ever to start.



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