Russia and the War in Chechnya
The two wars fought between Russia and Chechnya in recent times have raised the issue of international human rights. The first war spanned from 1994-1996, and the second war began in 1999 and continues today. The human rights abuses committed by the Russian forces, and the subsequent European response, are both subjects of a research paper I submitted in International Studies 200-01. A few points of the paper will be summarized to highlight the larger course theme of international human rights in the context of one modern conflict.
The Abuses Committed
The Russian human rights crimes can be divided into two categories:
Crimes Against Humanity:
The indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population in the capital city of Grozny as well as many Chechen villages. Residential areas were obliterated by the Russian aerial campaign, resulting in 27,000 civilian deaths in Grozny alone.
War Crimes:
Summary executions and willful killing of Chechen men, women, and children after a residential area had been captured and controlled by Russian forces.
Looting and rape were both committed by Russian forces in the Chechen civilian areas they controlled. Looting was especially widespread and rampant.
Arbitrary internment of civilians in "filtration camps," where internees experienced inhuman conditions, torture, rape, and murder.
Documented massacres of civilians in Samashki, Staropromyslovsky, and Alkhan Yurt, among others.
The human rights violations committed by the Chechen Rebels include:
Numerous acts of terrorism staged in the Russian Federation, killing Russian civilians.
Remaining in civilian cities and villages and using these residential areas as bases, thus inviting Russian bombing and civilian casualties. In a sense Chechen rebels used innocent civilians as a "human shield."
It was the contention of my paper that Russia committed the graver violations, and that Russia the primary contributor to the total civilian casualty count. A Russian information blockade makes the total for this figure difficult to surmise, but various sources estimate total civilian deaths to be between 100,000 and 200,000 for the two wars.
The European Response
The European response to documented human rights transgressions committed by the Russian forces has been insignificant. Shortly after Russia announced a ceasefire in 1996, it was invited to join the Council of Europe, despite its human rights record. The Council of Europe has many declarations and treaties concerning human rights, and considers human rights to be at the core of its agenda. Upon becoming a member of the Council of Europe, Moscow became signatory to international human rights legislation. However, the Council of Europe responded weakly and inadequately when confronted by brutal human rights abuses committed by Russia in the second war with Chechnya. A brief summary of the European response follows:
The European Union imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation in February 2000, and lifted them only four months later, in June 2000, due to political pressure.
In April 2000, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) decided that the Russian delegation's voting rights should be suspended within the council, and recommended that Russia's Council of Europe membership be terminated as a result of human rights neglect. Russia threatened to withhold its annual contribution, which constitutes 12.5% of the Council's total budget. At a meeting of the Committee of Ministers, not one member raised the issue of PACE's recommendation.
France, Germany, and Italy each sought to strengthen relations with Russia and integrate Russia into Europe; thus these influential states avoided confronting the issue of Russia's glaring human rights violations in Chechnya.
September 11, 2001 fundamentally transformed America and Europe's perception of the Russo-Chechen conflict. Russian human rights abuses in Chechnya would become a non-issue politically, as Russia was embraced as a fellow nation fighting in the universal war against terrorism. Thus the terrorist acts of a few, the Chechen rebels, came to legitimize the murder of many, the thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians who lost their lives.
Lessons Learned
The Russo-Chechen conflicts provide an interesting case study of universal human rights. Human rights legislation has come a long way and many international organizations, governmental and nongovernmental, claim to have a profound commitment to the protection of human rights. The Council of Europe is one of these organizations. Human rights may be at the forefront of the modern political agenda, and they will remain there, but the wars between Russia and Chechnya demonstrate that legislation and declarations alone do not solve the problem. A commitment to human rights must be enforced by the world's powerful political states if the idea of "universal human rights" is to come to fruition. Russia's considerable economic and military resources may have been a deterrent to Europe's use of meaningful sanctions against the country; thus politics plays a role in as fundamental an issue as the protection of international human rights.
More Information on the Chechen Wars:
War in Chechnya from the viewpoint of the Chechens
Globalsecurity.org - First Chechnya War
Globalsecurity.org - Second Chechnya War