Of course, there is not much of a Western press presence there. But all the news agencies do have local (Chechen) correspondents, and once & a while Russian ones show up, even "genuine" foreign correspondents -- who have to be heavily guarded (from kidnappers), of course. And then there are the representatives of Russian human rights organizations. And the Russian media are not ALL subservient. In any event, there is more than enough information out there to make a case against the generals. Loads of it.
In any event, you better believe that folks in the know here have been bombarding the Administration with information. They (I should say, we) are not going to let the Administration get away with what it got away with during Chechen War I.
Besides, why would the relative (compared to Chechen War I) absence of media on the scene be a valid reason for the Administration not to protest? The generals' attempt to impose censorship should, on the contrary, be yet another reason FOR protest.
The Russians are NOT going to be happy with the charge that their actions in Chechnya are "not in accordance" with the Geneva Conventions or its OSCE commitments, no matter how carefully Rubin worded it. They will know it means they can expect to have a hard time at the Istanbul OSCE meeting, and they haven't been looking forward to that as it is. |
