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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Lacelle who wrote (15057)	10/24/1999 1:16:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

What I don't understand is why those Chechnyans wanted to break away from Russia. It's a long, long story, John. Briefly: 1) In the period 1990-1991, almost every "autonomous republic" in the former Soviet Union (most of which were in Russia) adopted just the same kind of "declarations of sovereignty" that the full "union republics" adopted. It was widely felt that the "minor nationalities" had just as much right to sovereignty as the "major nationalities." The Chechens just took their declarations a little more seriously than the others. 2) When Dudayev came to power, a year after the original declaration of sovereignty was adopted, the Soviet Union was still in existence, and Gorbachev was already willing to consider transforming it into a confederation. The pro-independence Chechens visualized a Chechnya that would be a member of this confederation. 3) However, many Chechens that I knew thought that independence was a pipe-dream. On the eve of the Russian invasion, opposition to the Dudayev regime had grown to such an extent that there was reason to believe it would fall of its own accord. But once the Russians invaded, and targeted the population as a whole as The Enemy, many of these same people became pro-independence. That is, they thought that only independence would ensure their security against Russian attack in the future. That is all the more so now. After all, Russia continues to insist that this is all an "internal matter," and that it can do in Chechnya whatever it chooses, because it is "its" territory. 4) Since Chechens are such an object of hatred in Russia right now, what future do YOU think they can have in Russia? After all that blood, do you think Russians and Chechens can live together in peace and harmony?? I am an old North Caucasus hand, and I was in Chechnya, on a year-long grant from the MacArthur Foundation, when the war broke out. Stayed out the year. Had been there many times before (as a journalist), and have been there several times since. Not since 1997, though -- danger of getting kidnapped too great. Right now involved in creating an on-line newspaper, to be called "The Chechen Times." Joan