Civil Society and Peace-building in the North and South Caucasus ...

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eally covered in the national or international media. Though we are very realistic – we know that it is a very small problem for the rest of the world. If it is covered in the national media, it is onesided coverage. There are different reasons for this. It is a hard place for everyone to access – not only for reporters and journalists, but also for humanitarian workers and other people who would like to go to see what is going on there and to offer help. I was in Grozny a couple of days before my departure to the US. It is a very distressing picture to see the city and Chechnya in general. During the first war, I remember when we were entering the city center of Grozny. There was a huge sign on the concrete wall near the entrance into the tunnel. It was very visible; it said, “Welcome to Hell.” This time, when I was able to get into Grozny after the heavy military actions, I saw underneath the other graffiti a sign that said, “Welcome to Hell, Part II.” I think this is a very eloquent sign of what is going on in Grozny and in Chechnya. This is a situation which is, I think, very bad for all sides who are to some extent involved in this matter – I mean the civilian population, the military and those Chechen fighters who were mostly forced to take up arms and fight back. Grozny, which was once a very nice city, has become a grave for very nice buildings, and a grave for thousands of residents of the city. This picture has become even worse at this point. The city reminds me of the pictures on TV of the European cities of the 1940s which had been devastated by World War II. The city looks as if it is deserted, but then you can see that life is still warm there. I could see that in the so-called Center of Grozny where there is a central market. We call it the Central Market; it is a small functioning market. About 30,000-50,000 people who never got out still live in the city. We can see people who are carrying cans with water – a sign that shows the level of their lives. And it is very scary when, at the end of the day, the city falls into complete darkness because there is no electricity or water, and gas supplies are occasional and only in some places. You can see many people who are carrying wood for heat. Around the city, especially on the highway, Rostov-(inaudible), I saw the forests which had been devastated by all of the cutting. It is a sign of the contemporary life in Chechnya. But one of the most distressing aspects of life in Grozny was also the darkness of the sky. It was a sunny autumn day two weeks ago, when I was there, and the sky looked very gloomy. It is because of the more than 30 oil wells which are burning constantly. Nobody cares about this. I think this can have very negative ecological consequences. And even today, it is really hard to breathe in Chechnya. When you get a little bit out of the city, you can see from a distance that the city is covered by this dark smoke. Unfortunately, I don’t know why, but my feeling is that nobody really cares about anything. The government, which is operating now and collaborating with the Federal Government, appears to be enthusiastic about improving the situation. But for the ordinary people, it is really hard to understand and to believe that somebody really cares about them and what the situation is in Chechnya. I should say that a sign of the war is also obvious when you see numerous checkpoints. It took me four hours to pass sixty kilometers from the border of Ingushetia to Grozny. Normally, it takes 40 minutes. I counted the checkpoints; there were about 15 of them in this 60 kilometers. Every time you are stopped, your identification cards are checked, and you are interrogated. Interrogation is applied especially to men, young men, of course, because the Federal troops consider every Chechen male a potential fighter. There is a very high degree of suspicion towards the whole male population.
There is some help provided to the people living in Chechnya, though very few organizations are able to work for a variety of reasons. It is not a secure place. But the UN is operating its programs through implementing partners and such organizations as IRC, Danish Refugee Council, People in Need (from the Czech Republic) and Polish Organization. They are physically staying in Chechnya and carrying on their courageous work, which I think should be noted since it is very hard today. Most of them are operating in neighboring Ingushetia. Where are the people who once lived in the highly populated republic? They went everywhere. Chechen people, Russian people and other people inhabiting Chechnya went to Russian cities like Moscow; they went abroad. About 200,000 are displaced in neighboring Ingushetia. They live mostly in the refugee camps. Many also live in the private sector. When we talk to each other and think of what can be done, I think nobody knows. It is a really complicated situation there. Nobody knows how to solve it. I know that all parties are really unhappy. Nobody wants to fight. When you ask soldiers, they tell you that they are really unhappy to be there. At first they were motivated to come because they were promised that they would be paid. But they were not. It is just another deceit of the government; they were promised and then they received nothing. The same is true with all other people. They say, “We don’t have a place to go.” When they go to the cities in Russia, they are not welcome in most of them. Who needs additional problems? If they go to Moscow – many people pin their hopes on Moscow for several reasons. One very strong reason is that people hope to give their children an education. Moscow is a center of education, and people want to go there. But in Moscow, there is strong discrimination towards Caucasian people on a daily basis. Others are simply hiding, because they don’t want to have problems at the checkpoints. They stay somewhere: in their homes, in the refugee camps. I heard rumors recently that the IDPs in the refugee camps were sharing their fears that the Federals promised to conducts “cleansings,” a normal process in the refugee camps. Maybe there are those who fought or who took part very actively during the military events. But some of them never took up guns, yet they are under the same suspicion. This also speaks to the atmosphere – that people suffer not only from being traumatized by the campaigns because of the material losses, personal losses, and losses of family members, but also because of the very unsafe and insecure state of their world. It is very disquieting. It is not a pleasant state for the people. People often say that during the day, it is the time when the Federal troops are the masters of everything. At night, they say that the Chechens are ruling. So this is the shift, and the so-called pot where people are boiling. This is the atmosphere and the humanitarian picture of the life in Chechnya. CARR: Thank you Fatima for sharing some of your recent observations. It only serves to illustrate more the need for civil society organizations and other governmental and international organizations to come together to build peace. This is something I think we all recognize as a big need. At this time, we would like to open the conversation for people to ask questions. As I mentioned earlier, Sofia Dubinskaya who is from the organization Integration of Regional Mass Media is here, as is Liubov Vinogradova who is from the Russian Research Center for Human Rights. So, if people have questions specifically in those spheres, Liubov and Sofia are also ready to answer your questions. QUESTION: Addressing all of the speakers, is there any dialog that has started about long-term political settlements in these areas of conflicts? That is, what ultimately could happen to Nagorno-Karabagh or to Chechnya?
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