Re: Can someone please explain Chechen Conflict to me?

"MirTopolskiRexPrez" <2472-810@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:chk4dg$on5$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Roger R. wrote:
> > For a short explanation of the background to the Chechen conflict, try
this
> > article in Slate:
> > http://www.slate.com/id/2106287/
>
> Biased crap. Excerpt: "Dozens of armed men ended up barricading
> themselves in the local hospital [in Budyonnovsk], where the patients,
> including women with their newborns, became their hostages." I wonder
> how this local Ossetian slaughter will be addressed in the second
> actualized edition ...

The article -- which could have been ghost written by the mindless
bureaucrats of the EU -- ignored the fact that the Chechens tried, and
failed, to govern themselves between 1993 and 1999. The result was a
massive
Chechen crime wave in the Caucasus and a Islamic radical movement, formed
in
Chechnya, trying to conquer neighboring parts of Russia in 1999. Many
Chechens were found, and killed or captured in Afghanistan in 2001. They
were in Afghanistan to get al Qaeda training. So much for the author's
contention that there's probably no connection between the Chechens and Al
Qaeda...

That said, the Chechens have (in the oast) always focused on the Russians,
however, and not *international* terrorism. One wonders how long it will
be
before they join the other Islamist lunatics in killing anyone they can
get
at.

The Chechen Islamic radicals, in particular, will not negotiate with the
Russians. Nor will many of the criminal gangs. Russia's vacuous critics
have
not been able to
come up with a viable solution to the Chechen situation, but instead
criticize Russia for not making the violence go away. <shrug>

--Ty