The following article puts things in their correct perspective of the
self-serving rationale of Putin & his cronies &
only backs up my belief that Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya & all
of the Caucuses face a very bloody civil war in 2005........

From the website; www.thestar.com (Toronto)

Sep. 12, 2004. 10:06 AM

Putin joins the West's axis of evil-slayers

HAROON SIDDIQUI

The following article puts things in their correct perspective of the
self-serving rationale of Putin & his cronies &
only backs up my belief that Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya & all
of the Caucuses face a very bloody civil war in 2005........

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From the website; www.thestar.com (Toronto)

Sep. 12, 2004. 10:06 AM

Putin joins the West's axis of evil-slayers

HAROON SIDDIQUI

Even in this age of increasingly barbaric manifestations of terrorism,
the world was shocked by the Beslan school siege, so depraved was the
massacre of children.

We stood in solidarity with the bereaved, indeed all Russians.

That assertion of our common humanity provided a measure of comfort
amid the horror.

Then, two debates ensued: one about the media and a larger one over
the "why" of the tragedy.

A third, just starting, is over the parallels between how Vladimir
Putin, George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon tackle terrorism.

The editor of Izvestia newspaper was fired for turning his entire Page
1 over to a photo of a man carrying a wounded child.

The Moscow correspondent of Al-Arabiya TV was arrested for his
reporting of the crisis.

How much graphic grief is too much for readers and viewers?

And, who decides: the editors or the government?

The first is dictated, mostly, by culture. Pictures of the dead,
usually shunned here, are routinely shown in print and on TV in other
parts of the world.

Politically charged and emotionally laden moments also make our
editors pause.

Hence the debates over the photos of falling bodies on 9/11, dead
Americans strung up in Falluja and Iraqi prisoners being abused at Abu
Ghraib.

The real issue in Moscow was whether the Putin Kremlin, given to
leaning on the media, pressured journalists to downplay the tragedy
and carry its spin?

It would be instructive to compare that to the Bush administration's
harassment of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya in Iraq.

Commentary on the Beslan tragedy fell into two camps, attributing the
terrorism either to the so-called Islamic culture of death or to
Russian brutality in Chechnya.

The first is a replay of the neo-con mantra over 9/11 and the
Israeli-Arab conflict.

It blames "militant Islam," or "jihadist Islam," or Islam itself,
whose adherents are said to want to kill the infidels to impose their
rule.

That's true of some crazies.

But the narrative is so sweeping as to demonize all Muslims, except
those ready to grovel and apologize for their faith.

Besides being racist, the formulation is clever. It keeps the
spotlight off U.S. foreign policy, the Israeli occupation and the
Chechen crisis.

The contrary view goes beyond explaining Chechen terrorism as the
inevitable outcome of Russian policy. It justifies the killing of
innocent civilians.

The thinking is found not only among some militants but also their
backers among Muslims.

One is best guided by facts.

The conflict dates back to the Czars, made worse by Stalin, who
deported all Chechens to Central Asia.

Allowed back in by Nikita Khrushchev, they have been seeking autonomy,
to no avail.

Boris Yelstin's 1994-96 war left about 80,000 dead, including 32,000
children.

An agreement granting Chechnya de-facto sovereignty was abrogated in
1999 by Putin.

He launched another war, which has killed about 80,000, one-third of
them children.

The massacre of those children was neither shown on our TVs nor
mourned by us.

Another 40,000 children have been injured. About 30,000 have lost at
least one parent.

Ten years ago, Chechnya's population was said to be 2 million. Now it
is 800,000.

Most Chechens are unemployed and destitute, caught between the
atrocities of the 300,000 Russian soldiers and marauding militants who
move across the Caucasus.

Chechens are both deeply Muslim and nationalistic, and their struggle
is indigenous. The involvement of Islamic militants has never amounted
to more than a handful of disciples of Osama bin Laden and others
similarly inspired.

Most Chechens, in fact, hate the militants and are puzzled and
saddened by the terrorist turn their struggle has taken.

Yet Putin has packaged his policies in the same terms as Bush's war on
terrorism.

And he has found an ally in Sharon, who said on Monday: "The terrorism
that struck in Russia is the same kind of terrorism that strikes us."

So, we have a new axis of evil-slayers: Bush, Sharon and Putin.

Parallels abound, some pre-dating 9/11 and others recent.

Putin sidelined the elected president of Chechnya before unleashing
the military, whose human rights violations have been condemned — a
sequence of events to which Sharon can relate.

Putin has since put in place a puppet government in Chechnya, as has
Bush in Iraq.

Chechnya, as Iraq, has oil — about 200 million barrels of it. It is
also strategically important.

Letting it go, Putin says, may give ideas to others: "There are
Muslims along the Volga, in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan."

He invokes a negative domino effect on the Caucasus, while Bush cites
a positive one from Iraq on the Arab Middle East — both self-serving
rationales.

Putin is also talking like Bush: You're with us, or against us.

And he is threatening a pre-emptive war, without borders and without
an end.

An alarmed European Union is protesting, as it did unsuccessfully
against Bush, about the "extra-judicial killings" that pre-emptive
strikes entail.

Copying Bush's manual in Afghanistan and Iraq, Putin upped the reward
for the murder or capture of two Chechen rebel leaders to $10 million
(U.S.).

An anti-Muslim wave grips Russia. Putin's acolytes speak of World War
III, as do some of Bush's supporters. The mayor of Moscow ponders
restricting the movement of the multitudes of Chechens working there.

Putin's war on terrorism, with its misplaced impact on innocent
civilians, will no more snuff out terrorists than Sharon's or Bush's.

In fact, it will follow the same pattern as that of the other two:
multiply the number of terrorists and radicalize even bigger chunks of
Muslim populations in Russia and elsewhere.

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hsiddiq@thestar.ca