ACPC Remembers the 1944 Chechen Deportation

ACPC Chairman Zbigniew Brzezinski today spoke out about the recent violence in Ingushetia, linking it to the lack of any serious peace initiative in Chechnya on the part of the Kremlin.

“In the absence of peace talks, the war in Chechnya has begun to spread, threatening the entire North Caucasus,” said Brzezinski. “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is reaping what he has sown. Through his policies in Chechnya, he has promoted the kind of violence and instability we now see in Ingushetia.”

On June 21-22, some 200 fighters staged a series of coordinated raids on the Ingush cities of Nazran, Karabulak and Sunzha in some of the worst fighting since the 1999 incursion into Dagestan. Devastating attacks on the Interior Ministry compound in Nazran left 30 people dead, including Interior Minister Ababukar Kostoev, Nazran Prosecutor-General Mukharbek Buzurtanov and several aides.

“It is little wonder these attacks occurred,” observed ACPC Executive Director Glen Howard. “Over the last eight months, federal troops have systematically attempted to forcibly repatriate Chechen refugees in Ingushetia. Indiscriminate security sweeps, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings associated with this campaign have antagonized the local population to the point where an outbreak of violence was almost inevitable.”

With approximately 200,000 Chechen refugees spread throughout neighboring republics, the potential for regional instability remains very real. “The Kremlin’s ‘normalization’ policy has brutalized local populations sympathetic to the Chechen plight, fanning the flames of nationalism in the North Caucasus,” Howard continued.

In a June 13 RFE/RL interview, Chechen resistance leader Aslan Maskhadov reiterated his willingness to enter into negotiations. “We are prepared to do whatever they [the Russians] want us to do, whatever they find advantageous [to end the war].”

Moscow, however, has continued to shun negotiations with the resistance. “With an abundance of peace plans available, from ACPC’s Liechtenstein Plan to the Akhmadov Plan, all Moscow needs to do is choose one to use as a basis for starting discussions,” Howard concluded.

Founded in 1999, the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) is a bipartisan coalition of distinguished Americans dedicated to promoting a peaceful end to the war in Chechnya.