From: The Chechen Society Newspaper <iorta@...>
Date: Mon Jul 4, 2005  3:06 am
Subject: The Chechen Society Newspaper, #13, July 04 2005     

 
Chechen Society newspaper, # 13(51), June 04, 2005

Top stories:

Andre Gluksmann: "If Putin has an ally, it is Basaev"
Part I
Interviewed by Alan TSKHURBAEV

Chechnya Rocks
Interviewed by Timur ALIEV



Andre Gluksmann:

«If Putin has an ally, it is Basaev”

Part I

The French philosopher and publicist Andre Gluksmann fights totalitarian regimes
from all over the world. In Russia he is famous for his extremely negative
attitude towards the actions of the federal forces in the North Caucasus. His
proposals to extend the war in Chechnya sometimes sounds very radical indeed and
go as far as sending arms to Chechnya. This kind of anti-Kremlin position has
lead to this French defender of the people of the Caucasus being declared as
persona non-grata in Russia. This was shown in 2002, for example, when Andre
Gluksmann was only able to get onto Chechen Territory illegally.

Interviewed by Alan TSKHURBAEV

- You are probably the most ardent defender of Chechnya and Chechens in Europe,
why is this?

- I have been writing books and speaking in defense of dissidents from the
Soviet empire since the beginning of the 1970s from what is now the last
century, so that means I have been doing this for 35 years. First of all I wrote
a book in defense of Solzhenitsyn and his “Gulag Archipelago”, criticizing the
fact that Europeans, in particular those from the left-wing parties of Europe
and France, did not protest against the “Gulag”, even though they considered it
to be a terrible camp similar to those of the Nazis.

I said that for the imprisoned and exiled it makes no difference if the flag is
red or black. Your feelings are the same, whether you are suffering at the hands
of communists or fascists. I said that you have to put yourself in the place of
the political prisoners. At the beginning of the 1990s straight after the fall
of the Berlin Wall, Russian dissidents told me that this wasn’t the end. They
explained that there was a danger of what they termed then a “red-black” danger,
a danger of a dictatorship that wouldn’t be communist, but which could return
again to the practice of repression using the communist apparatus but without
the communist ideology. They were speaking about the police, army and the
nomenclature.

Later on I quickly became convinced they were right when in the Former
Yugoslavia the Communist leader Milosevic held on to power and organized ethnic
cleansing during the war, which took the lives of a minimum of 200,000 people.
He tortured, tormented and created a dictatorship, establishing a union between
the right-wing radical nationalists, the fascist racists and the far left. It
was not ideology that was at the center of this but a way of doing things, a
practice, which was in essence Stalinist.

Then when I saw how the war in Chechnya was being unleashed I told myself that
Milosovic had given birth to a creature similar to himself and that the example
from Milosovic in Belgrade was continuing in Moscow. Naturally I took up a
position against this at once.

- What is Chechnya for you?

- Today for me Chechnya is a people who have gone through the worst of the
worst, the most bloody and sickening war, which is devastating the planet. This
is not the only war in the world but it is the most bloody in the sense that
there is no other people in the world who over the last ten years have lost
between a quarter and a fifth of their population. I know that the Chechens as a
nation are not so numerous, but if we compare the overall number of Chechens
with the number of those killed and wounded and the number of children who have
been killed, then it has to be the worst thing that is happening on our planet
today. And it is horrendous that this is happening with the silent agreement of
the whole world.

- What is your opinion of the Chechen people?

- I think that this is a people with extreme valour who are standing up to their
worst times. On one hand this is because they are opposing this using all
possible means, and they are not always military.

Each person is opposing this as much as he or she can. The Chechen people are
not just opposing this by taking hostages, but risking going mad from the pain.
If you compare the situation of the Palestinians and the Chechens, then the fate
of the former is not as terrible, although it is agonizing, but [in Chechnya]
there is a thousand times more terrorism against the civilian population.

I am against the taking of hostages as at the Dubrovka theatre or in Beslan. I
consider this to be a crime against humanity, as they were making an attempt on
the lives of innocent citizens, but I do think it is positive that there are so
few events like this at present.

All the Chechens I know, with whom I have contact, as despite it all we do have
the possibility to have contact (through the internet or direct contact I know
almost everything that is going on in Grozny), they are all against things like
this.

What I find amazing about the Chechens is that not only are they opposing
aggression and the worst that is taking place in the world at the moment, but
that they are resisting the temptation to go mad from pain and kill just anyone.


- What did the death of Maskhadov mean for you? What will it mean for the future
political landscape in Chechnya?

- The consequences depend on the Chechens themselves and on Western countries.
Its meaning lies in the desire of those who killed him to carry on this war to
the end, destroying any possibility for peace and negotiation. He was killed
precisely at the moment when he was preparing to show that he was able to give
the order for a peace fire. It was a savage, destructive wish on Putin’s part.

Two factors confirm this. First of all, the fact that Putin did not apologize at
all for the death of Maskhadov, by that I mean that he never said that he would
have preferred to take Maskhadov prisoner, this idea never occurred to him. It
was definitely an order to kill that was circulated because there was a price on
his head.

If this had been an accident in conditions of war he could have said this during
his conversation with the head of the FSB.

The second factor is the absolutely vile way they flaunted the photographs of
his corpse and then refused to give [his body] to his relatives. These are two
pieces of evidence proving that it wasn’t an accident but an intentional desire
to kill the man who could start peace negotiations. I know Maskhadov’s plan for
Chechnya, for negotiations, it had existed for 3 years and I believe that it was
absolutely correct, exemplary. It was a real anti-terrorist conciliation and I
find it catastrophic that Putin wished to demonstrate with his murder that he
was not prepared to negotiate peace with those with whom he was at war.

- What do you think about the other plans like Maskhadov’s to end the Chechen
conflict?

- I think the plan suggested by Maskhadov and published by Il’yas Akhmadov was
completely reasonable. It consisted of the disarmament of both camps: through
the withdrawal of the Russian army and the disarmament of all Chechens under
international supervision. I think this is a very fitting way of establishing
the peace in this war, which has had a serious development in the form of
terrorism. It worked out in Kosovo, which means there has been a precedent. It
is a very refined idea and I think that it is this kind of peace that we should
be searching for throughout the twenty first century at this time of
international terrorism. And I find the fact that Western diplomacy does not
support this plan to be utterly criminal.

- Do you consider Shamil’ Basaev to be a terrorist or a victim of Russian
politics?

- I have no sympathy for Basaev. I do not consider him to be a victim. He is
more like a puppet of Russian politics. He served with the FSB in Georgia, got
money from the Executive Committee in his time from Yeltsin, then from Putin,
and particularly from Berezovsky. He served as the spark that enabled Putin to
unleash the second Chechen war and today he is helping him in the most monstrous
way to turn the face of Chechnya in the world into the face of a blood-thirsty
monster.

I think that he is working for Putin (whether this is voluntary or not, I don’t
know). If he isn’t working of his own volition, which is quite possible, then it
shows how incompetent he is. If he is working of his own volition then this has
to be the limit. The Belsan terrorist act served Putin as an excuse to silence
all his critics in the democratic west as far as his policy in Chechnya is
concerned. This is the best thing that he could have done for Putin through the
inhuman taking of hostages. I think that if Putin has an ally, it is Basaev.

Translated by Claire C.RIMMER.

"Chechen Society" newspaper, #13, 04 July 2005
http://www.chechensociety.net/




Chechnya Rocks

The Phoenix rock festival is a big event, even for today’s Chechnya which in the
last 6 months has seen the arrival of “Glukosy”, “Zveri” and Baskov. The last
time that Russian rock groups organized a concert in the republic was the end of
the 1980s, beginning of the 1990s. The present 7 hour festival with the
participation of groups like “B-2”, “Voskresenie”, Nochnye Snaipery” and
“Miortvye Del’finy” (the Dead Dolphins) is an event of Russia-wide importance.
Artur Atsalamov explains why Chechnya needs this rock extravaganza in an
exclusive interview for the “Chechen Society” newspaper.

Interviewed by Timur ALIEV

- Artur, when you found out that a rock festival was taking place in Chechnya,
did you agree to take part in it straight away?

- YES.

- Chechnya has never really been a particularly “rocking” place (in the musical
sense of the term). Even in earlier times the republic could hardly scrape
together more than a thousand rock fans. What was the point of holding a
festival here?

- From a marketing point of view, pop acts have been a lot more welcome here but
from the social point of view rock music is the only type of music that has both
political and social nuances. So everything depends on the task before us.

In this case the task was not only to put on a musical concert but to stage a
large political campaign in the form of a rock festival, and in this context,
you can see that the “Factory of Stars” and similar pop stars, would not be
great.

I think that rock music is the only type of show business that is suitable for
this kind of thing. It is the most honest type of music. Although I have to
admit that Russian rock musicians are not all capable of producing beautiful,
strong songs for the world. There is a lot of dross...

- So, do you think that it is a good idea to hold this kind of rock festival in
Chechnya, every year? Or are you planning to hold other kinds of musical events
here?

- Of course it is!! For many reasons. First of all to stimulate and then to make
it possible for new acts to start up. There are new groups at nearly every
festival and there is always someone interesting with potential.

Why shouldn’t this be in Chechnya? Apart from the “Dead Dolphins” we don’t have
anything else to brag about and it is not for a lack of talent (I am sure). So
if this festival happens every year it will also provide a push for new Chechen
stars at the national level.

- In one of your last interviews you said that in Chechnya we had no real music
scene but that this was a temporary phenomenon. Has it appeared since?

- I think I answered this in the last question. If we are talking about today
then there isn’t one yet.

- You are almost the same age as Ramzan Kadyrov. Do you know him?

- We have only just got to know each other personally. As far as the “Dead
Dolphins” go, then he helped us a lot and it looks like this is only the start.
We now need to fulfill all the hopes that have been pinned on us. I think that
the “Dead Dolphins” will be able to manage this though. We were a strong group
without support and with his support we will be stronger still.

- You have been coming home a lot recently. Do you want to come back for good?
Have the Chechen authorities put this to you yet? Perhaps not as a musician but
as some sort of cultural representative?

- If I was offered the post of Minister of Culture then I would gladly accept.
At the end of the day I should use the experience I have gained so far in life
in this field.

Translated by Claire C.RIMMER.

"Chechen Society" newspaper, #13, 04 July 2005
http://www.chechensociety.net/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/message/45133