August, 16, 2005

Chechenia - a subject of International law

The history of Chechen-Ingushetia is decades of bloody struggle of freedom-loving peoples against colonizers (A.Avtorhanov, a political scientist ).

Historical development of the Caucasian peoples and their struggle for independence of the last four centuries confirms that the main reason of tragedies and troubles of the peoples of the Caucasus is caused with presence of Russian colonizers in the Caucasus .

Russian colonial-aggressive politics has always been directed at the conquest of the Caucasian peoples and capture of their natural resources, especially, from Chechens. From the very beginning of the Russian colonial policy (the so-called policy of "collecting of Russian lands”) some Caucasian peoples, as well as many tens of other peoples, who turned out to be on the way of the barbarous revelry of Russian conquerors, stopped existing as ethnos ( Ubyhs , for example). And others are constantly subjected to military and not only military aggressions for centuries. Moreover, genocide is accomplished in relation to many peoples, which, it is possible to say, has acquired a system character. But, despite of it, for several centuries Russian colonizers has not managed to subdue the Caucasus and peoples occupying it.

The peoples of the Caucasus always together, shoulder to shoulder, battled against the overseas aggressors. They, according to the historical data, together beat off invasion of Scythians, Iranian Sasanids , Hazar kaganat , and intrusions of hordes of Chingis Khan to the Caucasus and, at last, the colonial aggression of the Russian empire. The proof to all this is numerous military battles in the territory of the Caucasus . The national-liberation wars lead by Sheikh Mansur, Imam Shamil and other leaders of incorporated forces of the Caucasus have a special place in the heroic history of the Caucasian peoples. The deportation of the Caucasian peoples in 1944 is a part of the circuit of these incessant wars. And also the Russo-Chechen war of 1994-1996 and the new Russo-Chechen war imposed by Russia in 1999, proceeding now. Both all these past and modern wars are marked with numerous facts of liquidation of peoples, ethnic groups and simply civil unarmed population by the Russian soldiery.

Following the example of their heroic ancestors, today the peoples of the Caucasus struggle against the neo-imperious Kremlin regime, defend their primordial lands from the barbarous invasion of the Russian colonizer. not only military forces of the Chechen Resistance, but also fighting djamaats , operating in Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Circassia, Adygea, Stavropol and other regions of the Caucasus testify to it.

After disintegration of the communistic system, when all peoples of the autonomous republics approved the Declarations on the State sovereignty, only Chechen people were the first, who showed to the world, that they had finally and irrevocably made their choice and that they were not going to change this way. Officially the Russo-Chechen war is considered to begin on the 11 th of December, 1994 . In my opinion, it is an erroneous representation. Russia had begun the war against the Chechen people long before this date. The Russo-Chechen war began in autumn, 1991, that is, since the declaration of the state sovereignty in Chechenia and the first landing of the retaliatory armies of the Russian Federation in Hankala . To tell the truth, at that moment Yeltsin and his clique did not dare to unleash bloodshed, but the method and the form “of solving of the Chechen problem” had already been determined then by the Kremlin for many years forward.

Taking into consideration the historical experience of struggle of the Caucasian peoples against Russian colonizers, and meeting the will of the Chechen people, in 1991 the Chechen people declared the State sovereignty, what was done not only in full conformity with working Principles of the Charter of the United Nations “About the right of nations for self-determination”, but also according to the soviet and republican constitutions of the USSR, in which the right of peoples for self-determination - up to creation of independent states, was proclaimed. From the moment of the announcement of the State sovereignty of the CIR , that is, since 1991, Russia wages a fierce war against the freedom-loving Chechen people, the purpose of which is to keep these people in the structure of the Russian Federation in a violent way. Therefore the Russo-Chechen war, probably, began not in 1994, but in 1991.

1

At the end of 1991 the RSFSR, which had not defined yet its law subjectivity, makes an attempt to keep the Chechen Republic in its legal field, deprived of civil rights. For this purpose in vice-president of the RSFSR A. Rutskoi goes to the CIR. According to A. Rutskoi's report, on the 8 th of October, 1991 the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, makes a decision “About a political situation in the Chechen-Ingush Republic ”. the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR recognizes the “Temporary Supreme Council”, proclaimed in September, 1991 under the insisting of then acting as the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR Ruslan Khasbulatov as a lawful body of the government in the Chechen-Ingush Republic, instead of the dismissed by the Chechen people on the 4 th of September, 1991, Supreme Council of the CIASSR with this decision.

In two days, that is on the 10 th of October, 1991, already the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, makes a new decision “About the situation in the Chechen-Ingush Republic” where the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR and the vice-president of the RSFSR is entrusted “to provide necessary conditions for restoration of legality and the law and order in the territory of the CIR” . All the above-stated statutory acts were illegal as the Chechen-Ingush Republic was not a subject of the RSFSR, and also the RSFSR had not defined its sovereignty yet, and for that moment was not a subject of the International law. It is necessary to recognize, that these illegal action in relation to the CIR had a positive influence on unity of the Chechen people. Soon there is a split in the Temporary Supreme Council of the CIR. Its one part joins the Executive committee of the OKCHN, and the other part joins the so-called “party of war”. This part, led by an old agent of the Russian special services Avturhanov, undertakes the actions provoking power measures of Moscow against the Chechen people.

On the 19 th of October, 1991, the President of the RSFSR B. Yeltsin in the Application to the people of the CIR shows to leaders of the Executive committee of the OKCHN the ultimatum, in which he suggests fulfilling of the decisions of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR “About the political situation in the CIR” of the 8 th of October, 1991, and the Decision of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR “About situation in the Chechen-Ingush Republic” of the 10 th of October, 1991 “within three days”. In his application B. Yeltsin also demands “carry out elections to the Supreme Council of the CIR on the 17th of November, and a referendum about the state system, as it is stipulated by the decision of the Temporary Supreme Council of the CRI. In the application there were also demands to dismiss the OKCHN and armed formations immediately, to leave all administrative, public buildings, to hand over the weapon to law-enforcement bodies”.

All actions of Moscow cause a boomerang effect and the political situation in the Chechen-Ingush Republic completely passes under the control of the executive committee of the OKCHN. The people of Chechenia actively prepare for carrying out of the elective company for elections of the first President and deputies of the Parliament of the sovereign Chechen state, appointed for October, 27, 1991 . In order to prevent carrying out of these elections though somehow, A. Arsanov is appointed to the post of “the representative of the President of the RSFSR in the Chechen-Ingush Republic ” by the Decree of the President of the RSFSR of the 24th of October. But A. Arsanov failed to prevent the elections of the President and the Parliament in the CIR, which, as well as it had been planned, took place on the 27th of October, 1991 .

International observers from more than 40 countries take part in these elections, and they officially confirm that elections pass without any infringements of the rights and freedom of the citizens. Djohar Dudaev is elected as the president, and the inauguration of the first president took place on the 9 th of November, 1991 .

On the 1 st of November, 1991 , the first President of the CR Djohar Dudaev issues the Decree №1 “About the State sovereignty of the Chechen Republic ”. The text of the Decree says, “Being guided with the Declaration of the State sovereignty of the republic and the will of citizens of the Chechen Republic , expressed with the straight and general elections, to declare the State sovereignty of the Chechen Republic since the 1 st of November, 1991 . The President of the Chechen Republic D. Dudaev”.

D. Dudaev's decree again confirms the sovereignty of the Chechen state, and since that moment the Constitution of the RSFSR was suspended in the territory of the Chechen Republic . Thus, a new independent Chechen state appeared in the political map of the Caucasus .

Establishing of the Chechen state is a result of centuries-old struggle of the Chechen people for national release from the Russian colonial oppression. From the point of view of International law, the legal subjectivity of Chechenia does not cause doubt and does not need other substantiations or additional arguments from the legal side.

After the declaration of independence, bilateral agreements on regulation of the legal, political and economic relations were achieved between the government of the RSFSR and the CR . preliminary arrangements on the full mutual recognition of the sovereignty of two states was achieved by negotiations between the official delegations of the RSFSR and the CR , what according to the International rules of law is de facto a recognition of the independence of the Chechen Republic on the part of the Russian Federation.

However, contrary to the achieved arrangements, for the second day after the issue of the Decree №1 “About the State sovereignty of the CR”, that is on the 2 nd of November, 1991 , the special fifth congress of the People's Deputies of the RSFSR approves the illegal decision “about the recognition of the elections in the CIR to be void”. On the 8 th of November, the same year in order to interfere with the inauguration of the first President of the CR D. Dudaev planned for the 9 th of November, the President of the RSFSR B. Yeltsin signs the decree №178 “About the state of emergency in the Chechen-Ingush Republic” since the 9 th of November till the 9 th of December, 1991.

The aggressive Decree №178 played a huge historical role in rallying of the Chechen people and their readiness to defend their independence up to the end and to protect their right for self-determination.

In these extreme conditions the President and the Parliament of the Chechen Republic are strenuously engaged in reforming and adjustment of structures of the government. Whereas the RSFSR was not defined yet in its state sovereignty.

The Belovezha arrangement of the leaders of three Slavic republics in December, 1991 finally disorganized the USSR . From the legal point of view, only after that arrangement the legal consolidation of the Russian state sovereignty began. In the beginning of 1992 twelve new independent states of the post-Soviet space were recognized as subjects of the International law, and the RSFSR was recognized not as a subject of the International law, but as a legal successor of the USSR by the International community. The constitutional formation of the independent Russian state as a subject of the International law came to the end only on the 12 th of December, 1993 , with approving of the Constitution of the Russian Federation - Russia . By this time the Chechen Republic had already celebrated the 2 nd anniversary of establishing of the independent state.

It follows, that even before the disintegration of the USSR the Chechen Republic was a subject of the International law and joined the International Organization of the unrecognized peoples, and also the representations of the President of the CR were opened in the USA, Turkey, Germany, Jordan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Norway and other states of the world. Thus, even before establishing of the independent Russian state the CR was de facto a subject of the International law.

(To be continued…)

Ilmadi Shaihiev, for Chechenpress, 16.08.05.
http://chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2005/08/16/03.shtml