The inviolability of internationally recognized borders, in this case, no longer makes sense.

The Chechens Want Out

The following text is extracted from "Ignore the Chechens at Your Peril" by Yo'av Karny, The Washington Post, May 6, 2001. The whole article can be found at
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47302-2001May5.html>
or
<http://www.peaceinchechnya.org/>

…

Chechnya, that obscure speck of a territory at the very end of Europe, is disappearing into a black hole. Two brutal wars with Russia have been fought on its territory since 1994. To all intents and purposes, it has ceased to be humanly habitable. Its economy has been destroyed by a decade of upheaval. About one-tenth of its pre-1994 population has perished, more than a third of its citizens have become refugees. And a bloody "low intensity" war is raging as we speak. … The world gets used to such constantly bleeding wounds, and Chechnya no longer merits much attention … But we ignore the steady stream of horrors in Chechnya at our peril.
…

To the extent that the outside world even notices Chechnya, it shows a great ambivalence: On the one hand it is difficult to ignore the appalling statistics (the Chechens have, since 1994, suffered proportionately greater casualties than any European people since World War II, indeed more than most Europeans suffered during World War II). On the other hand the behavioral traits of this unfamiliar, insular people have earned them few friends. They have been faulted for unrealism, for nearly narcissistic infatuation with acts of heroic futility, for factionalism and lack of national discipline. And yet, for the past 220 years, since their first bloody encounter with the Russians, their resistance has been unequalled. Not one among the many ethnic groups that have fallen under Russia's yoke in the past five centuries has risen up in arms -- and been defeated -- so often, nor come back from the dead time and again. … However a Western onlooker might characterize the Chechens, it is hard to misunderstand their message: They want out.

It is ironic that two of the former Soviet republics whose independence is internationally recognizedare now volunteering to be reabsorbed into a Russia-centered union, while the independence-craving Chechens are kept in against their will. … Moldova and Belarus were set free in 1991 because of a whim dating to Stalin's rule: Ethnic provinces located along the international borders of the Soviet Union had been accorded the status of a full "Union republic" -- a formula generated by expediency and cynicism, often with little deference to history and common sense. Yet in 1991 those "Union republics" successfully claimed independence and were instantly recognized -- while lesser republics, such as Chechnya (only an "autonomous republic" under the Soviet designation), remained prisoners of the old empire.

The absurdity of this is patent: Artificial entities were preferred to historical ones, and people quite comfortable in the Russian realm were shown the door while those with ancient grievances were refused exit. The excuse for maintaining this arrangement has been the inviolability of internationally recognized borders -- a principle that in this case no longer makes sense. With a redrawing of the European map since 1991 on a scale not seen since the days of Napoleon, why maintain the inviolability of borders only in little Chechnya?

An independent Chechen state -- the stated aim of the rebels -- might well be economically unviable; it could indeed become the destabilizing factor that Russia fears. One way to address legitimate Russian concerns, and to alleviate Chechen suffering, would be to develop a variant of the arrangement that exists in East Timor: Chechnya would cease to be Russian without immediately becoming independent. It could be placed under an international regime and be helped gradually into statehood. The considerable Chechen diaspora in the Middle East, blessed with technical expertise and scientific know-how and driven by an exceptional sense of loyalty to the old country, should take a leading role in preparing for a genuine Chechen independence 10 or 20 years from now.

There are no easy solutions, but for Chechnya to be ignored, or to be relegated to the category of inevitable tragedy or eventually dismissed as a "terrorist nation," would be an act of supreme folly. It would also be an immoral act toward a colonized people whose suffering is yet to be recognized.

Yo'av Karny is the author of the recently published "Highlanders: A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).