Remarks by Ilyas Akhmadov, Foreign Minister of Chechnya
National Press Club, March 23, 2001

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Catherine Osgood of The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya recently submitted the following
document to Johnson's Russia List (March 28, 2001, issue #5173)

It has been a particularly disheartening couple of months for the Chechen nation. On February 24 the Russian news media first reported the discovery of a mass grave outside a Russian military base containing the bodies of between 60 and 200 Chechen civilians who had been brutally tortured then mercilessly executed. This revelation is nothing new in Chechnya, and yet, the international community has acted with indifference.

Russia's initial reaction was to claim that the victims found in the mass grave - within earshot of the Russian military base in Khankala - had been killed and buried by Chechen separatists. When the FSB realized how utterly implausible this sounded they backtracked and claimed that all the bodies had been dead for a very long time.

Fortunately, the laudable Russian NGO Memorial was able to document the gravesite with video and photographs. Revealed in Moscow, these photos clearly showed that many of the bodies had been decomposing for under two months, that among them were women and children, that many of them had their hands and feet bound behind their backs, and that almost all of them had been killed by a single bullet through the head fired at close range. You can find these photographs on the Memorial website.

Russia now claims that all of the victims were separatist guerillas. This too is utterly untrue. Memorial and several bold media outlets have tirelessly documented the stories of the victims "disappearances." Most victims were forcefully taken from their homes at night by heavily armed Russian security forces. Some were abducted at checkpoints when they could not pay a bribe. Others were taken at random from the streets. The only pattern is that these abductions are arbitrary and final.

I wish I could tell you that this mass grave is an exception. It is not. The Chechen people face arbitrary detention, torture, and summary execution as a basic fact of their daily lives. If they are able to avoid abduction, then they must fear bombings, shelling, and land mines.

Conservative estimates from Western and Russian NGO's place the number of dead at between 30,000 and 40,000 since 1999. A Russian parliamentarian who did extensive investigation in Chechnya estimates
the dead at 100,000. In addition, over 400,000 Chechen civilians have been displaced to Ingushetia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and other countries. The Interior Minister of Russia proudly claimed a year ago that Russian forces had detained 10,000 Chechens for processing through filtration camps. How many of them never returned no one can say.

Let there be no doubt: Russian forces are committing genocide against
the Chechen people.

The 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide' defines genocide as killing, injuring, or use of force "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." The world can no longer pretend that Russia does not intend to destroy 'in whole, or in part' the Chechen nation. Tens of thousands are dead, half the nation is displaced, nothing has been rebuilt, the war is at a stalemate, but Russia continues to fight its "dirty war" - as Human Rights Watch calls it - against the Chechen civilians with no desire to even discuss a political solution or improve civilian conditions.

There is one ray of hope amidst all of this misery. I have been in Washington, D.C. now for nearly two weeks. I have had discussions with Senators Wellstone and Brownback as well as dozens of others in
the Senate Cloak Room. I have had constructive discussions with Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Richard Perle, Frank Carlucci, Lee Hamiltion, Paula Dobriansky, Ken Bacon, and James Woolsey. And now, most
importantly, the State Department has finally agreed to meet with me for political discussions.

I will meet Assistant Secretary of State John Beyrle this afternoon at 3pm. For two years now I have requested such a meeting and for two years I was turned down. This meeting represents the first real
opportunity for the U.S. government to discuss the humanitarian situation and prospects for peace with a representative of the Chechen government. Of course, the State Department does not recognize Chechnya as an independent state and I do not expect them to do so at any time. Still, this meeting is the first ray of hope for the Chechen people that their plight is finally gaining the attention of the world's most powerful nation.

I would also like to note that on Wednesday Strobe Talbott, the former Deputy Secretary of State, and Amb. Steve Sestanovich joined me in a meeting with Ken Bacon. This meeting, though a little late, was substantive and I thank Mr. Talbott and Amb. Sestanovich for finally gathering the courage to meet with me.

At my discussion with the State Department I will present Mr. Beyrle a list of sixteen different realistic and achievable recommendations for action to help alleviate the disastrous humanitarian situation of the Chechen people.

On that list is a proposal made to me by a very influential former American policymaker to have the U.S. government photograph mass graves in Bosnia and Kosovo, they can do it again in Chechnya. The United States has a unique capability to reveal the truth of what is happening in Chechnya despite Russia's 'blackout' of information there. I ask them to use that power to publicly reveal what we already know: that Chechens are being detained and exterminated by the thousands for burial in shallow graves.

In addition, I will present the State Department with a peace plan agreed to by President Maskhadov that calls for face-to-face negotiations without preconditions. I believe the U.S. can play a crucial role in bringing Russian and Chechen counterparts to the table for serious negotiations toward a political solution. I hope Mr. Beyrle reviews this proposal closely.

For too long the U.S. and the international community has resolved to "never again" allow genocide to take place. Yet, they have turned a blind eye to the tragedy in Chechnya. I have in front of me countless reports and photographs from American and international NGOs documenting systematic human rights abuses amounting to nothing short of genocide. The evidence is here in these reports and can be confirmed with U.S. satellites. Let our children never say that the U.S. did not do enough to reveal the truth.

Today I ask the media to explore these accounts of gross human rights violations and I will ask the U.S. government to take realistic steps to help end the violence in Chechnya.

Thank you very much. I will now take questions. 

Last updated:    April 2001

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