The Foreign Minister of the separatist government of the Republic of Chechnya, Ilyas Akhmadov, discussed the ongoing conflict in the region in a speech held in McCosh 10 yesterday. Akhmadov pushed for his recent peace proposal calling for the involvement of United Nations peacekeepers to reach a much needed solution. Akhmadov has been the republic's foreign minister since 1999, the year Russian troops were sent into Chechnya for the second time in the last decade.
Akhamadov emphasized that in the agreement ending the first Chechen war, which took place from 1994 to 1996 and in which, he claimed, 180,000 civilians died — the Russian government took responsibility for rehabilitating the Chechen people and repairing damages committed. But he alleged Russia has not lived up to those commitments and "nothing was really restored."
In the inter-war period from 1996 to 1999, Russia prevented international organizations from providing assistance in the region, he claimed.
Akhmadov said there is little chance that the current conflict will end soon.
"This war is in its fourth year and there is no sign that on the Russian side, they're going to stop the war, nor on the Chechen side, that they will stop the resistance," he said.
There is only a "very small chance" that Chechnya could ever be a regular member of the Russian Federation.
Akhmadov said Russian president Vladimir Putin's desire to "finally and completely" solve the crisis in Chechnya concerns him.
"This is something which sounds similar to what Hitler said in the 1940s about the Jewish question," Akhmadov said.
He also said that any attempts from the international community to encourage a peaceful solution have been met with "total hysteria" by the Russian government.
The March 23 constitutional referendum conducted by Russian officials in Chechnya, which reaffirmed the region's status as a republic of Russia, was illegitimate, Akhmodov said. He claimed that many people were forced to vote in the referendum and that Russian soldiers stationed in the region were eligible to participate.
Akhmadov said the referendum was strongly criticized by the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights and by organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
"I think that the Kremlin has found a new way of solving political conflicts and that involves no discussion at all with the other side," he said.
A peace proposal released by Chechnya's Foreign Ministry in recent weeks calls for the withdrawal of all Russian troops from the republic and for U.N. peacekeepers to be brought in to maintain order.
The plan also calls for the United Nations to establish a transitional government in Chechnya while preparations for a democratic government take place. Finally, the plan calls for complete disarmament of the civilian population, he said.
This proposal would benefit both parties involved in the conflict and the Russian government could discontinue its large military expenditures in Chechnya, he said.
In response to a question regarding terrorist acts committed by Chechens, Akhmadov said, "we are in the situation of a guerilla war so Chechen officials don't have complete control over what's going on."
However, Chechen president Aslan Mashkadov has condemned these actions and calls for punishment of the guilty, he said.
The talk was sponsored by Global Issues Forum and the Woodrow Wilson School.
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