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Chechnya: draft resolution tabled in the Belgian Senate by Marie-Jose Laloy
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Draft resolution for the recognition of the deportation of the Chechen people by Stalin in 1944 as a crime against humanity, and of the need for a political solution to the present Russo-Chechen conflict
Developments
Sixty years ago, on 23 February 1944, Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire population of Chechnya-Ingushetia, a total of over 478,000 people. Men, women and children were packed into sealed wagons and taken to Central Asia. Over a third of them died during the journey and during the first few years of exile. The survivors were forced to settle in these territories, which they were prohibited from leaving.
The deportation was a major undertaking which affected not only the Chechens and the Ingushetians. Between November 1943 and November 1944, various nationalities were listed among the deportees: Germans from the Volga, Koreans, Finnish, Greeks and Tatars from the Crimea, and then various peoples of the North and South Caucasus including Karachai, Kalmuks, Balkars, Meschetes, Kurds and Kemshins. In all, almost 2 million people would be deported to the East on the orders of Stalin. Historians refer to them as “punished peoples”
The decision was officially justified by the collaboration of the Chechen people with the Wehrmacht. In fact there was no large-scale collaboration, since the German army did not reach Chechnya. The consequences were, however, disastrous: the Chechens were dispossessed of all their properties, uprooted and forced into exile. All traces of their existence and their culture were wiped out and their land was redistributed among the neighbouring peoples.
As a humiliating symbol of the eradication of the Chechen people from their land, in 1949 the Soviet authorities placed a statue in Grozny of the Tsarist general Ermolov, who had led the conquest of the Caucasus at the beginning of the 19th century. On the base of the statue they engraved the General’s words: “Never has the earth seen a mob as base as the Chechens.”
It was not until the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev denounced the deportation and authorised the right to return of the deported peoples, that the restrictions on free movement were lifted. The Chechens and the Ingushetians, who were the most numerous, had to wait until 1957 and beyond to be able to return to their homeland.
The recognition of this deportation is an integral part of our duty to remember an event which constitutes a collective punishment, prohibited by the 4th Convention of The Hague of 1907, which Russia signed in 1909. A posteriori, it can also be defined as an act of genocide according to the Convention for the prevention and repression of the crime of genocide of 1948.
The sixtieth anniversary of the deportation is also an opportunity to draw attention to the current tragedy of the Chechen people. In ten years, two wars have torn apart the Chechen Republic and caused the death of around 200,000 people. The Museum of the Holocaust in New York has spoken of the threat of genocide. Faced with the policy of terror established by the Russian military forces and the pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary forces, 300,000 Chechens have had to flee to neighbouring countries, especially to Ingushetia. As a result of the process of so-called normalisation called for by Putin, they are now forced to leave Ingushetia, in contrast with the principle of voluntary return guaranteed by the Geneva Convention of 1951.
Behind this process of so-called ‘normalisation’, confirmed by a referendum held on 23 March 2003 and by the presidential elections of 5 October 2003, two votes that trampled on all the rules of democracy, the war and above all the policy of terror - kidnappings, torture, summary executions, rape, etc. - conducted against civilians continue to bring numerous victims every day. Moreover, 84% of Chechen children are sick or in poor health. The Chechen territory, a battle square for the Russian military forces, devastated and polluted, is completely mined. On the Russian side at least 4,749 soldiers were killed in Chechnya between August 2002 to August 2003 alone, which gives the lie to the normalisation proclaimed in Moscow.
Proposals for a solution do exist, however, and could serve as the basis of Russo-Chechen negotiations for the settlement of the conflict. Among them is the plan for the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya. Proposed by the government of Aslan Maskhadov, the plan is based on the models of Kosovo and East Timor and proposes a status of conditional independence.
Draft resolution
The Senate,
Considering that the deportation of the whole Chechen people conducted in 1944 on the orders of Stalin led to the death of one third of the deportees and therefore constitutes, in international law, an act of genocide;
Considering that the illegal nature of the deportation was recognised in 1956 by the Soviet authorities, but recalling that the deportation has never been recognised as a crime of genocide either by the Soviet authorities or by the Russian authorities;
Firmly denouncing the resumption since 1999 of “open war” by the Russian military forces against the Chechen people and the unspeakable suffering that this war and the policy of terror that accompanies it bring on the Chechen civilian population;
Considering that the methods employed in the framework of the current conflict in Chechnya – particularly the recourse to disappearances, summary executions, rape, torture, and the forced return of refugees – are contrary to the most elementary rules of international law to which the Russian Federation is bound, such as the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Convention for the protection of human rights and the fundamental freedoms of 1950;
Considering that this conflict continues to cause many victims every day and that its continuation jeopardises the survival of the Chechen people;
Calls on the government:
-to recognise and condemn the deportation of the Chechen people by Stalin in 1944 as a crime against humanity, an act of genocide, in flagrant violation of the international obligations to which the Soviet Union was bound, such as the 4th Convention of The Hague of 1907;
-to recognise that an open war is currently being waged on the territory of the Chechen Republic;
-to condemn this war which has already caused over 200,000 victims since 1994 and which keeps the Chechen civilian population in a constant climate of oppression and terror and seriously threatens the prospect of the democratisation of the Russian Federation;
-to call on the Russian Federation to cease immediately its military operations in the Chechen Republic and to open negotiations with Mr Aslan Maskhadov, the Chechen President elected in 1997 under the aegis of the OSCE;
-to review the list of countries towards which refugees cannot be repatriated, adding to it the Republic of Chechnya, which was withdrawn from the list in December 2003 despite the continuation of the war;
-to include on the agenda of the next meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union the question of the war in Chechnya, the need to condemn the war, and the pressing obligation to bring it to an end as soon as possible;
-to propose to the other member countries of the European Union to promote the adoption by the next meeting of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva of a resolution condemning the extremely serious violations of human rights in Chechnya;
-to evaluate, together with the other member countries of the European Union, the feasibility of the Peace Plan presented by the government of Aslan Maskhadov, which proposes the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya;
-to provide for the official welcome of Chechen representatives of the Maskhadov government and of Russian anti-war political forces, and to offer itself as a mediator in negotiations;
-to present an interstate action against Russia before the European Court for Human Rights;
-to propose to the other member countries of the European Union the joint presentation of a resolution in the General Assembly of the United Nations calling for the creation of an ad hoc International Criminal Court for Chechnya;
-to propose to the other members of the Council of Europe the suspension of Russia if it does not rapidly and radically change its policy towards Chechnya;
-to call on the European Union to implement a special plan to accept Chechen refugees.
12 February 2004
Marie-Jose Laloy
Developments
Sixty years ago, on 23 February 1944, Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire population of Chechnya-Ingushetia, a total of over 478,000 people. Men, women and children were packed into sealed wagons and taken to Central Asia. Over a third of them died during the journey and during the first few years of exile. The survivors were forced to settle in these territories, which they were prohibited from leaving.
The deportation was a major undertaking which affected not only the Chechens and the Ingushetians. Between November 1943 and November 1944, various nationalities were listed among the deportees: Germans from the Volga, Koreans, Finnish, Greeks and Tatars from the Crimea, and then various peoples of the North and South Caucasus including Karachai, Kalmuks, Balkars, Meschetes, Kurds and Kemshins. In all, almost 2 million people would be deported to the East on the orders of Stalin. Historians refer to them as “punished peoples”
The decision was officially justified by the collaboration of the Chechen people with the Wehrmacht. In fact there was no large-scale collaboration, since the German army did not reach Chechnya. The consequences were, however, disastrous: the Chechens were dispossessed of all their properties, uprooted and forced into exile. All traces of their existence and their culture were wiped out and their land was redistributed among the neighbouring peoples.
As a humiliating symbol of the eradication of the Chechen people from their land, in 1949 the Soviet authorities placed a statue in Grozny of the Tsarist general Ermolov, who had led the conquest of the Caucasus at the beginning of the 19th century. On the base of the statue they engraved the General’s words: “Never has the earth seen a mob as base as the Chechens.”
It was not until the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev denounced the deportation and authorised the right to return of the deported peoples, that the restrictions on free movement were lifted. The Chechens and the Ingushetians, who were the most numerous, had to wait until 1957 and beyond to be able to return to their homeland.
The recognition of this deportation is an integral part of our duty to remember an event which constitutes a collective punishment, prohibited by the 4th Convention of The Hague of 1907, which Russia signed in 1909. A posteriori, it can also be defined as an act of genocide according to the Convention for the prevention and repression of the crime of genocide of 1948.
The sixtieth anniversary of the deportation is also an opportunity to draw attention to the current tragedy of the Chechen people. In ten years, two wars have torn apart the Chechen Republic and caused the death of around 200,000 people. The Museum of the Holocaust in New York has spoken of the threat of genocide. Faced with the policy of terror established by the Russian military forces and the pro-Russian Chechen paramilitary forces, 300,000 Chechens have had to flee to neighbouring countries, especially to Ingushetia. As a result of the process of so-called normalisation called for by Putin, they are now forced to leave Ingushetia, in contrast with the principle of voluntary return guaranteed by the Geneva Convention of 1951.
Behind this process of so-called ‘normalisation’, confirmed by a referendum held on 23 March 2003 and by the presidential elections of 5 October 2003, two votes that trampled on all the rules of democracy, the war and above all the policy of terror - kidnappings, torture, summary executions, rape, etc. - conducted against civilians continue to bring numerous victims every day. Moreover, 84% of Chechen children are sick or in poor health. The Chechen territory, a battle square for the Russian military forces, devastated and polluted, is completely mined. On the Russian side at least 4,749 soldiers were killed in Chechnya between August 2002 to August 2003 alone, which gives the lie to the normalisation proclaimed in Moscow.
Proposals for a solution do exist, however, and could serve as the basis of Russo-Chechen negotiations for the settlement of the conflict. Among them is the plan for the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya. Proposed by the government of Aslan Maskhadov, the plan is based on the models of Kosovo and East Timor and proposes a status of conditional independence.
Draft resolution
The Senate,
Considering that the deportation of the whole Chechen people conducted in 1944 on the orders of Stalin led to the death of one third of the deportees and therefore constitutes, in international law, an act of genocide;
Considering that the illegal nature of the deportation was recognised in 1956 by the Soviet authorities, but recalling that the deportation has never been recognised as a crime of genocide either by the Soviet authorities or by the Russian authorities;
Firmly denouncing the resumption since 1999 of “open war” by the Russian military forces against the Chechen people and the unspeakable suffering that this war and the policy of terror that accompanies it bring on the Chechen civilian population;
Considering that the methods employed in the framework of the current conflict in Chechnya – particularly the recourse to disappearances, summary executions, rape, torture, and the forced return of refugees – are contrary to the most elementary rules of international law to which the Russian Federation is bound, such as the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Convention for the protection of human rights and the fundamental freedoms of 1950;
Considering that this conflict continues to cause many victims every day and that its continuation jeopardises the survival of the Chechen people;
Calls on the government:
-to recognise and condemn the deportation of the Chechen people by Stalin in 1944 as a crime against humanity, an act of genocide, in flagrant violation of the international obligations to which the Soviet Union was bound, such as the 4th Convention of The Hague of 1907;
-to recognise that an open war is currently being waged on the territory of the Chechen Republic;
-to condemn this war which has already caused over 200,000 victims since 1994 and which keeps the Chechen civilian population in a constant climate of oppression and terror and seriously threatens the prospect of the democratisation of the Russian Federation;
-to call on the Russian Federation to cease immediately its military operations in the Chechen Republic and to open negotiations with Mr Aslan Maskhadov, the Chechen President elected in 1997 under the aegis of the OSCE;
-to review the list of countries towards which refugees cannot be repatriated, adding to it the Republic of Chechnya, which was withdrawn from the list in December 2003 despite the continuation of the war;
-to include on the agenda of the next meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the European Union the question of the war in Chechnya, the need to condemn the war, and the pressing obligation to bring it to an end as soon as possible;
-to propose to the other member countries of the European Union to promote the adoption by the next meeting of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva of a resolution condemning the extremely serious violations of human rights in Chechnya;
-to evaluate, together with the other member countries of the European Union, the feasibility of the Peace Plan presented by the government of Aslan Maskhadov, which proposes the establishment of an interim United Nations administration in Chechnya;
-to provide for the official welcome of Chechen representatives of the Maskhadov government and of Russian anti-war political forces, and to offer itself as a mediator in negotiations;
-to present an interstate action against Russia before the European Court for Human Rights;
-to propose to the other member countries of the European Union the joint presentation of a resolution in the General Assembly of the United Nations calling for the creation of an ad hoc International Criminal Court for Chechnya;
-to propose to the other members of the Council of Europe the suspension of Russia if it does not rapidly and radically change its policy towards Chechnya;
-to call on the European Union to implement a special plan to accept Chechen refugees.
12 February 2004
Marie-Jose Laloy
