While hundreds of thousands protest against U.S. plans for a military operation against Iraq, are actions against the war in Chechnya few and far between. There is no reason for this, no acceptable reason to call the potential U.S. aggression worse than the Russian aggression in Chechnya. If we ignore Chechnya, it is as if it is not as important to pay attention when Russia committing atrocities in the United States does.
Even worse are the voices who imagine that there are many Muslims there, so they do not want to protest against the war because it could be understood that they support Islam. In fact, there was virtually no radical Muslims in the Republic until a while after the war began and there has been a growth, it is probably largely a result of the war has continued with little or no reaction from other than Muslims.
Eight years into the conflict, it is perhaps too late to start an anti-war campaign - but it should be done anyway, if only to attack racism and attention the plight of hundreds of thousands of Chechen refugees who are harassed daily in Russia and deported from western countries who refuse to take the hardships of war seriously.
Racism in Russia has already passed a sickening level. No one will not deny that the dark-skinned people are routinely harassed by the police, who are encouraged to do so. Pogroms of varying magnitude occur regularly. Politicians are utter bitter outcome, sometimes they try to hide their racism, sometimes not.
antiwar movement in Russia also marked the beginning of an anti-racist movement, for it was equally important to protest against racist ideas, prejudices and practices.
Many people in the movement in Russia was looking forward to the Soviet Empire's dissolution, but that does not mean that someone was looking forward to see nationalism grow as a mechanism to inspire the national liberation movements. Our anarchist position has never supported Chechen statehood and nationalism, but we have been even more critical of the imposition of Russian hegemony and economic exploitation in the area.
We see a clear difference in the Baltic, Ukrainian and kazakhiska movements for national liberation was received abroad and how the Chechen independence movement has been understood. Generally, with the exception of Kazakhstan (which is a relatively rich country with 50 percent of Russians in the population), have independence movements in the Caucasus and Central Asia in the worst case skymfats and feared, at best, met with suspicion. We could not see any forced moral reason why Latvia should recognized as independent by Russia but not the Chechens - apart from a European "högkultursú-chauvinism that dominates much of the common perception.
Despite sporadic protests and letter campaigns (and apart from support from Muslim communities and activists) exists an anti-war movement only in a handful of countries, including Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Georgia. Many who are involved in which has no activist background, for example, comprises "the soldiers 'mothers' only by the common people who had to organize themselves to save lives. Generally, there are in these countries have social movements at the grassroots level who have the habit of going out on the streets, so it has not been very many more protests. But the work against the war has gone on for years.
The anarchist response to the war, although relatively small in scale, have also been significant for several reasons, mainly because it has been for the most broad anti-war protests in major Russian cities. For years, the anarchists across Russia held demonstrations every week (although in some cities has been a major disruption of this ritual). In Poland, dozens of protesters carried: six demonstrations were held last year on the anniversary of the first war initiation and support collections have been made. Even in terms of collecting and delivering humanitarian aid, anarchists have been active. A few years ago there were two anarchists among a group kidnapped in Chechnya. They were later released and is still active in the efforts against the war.
Many people point to specific problems in Chechnya as a reason not to support an anti-war movement, or even to support the Russian occupation of the country. Kidnappings are an example. Apparently, few people sympathy for those who take aid workers hostage. Yet victims are often the first to point out that they do not want to blame the entire Chechen population to what a few do. Not surprisingly, there are few normal Chechens remained in the country and those who are there have been hardened by war and to see the atrocities carried out without Nagore public outcry. We imagine not that such would happen if the normal, civilian population and the everyday life of the country had been completely destroyed. We understand that it is a problematic place, but the reason for this lies mainly in the later years of history, no one "barbaric nature" of its people. It seems that the problems in Chechnya often exaggerated as an excuse to discreetly support the war and maintaining a Eurocentric world view.
There is a tremendous shame that the world did not react earlier by condemning this war. Now, in a situation where a "war against terror" has been declared - a war that is largely a matter of finding excuses for various geopolitical issues, racism and the problems resulting from abuse from the western side of capital - claims Russia that its racist and imperialist war has been a vanguard in this war on terror. To let such claims stand unchallenged will have enormous consequences. The antiwar movement must realize this and react. We encourage people to spread as much information as possible about the course of the war and launch protests against the Russian embassies in various cities. One day, we hope, will the excuses for this war to be revealed, so that they become harder to use next time.
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