			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

	                  ,,ggddY"""Ybbgg,,
	             ,agd888b,_ "Y8, ___`""Ybga,
	          ,gdP""88888888baa,.""8b    "888g,
	        ,dP"     ]888888888P'  "Y     `888Yb,
	      ,dP"      ,88888888P"  db,       "8P""Yb,
	     ,8"       ,888888888b, d8888a           "8,
	    ,8'        d88888888888,88P"' a,          `8,
	   ,8'         88888888888888PP"  ""           `8,
	   d'          I88888888888P"                   `b
	   8           `8"88P""Y8P'                      8
	   8            Y 8[  _ "                        8
	   8              "Y8d8b  "Y a                   8
	   8                 `""8d,   __                 8
	   Y,                    `"8bd888b,             ,P
	   `8,                     ,d8888888baaa       ,8'
	    `8,                    888888888888'      ,8'
	     `8a                   "8888888888I      a8'
	      `Yba                  `Y8888888P'    adP'
	        "Yba                 `888888P'   adY"
	          `"Yba,             d8888P" ,adP"'
	             `"Y8baa,      ,d888P,ad8P"'
	                  ``""YYba8888P""''


AMERICA ABETS RUSSIA'S CRIMES IN THE CAUCASUS
by
Eric Margolis  8 April 1996

NEW YORK - When I began writing three years ago about the
Chechen people's seemingly impossible struggle to regain
their independence after 250 years of savage Russian
colonial rule, few people had ever heard of the tiny
Caucasian nation of 1.2 million fierce mountaineers.

Chechnya, then unknown and unlamented,  was only worthy of a
few, back-page lines.  Newspaper editors used to dismiss 
reports from such remote places as `Afghan stories' - at
least until the once obscure Afghan struggle against Soviet
invasion finally defeated the Red Army and led to the
collapse of the mighty Soviet Union.

Today, Chechnya is front-page news.  Russian President Boris
Yeltsin publically admits that failure to end the war in
Chechnya may cost him re-election in June. This week,
Yeltsin declared yet another cease-fire and peace plan. For
the first time, Yeltsin offered to deal with the elected
Chechen national leader, President Dzhokar Dudayev. 

But no one seemed to believe Yeltsin - except perhaps for
President Clinton. In Chechnya, Russian generals openly
contradicted their president, declaring the war would go on
`until all the Muslim bandits are killed.'  Russia's
military continued its scorched earth campaign,  using heavy
artillery, rockets and bombs to pulverize any Chechen
village, town or city deemed `unfriendly.'  

When the Soviet Union broke up, Chechnya declared 
independence.  The world failed to recognized the little
nation,  though its people probably suffered more from
Russian  savagery than any other on earth.  In 1944, Stalin
sent 75% of the entire Chechen people to Siberian
concentration camps.  For the past 250 years, Russia 
resorted to genocide to crush attempts by Chechen to regain
their independence.

After Chechen fighters routed a KGB invasion force  in mid-
1994, whose goal was the overthrow of President Dudayev,
Moscow sent in the Russian Army in December, 1994.  Since
then, Russian forces have killed 40,000 Chechens and laid
waste the country. Two thousand Chechen `disappeared' after
being arrested by KGB and Interior Ministry units.  Human
rights organizations accuse Russian forces of mass
executions, bloodthirsty reprisals, and widespread torture. 

Shockingly, President Clinton keeps supporting Russia's
criminal war in Chechnya.  He personally rammed a new, US $
10.2 billion loan for Yeltsin through the IMF, half of which
will go to pay for the war.  Clinton even  publically
endorsed the war, saying that he backed Russia's need to
`maintain its territorial integrity.'


Last month, US Secretary of State Warren Christopher
announced in Moscow that US-Russian relations were
`excellent,' - at the very moment Russian forces were
exterminating large numbers of Chechen civilians.  While
Clinton anguished on TV over terror attacks that left 63
Israelis dead, he remained mute over Soviet terrorism in
Chechnya that killed 600 times more civilians.

The respected Georgian writer, Melor Sturua, a columnist for
the leading Russian newspaper, `Izvestia,' wrote recently of
America's disgraceful silence over Chechnya: `I remember a
time when the arrest of even one Soviet dissident would
create a storm of indignation here(in the US). Soviet
embassies were picketed, Soviet goods boycotted, Soviet
crimes were condemned.'  Congress imposed trade sanctions on
the USSR to force it to allow Jewish emigration to Israel. 
Today, after Russia slaughters  42,000 Chechens, Washington
gives Moscow US $10.2 billion.

In Afghanistan,as I experienced firsthand, Soviet forces
targeted and hunted journalists. They wanted to commit their
crimes in the dark.  Russia follows the same policy in
Chechnya: reporters are banned or threatened.  Of 42 serious
attacks against Russian journalists last year, half were
believed to have been the work of the Yeltsin government.
Many victims were harsh critics of the Chechen war.

In Chechnya, Moscow is using the same terror tactics I saw
in Afghanistan:  promotion by KGB of `ethnic turmoil' among
different tribes and local leaders.  Threats and
intimidation, followed by selective assassinations.  If
these fail, mass destruction of civilian areas, poisoning of
fields and water, slaughter of livestock.  Mass reprisals
and acts of terror, then wholesale genocide.

A campaign of state-directed racism warns the Russian public
that all Chechen are `bandits,' and `Muslim terrorists.'  
Traditional Russian hatred of Muslims is relentlessly
whipped up, aided by the many KGB agents within the clergy
of the Russian Orthodox Church. The new KGB director, taking
a page from Dr. Goebbels, recently declared, `The Chechen
can only be a murderer, a robber, or at least a thief.'

A horrifying, loathsome spectacle.  As lightly-armed Chechen
fight like mountain lions against Russian tanks and
gunships,  Clinton backs Moscow. He needs Yeltsin for his
own elections this year. The price of Yeltsin's support is
American silence over genocide in Chechnya.  Canada, the
font of morality, remains mute about Russia's crimes, lest
its wheat exports be hurt. 

Europe winks at Russian genocide - as it did at Serbian
genocide in Bosnia.   Muslim nations again do nothing.
Malaysia even goes ahead and shamelessly buys Russian
warplanes. 


Claims by Moscow and the Clinton Administration that Russia
faces national break-up if Chechnya is allowed independence
are nonsense.  Save for handfuls of  other subject Caucasian
peoples on Russia's southern edge, like Ingush, Cherkass,
and Daghestanis, Russia's other autonomous-minded regions,
like Tatarstan or Yakutia, are deep within Slav territory.   
  
It's time for the west to tell Russia: Stop your crimes in
the Caucasus. Set the Chechens free.

@copyright    Eric Margolis  1996

*****************************************************************
*****************************************************************
---------------------------------------------------------------
	To receive Foreign Correspondent via email send a note
	to Majordomo@lglobal.com with the message in the body:
		subscribe foreignc
	To get off the list, send to the same address but write:
		unsubscribe foreignc
	Back Issues can be obtained from:
		ftp.lglobal.com/pub/foreignc
	For Syndication Information please contact:
	   Email: emargolis@lglobal.com
	   FAX: (416) 960-4803
	   Smail:
		Eric Margolis
		c/o Editorial Department
		The Toronto Sun
		333 King St. East
		Toronto Ontario Canada
		M5A 3X5
---------------------------------------------------------------

