[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 22 (Thursday, February 15, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1528-S1529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 27--TO EXPRESS THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE 
 1944 DEPORTATION OF THE CHECHEN PEOPLE TO CENTRAL ASIA, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES

  Mr. HELMS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Relations.

                               S. Res. 27

       Whereas for more than 200 years, the Chechen people have 
     resisted the efforts of the Russian government to drive them 
     from their land and to deny them their own culture;
       Whereas beginning on February 23, 1944, nearly 500,000 
     Chechen civilians from the northern Caucasus were arrested en 
     masse and forced onto trains for deportation to central Asia;
       Whereas tens of thousands of Chechens, mainly women, 
     children, and the elderly, died en route to central Asia;
       Whereas mass killings and the use of poisons against the 
     Chechen people accompanied the deportation;
       Whereas the Chechen deportees were not given food, housing, 
     or medical attention upon their arrival in central Asia;
       Whereas the Soviet Union actively attempted to suppress all 
     expressions of Chechen culture, including language, 
     architecture, literature, music, and familial relations 
     during the exile of the Chechen people;
       Whereas it is generally accepted that more than one-third 
     of the Chechen population died in transit during the 
     deportation or while living in exile in central Asia;
       Whereas the deportation order was not repealed until 1957;
       Whereas the Chechens who returned to Chechnya found their 
     homes and land taken over by new residents who violently 
     opposed the Chechen return; and
       Whereas neither the Soviet Union, nor its successor, the 
     Russian Federation, has ever accepted full responsibility for 
     the brutalities inflicted upon the Chechen people: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the United States should commemorate the 57th 
     anniversary of the brutal deportation of the Chechen people 
     from their native land;
       (2) the current war in Chechnya should be viewed within the 
     historical context of repeated abuses suffered by the Chechen 
     people at the hands of the Russian state;
       (3) the United States Government should make every effort 
     to alleviate the suffering of the Chechen people; and
       (4) it is in the interests of the United States, the 
     Russian Federation, Chechnya, and the international community 
     to find an immediate, peaceful, and political solution to the 
     war in Chechnya.

  +Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, next week will mark the tragic anniversary 
of Stalin's mass deportation of Chechen civilians from the northern 
Caucasus to the barren steps of Central Asia. In the early morning 
hours of February 23, 1944, thousands of Chechen families were ordered 
out of their homes, arrested, and loaded on to rail cars. Some five 
hundred thousand Chechens were deported to Central Asia. Tens of 
thousands, mainly women, children, and the elderly, died en route to 
Central Asia.
  These deportations were part of Stalin's systematic effort to 
suppress the

[[Page S1529]]

Chechen people and to strip them of their culture and history, 
including their language, architecture, music and even familial ties.
  It was only in 1957 that Stalin's deportation order was repealed. 
However, many of those Chechens that were able to make the arduous 
journey back to their homes in the Caucasus found them occupied by new 
residents, many of whom violently opposed the Chechen return.
  Today, the Chechen people are enduring yet another brutal assault 
directed by Moscow's authorities. Over the last year and half Russian 
President Vladimir Putin has conducted an indiscriminate war against 
the Chechen people. Russian forces subjected Chechnya's capital, 
Grozny, to a destruction unseen in Europe since World War II, and they 
have leveled numerous other Chechen towns and villages. Russian forces 
have herded the Chechen population into refugee or internment camps. 
This war against the Chechen people has left literally hundreds of 
thousands homeless and countless thousands of innocents dead. Let us 
not forget that more than 100,000 Chechens were killed in the Russo-
Chechen war of 1994-1996--100,000 out of a population of fewer than a 
million.
  Mr. President, it is with these facts in mind that I introduce a 
resolution marking next week's anniversary of Stalin's mass deportation 
of the Chechen people in 1944. My hope is that this resolution will 
communicate to the Chechen people the Senate's awareness of the 
suffering that they have endured and are enduring today. It is my hope 
that this resolution will prompt others to view the ongoing war in 
Chechnya within the historic context of the repeated abuses suffered by 
the Chechen people. By promoting a broader awareness of the history of 
Chechen people, I am confident that this resolution will contribute 
positively to the efforts of those who are trying to prompt a peaceful, 
political, and just end to war in Chechnya.

                          ____________________