[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19621-19622]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            A FORGOTTEN WAR

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I rise to speak of Chechnya, a remote part 
of the world where horrific crimes and suffering are occurring every 
day, that has faded from the newspapers and the minds of many of us 
here.
  Contrary to the myth perpetrated by the Russian Government that the 
conflict is over and life in Chechnya is returning to normal, the 
Russian military and the militias they support continue to use brutal, 
even barbaric tactics, including extra-judicial executions, arbitrary 
detention, kidnap-
pings, rape, and torture. Armed opposition forces are also terrifying 
innocent civilians with their indiscriminate attacks. There seems to be 
no end to this conflict or to the suffering of the Chechen people.
  The Bush administration has been conspicuously silent about what is 
happening. One can only hope that President Bush has expressed alarm 
about the atrocities being committed by Russian soldiers in Chechnya in 
his meetings or conversations with President Putin, but there is no 
indication that if he has it has had any effect.
  There is certainly no evidence that the administration has exerted 
any real pressure on President Putin to reign in the Russian military, 
presumably because it does not want to jeopardize Russia's support for 
U.S. operations in Iraq and combating international terrorism. But 
contrary to what the Russian Government and some in the Bush 
administration insist, the violence in Chechnya has far more to do with 
self-determination than with international terrorism. While acts of 
terrorism by all parties to the conflict remain common, most Chechen 
resistance fighters have taken up arms to seek revenge for the 
atrocities and impunity of Russian soldiers.
  In each of the last 6 years, the Foreign Operations Appropriations 
Act has included a provision to withhold a portion of our assistance to 
the Russian Government unless the President certifies that 
international nongovernmental humanitarian organizations are

[[Page 19622]]

provided full access to Chechnya. Every year, the Russian Government 
fails to comply.
  In the Senate-passed version of the fiscal year 2006 Foreign 
Operations bill, we included $5 million for humanitarian, conflict 
mitigation, relief and recovery assistance for Chechnya, Ingushetia, 
and elsewhere in the North Caucasus region. This funding, in addition 
to the $5 million for this purpose in the fiscal year 2005 
supplemental, will provide much needed relief and development 
assistance for civilians caught in the midst of this conflict.
  But it is essential that this assistance be coupled with a strong 
message of concern and condemnation by the administration. The message 
should be loud and clear that war crimes by the Russian military, and 
by resistance fighters, must stop.
  It is obvious that despite President Putin's rosy portrayal of the 
situation, there is no military solution to the Chechnyan conflict. The 
only hope for resolving it is through a process of demilitarization and 
political dialogue, and I suspect that will require the active and 
sustained participation of a credible third party, such as the United 
Nations. This is what the United States should be pressing for. It is 
long past time for the White House to stop giving the Russian 
Government a free pass on Chechnya.

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