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English Language Page Alexander Mnatsakanyan, free-lance journalist As far back as January 1995 while watching federal soldiers throwing loaves of bread into the crowd of Chechen women and elders, like a bone to a dog, I realized all of a sudden that the objective of any war is boiling down not to seizing the territory or killing enemy soldiers. The key objective is to degrade the civilian population to such a state that they become ready to accept any power as long as that domestic, foreign, or even extraterrestrial authority ensures order, food, protection. In this regard, March 23 was the last day of the second Chechen war. The Chechen people came to vote at the referendum. And they accepted the new Constitution. Since they had no choice. Certainly, we can consider the referendum valid only with some degree of relativity. Chechens were just cheated. First of all, there wasn’t a single alternative draft constitution or bills on electing the president and the parliament. But we live in Russia of all countries. It is not the letter of the law that matters but the trend. It is like Russian roads which are nonexistent and supplanted with directions. Secondly, the Chechens were so ably indoctrinated that “referendum means peace” that they seemed to believe it. But indeed, 96% votes “ pro,” as well as 95% turnout — well that’s much too much. As was reported by an acquaintance of mine from one of the precinct election commissions, according to the instruction their received “from above” this figure was supposed to be fluctuating around 75–85%. It is only another proof supporting the assurances of Moscow that voters’ eagerness exceeded all expectations. O.K., at least this is almost a true statement. But there is something else which causes doubt: uniform distribution of the electors’ eagerness. Regarding the largest village in Chechnya — Shali — there are no questions. The inhabitants of the former domain of late field commander Aslanbek the Big (Abdulhadjiev) filled the voting places to overflowing. Everything stands absolutely clear with Urus-Martan which is historically loyal to Russia. High turnout is perfectly understandable in the Cossack villages Naurskaya, Shelkovskaya, Znamenskoye, Isherskaya, and in the Goragorsk settlement — the North of the republic has always been pro-Russian. It is easy to understand the 97% in Sharoi district — there are only 1 500 local people living there and it is not them who make the turnout as 4 000 border guards are registered with the district and entitled to vote there. It is small wonder that by 10 a.m. the turnout reached 47%. The same explanation could apply to the mysterious high turnout of the electorate in Vedeno district which houses the second largest grouping (after Khankala) of the Russian troops. Some explanation could be found with a certain difficulty for the 90% turnout in Grozny — from Khankala military base, from Kadyrov’s bureaucrats hand-fed from Moscow, police, state security and their spiritual next of kin. But outstanding are the results for Nozhai-Yurt, Itum-Kalinsky, Achkhoi-Martan, Kurchaloi, Argun, Sunzha districts. Why did the locals come to vote? And did they? In order to answer this question we either have to believe the official information that “life in Chechnya is getting back to normal” or… we should have come to the republic at least a week before the referendum. I did the latter. My friends from a human rights NGO have shown me the data of a public opinion poll conducted in the beginning of March. We cannot refer to its results officially since it has been carried out by non-professionals. But it gives an idea of the situation. In early March, 80% of recipients indicated that they didn’t want to participate in the referendum. In the column “Why” we read such answers as, “ If I write the truth they will pay me a call one night and spend a magazine-full of Kalashnikov automatic rifle on me,” “We deserve only to be killed — that is the opinion and the doing of Russia.” They didn't want to but they came to polling stations nevertheless. Like Dostoyevsky’s famous heroine Sonechka Marmeladova, “sobbing and reaching for the sky… because there was no other way.” In a refugee tent camp a 52-year-old math teacher Khizir from Grozny, looking up from washing his feet, stated that he would participate in the referendum for sure, “There is no choice, you understand. We need law, power. You cannot live otherwise. It can’t be any worse Existing laws are ignored, and there is no guarantee that new ones will be observed. So, what’s the difference? But if we come to vote, we’ll have the moral right to ask why the constitution is not observed. But there should be some accord with the insurgents anyway. If there is a conflict it is essential to sit at the table and talk to your adversary.” Two or three tents further down the path, an old man is sitting, Ali by name. He is a refugee from Urus-Martan. Ali gets riled and his unshaven chin jerks while he is struggling with Russian words, “What referendum?! Why referendum?! We haven’t seen humanitarian aid for four months now. They brought it in the other day but said that it is going to be distributed after the referendum. I believe they will be judging by the results. But I am an old man. You cannot scare me with famine.” Later on it became clear that there was no direct linkage between the food and the referendum. Simply that’s the way people understand things in the refugee camps and in Chechnya. Ten years of war develop an intuition and help master the Aesopian language. Everybody understands that if you ignore the referendum, if you fail to get registered you may bump into numerous problems. And if in a refugee camp the problem may amount to in not getting the humanitarian aid, in Chechnya it may be your life that is at stake. * * * Indeed, life in Chechnya is getting back to normal. Like in a joke about a hobo who was about to kill himself out of desperation in a public toilet, but who suddenly found a cigarette butt on the floor and an unfinished bottle of beer on the window-sill, puffed on the cig, took a swing of beer and acknowledged, “Life’s getting better!” My friends from Grozny were so grateful to the referendum — in the near future they hoped to have electricity practically the whole day. Unsubstantiated cavils at the check-points would stop, and maybe people would even cease to disappear. True, the federal check-points turned surprisingly polite and even ( a miracle!) scaled down their standard tariffs for passing through the maze of check-point concrete blocks. Which enabled mini-van taxi drivers to bring their fares some 20–25% down. And what’s more, the drivers became so reckless that they started to go from Nazran to Grozny not using the long road via the North of Chechnya, but taking a shortcut through the ill-famed “Kavkaz-1” check-point. But you’d be better off if you take a longer route through Goragorsk anyways. The same hardly passable road, the same check-points (they never checked my ID though I looked very much an easterner and wore a beard). Pretentious official slogans “Referendum Means Better Future for Chechnya!”; “Referendum Is Peace!”; “We Shall All Leave Homes For Referendum!” (This one is fixed on an absolutely empty mingled apartment house) and even a witty one “ Come to Referendum, You Are Asked for the First Time!” Among those slogans we read on a long Staropromyslovskoye highway, there is suddenly a protest graffiti, “Ichkeria Needs No Jewish Referendum!” Good God, why Jews again? What do they have to do with this? Though, if you give it a second thought… Chechens never displayed great love towards Jewish people, and the Islamic shade of the resistance does not promise profound affection towards children of Zion. On the other hand, possibly, some amateurish PR workers made up their minds to place the political anti-promotion slogan right at the approaches to Grozny for observers and journalists to see. In the evening, when darkness sets in, the city becomes almost quiet. People watch TV, drink tea. Sometimes, they hear a grenade launcher bang (later they will come to know that the target was the polling station and that the grenade did not go wide). Assault rifle bursts. Gas flares are roaring. Dogs are barking. But it became even calmer on March 23, in the morning. Grozny appeared to be deserted. There were maximum 20–30 vendors on the marketplace. Practically no minivan taxis. And at least 10–15 gunmen from the Chechen police at each polling station. In downtown Grozny, near the ruined drama theater there was a block-long double line of senior citizens. Everybody was silent, they didn’t shout any slogans. Nearly each of them was holding a piece of green material with a protest inscription against the referendum and color pictures glued on top, which looked like criminal case file pictures: corpses dismembered, corpses intact, old corpses, fresh corpses, corpses in the ground, corpses on stretchers. Sometimes pictures showed faces of those who were alive but had disappeared. “There would have been more of us,” says Visit Umarov from Novye Atagi, “but all the check-points were blocked in the morning. A lot more wanted to come but they were not allowed to. My son has been missing since March 8. In the morning, at about 11 a.m. two UAZ jeeps entered the yard, one was white, the other was blue carrying a mixed team of masked Russians and Chechens. They took my son away. Jot it down: Bislan Umarov, born in 1977.” Gradually some women get involved in the conversation, “Write it down, Gikalo settlement, was shelled on the 21st, two women were injured, four houses destroyed.” “Write down, near Germenchuk at the check-point they burned a car with people last night.” “Yes, on the 21st in Germenchuk they arrested the Kurbanovs, two women and two men and in our Novogroznaya two dead bodies were found, unidentified, one old, the other fresh.” “In Chiri-Yurt … jot it down…” “Write down the information about Berdykel…” “Twenty people were arrested at the check-point near Assinovskaya.” But this little handful of Chechens who do not realize how happy they are and who look at anything but their bright future must not in any way hamper the triumph of the controlled democracy. The same day at 4 p.m. (that is even before the official closing of voting) the CIS observers got together in the Central Election Commission building. The head of the delegation Yuri Yarov, Executive Secretary of the CIS noted from the onset that the presence of the military had been justified and in no way impeded free expression of the will of the people. Everybody signed the document offered by Yarov stating that the elections had been free, people were acting on their own free will and that there had been no violations. According to all those present, the only problem was the lack of ballots in the face of an unexpectedly high turnout of voters at some polling stations. Who could dare doubt friendly feelings of a former Soviet republic towards Russia’s will? Generally speaking, when it comes down to electoral law violations officials immediately get hit with an odd mix of blindness and visions. They saw lines to ballot boxes in deserted Grozny. They also watched inspired and merry people. But they somehow overlooked the fact that apart from 400 registered voters the voting place was attended by 500 “newcomers.” They ignored the fact that a French journalist took part in the voting after he produced his French ( sic!) passport. It came unnoticed that scores of people, for the sake of an experiment , were voting as “new arrivals” at several polling stations. They failed to see a huge armed bully standing right behind a person watching closely what he was writing in the ballot. I, on the other hand, saw that with my own eyes. The only person who tried to resist the delirium was the elections department head of the OSCE ODIHR, Mr. Balyan, who was present at the meeting. He noted the presence of crowds of armed people at the polling stations. He did not miss the Chechen mothers’ pickets in downtown Grozny. But he made reservations that such things were admissible in this complex situation. While talking to me Mr. Balyan remained as diplomatic as ever, “Of course the number of armed people at the polling stations was unjustifiably great even for such a situation. But on the other hand, nobody was breaking up the illegal rally. It is a good political sign. We are here not to finger-point but to help the democratic process. I reiterate, the voting will be a success if since that moment we shall start transition from the power of arms to the power of law.” The European official stated that he was in Chechnya not as an OSCE observer but in his personal capacity. And that is correct: the European community at least “distanced” itself from this shame. It is not quite clear, though, why civilized Europeans who are well aware of the situation fail to go all the way. Certainly, Westerners lack real tools of influencing their Russian counterparts. But each of them as an individual may as a minimum refuse to shake hands with Putin, or which is simpler, with Rogozin. * * * In fact, all this new Constitution affair was designed for Mr. Balyan's sake and for his colleagues from the “international community.” Under the then valid Fundamental Law of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, any elections must be postponed till the end of war. Thus, Maskhadov was to be regarded as a legitimate president as long as the Russian troops were present in Chechnya. Russia spent at least 70 billion roubles [1] to deprive Maskhadov of his legitimacy. But the effect of this investment may happen to be zero. A Chechen resistance fighter whom I met in Grozny (let's call him Salaudi) is not going to lay down arms, “I do not believe those figures, and neither do you, rights? And nobody does. I did go vote. And many of our men participated in the voting. I voted for the Constitution. Because I fight only at night, but in daytime I should appear a law abiding person. If you do not come they will know anyway and ask ‘why’? So should I tease them? Our votes will not change anything. Observers know that the referendum is not fair. And Putin knows it, and Russian generals are aware of that. But it is not ‘what people know’ that is important, it is ‘what they do.’ Mercenaries [that is contract servicemen — A.M.] kill us, we’ll be killing them.” The most disturbing thing is that Salaudi is saying all this without any passion, in a calm and narrative way. Quite matter-of-factly. In the end he adds, “Wasn't the Russian Constitution enough for them? It also states that one mustn't kill, rob, torture. But it is even better that they adopted a new constitution here. Now they need to observe it. But it is a trap for them: they don’t care about the constitution. What if we elect Maskhadov under this new constitution, or even, God forbid, Basaev? Shall we have another referendum then? Though nobody will ask us anything during the elections…” Salaudi is an intelligent person. He understands everything. And he repeats the key slogan of the Soviet dissidents without knowing it, «Observe Your Constitution!” Besides that, he realizes that nobody cares about the voting. Referendum, presidential elections, war, peace, mop-up operations, special targeted operations — all that will happen irrespective of the will of the Chechens, be they with Kadyrov, Maskhadov or anybody else. 1 The current rouble/$ rate is approximately 29/1. Íàçàä |
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