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The
position of the Chechen government has already been voiced by its Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. In 1998, an announcement was made expressing support for the
Ottawa process and the readiness of the Chechen Republic to sign the Ottawa
Convention of 1997 on Prohibition of Use, Accumulation and Manufacture of
antipersonnel Mines. But,
very regretfully, as a result of the aggression of the Russian Federation and
the renewal of military actions on the territory of the Chechen Republic, now
the active, wide-scale use of antipersonnel mines of various types and other
explosive devices by the Russian army is again taking place. All of this is
widely applied in the Chechen Republic along with other kinds of arms forbidden
by the international conventions including, according to latest reports of
American experts, some serious suspicions of the use of bacteriological and
chemical weapons.
The
indiscriminate, wide-scale ground and remote mining of the territory of the
Chechen Republic by the Russian armed forces has already had catastrophic and
long-term humanitarian consequences. The
Chechen Army does not have and has never had antipersonnel mines in its arsenal,
although army diversionary groups and guerrilla groups carrying out the struggle
against the occupying regime rather frequently use, predominantly against armour,
various kinds of self-made explosive devices. However, as a way to improve the
efficient use of resources with the goal of defeating the armour of the opponent,
all explosive devices used by the Chechen side are radio-controlled and are
therefore unable to cause damage to civilians. The Chechen Army, even if it so
desired, cannot allow itself the "luxury" of unlimited expenditure of
explosives. In addition, the political tasks of the Chechen armed forces include
the protection of its own population against a genocide policy of the Russian
army, and we simply do not have reason to use antipersonnel mines. As a
counterbalance to this, last year the Russian command, several months after the
beginning of war, "boasted" about its "achievements",
declaring that they planted half a million mines against "the Chechen
terrorists "(www.chechenpress.com/news/ru/06_2001/12
_19_06.shtml). It is logical to assume that these "achievements"
by the present time should have already at least tripled. According to the Joint
Staff of the Chechen Army, there are already approximately 1,800,000
antipersonnel mines on the territory of our small country.
We
believe that you should take an interest in the supply of explosives on the
Chechen side. As mentioned above, the Russian army places mines everywhere in
the Chechen territory. Overabundance of these mines and the constant danger of
them has compelled the leadership of the Chechen Armed forces to generate
special mine-clearing divisions and has thus collected trophies of explosives in
self-made shells of the defeated opponent. Similar experience of mine clearing
and the production of explosives have found wide application among the
governmental and guerrilla divisions all over the Chechen Republic. It can be
concluded that this technology resolves both the problem of shortages of
ammunition on the Chechen side and how to effectively defeat the armour of the
opponent. However, it is necessary to stipulate that this handicraft technology
cannot be considered sufficient in a context of the resolution of the problem of
mine clearing on the territory of the Chechen Republic because, at best, due to
the absence of maps of the mine fields, it promotes the cleanup of mines of only
an insignificant part of roads and footpaths.
The
Chechen Republic has no factories for making mines and consequently it is
impossible to call the manufacturing of radio-controlled self-made explosive
devices a real industry. The Chechen armed forces and a home guard for the
protection of the peaceful population of the Chechen Republic against
destruction, mockery, humiliation and plunder, not having military resources
equivalent to Russia’s, must apply self-made explosive devices which are
produced directly before usage. We
are seriously concerned about the situation in the Chechen Republic regarding
the danger of mines to civilians. Moreover, it is a result not only of the
present war, but also of military actions in 1994-1996. The Chechen government
regards the mine situation in our country as extremely dangerous and as having
catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
The
absence of special services in the Chechen Republic for making records of mine
victims does not allow for us to have the exact information about the number of
victims, as in the last war and so to the current one. As a result of
application of mines in Chechen territory in war of 1994-1996 thousands of
people have suffered, especially children. In addition, injured people were
deprived of opportunities to receive adequate medical and psychological
rehabilitation because of the most difficult economic situation in Chechnya in
the post-war period. This situation is aggravated many times over with the
continued use of mines in the current war. According to Ministry of Health of
the Chechen Republic, 8,000 people now require prosthetics. But taking into
account that in recent months the number of traumas were predominantly
mine-explosive traumas, it is supposed that prosthetics are needed by
14,000-16,000 people. These people are deprived opportunities to receive basic
medical aid.
We
are sure that without the special attention of international governmental and
non-governmental organizations there will be no exit from this catastrophic
situation in the Chechen Republic. We believe that international organizations
should play a major role in the resolution of this crisis. First
is it is necessary to promote an immediate suspension of the war. Only this, in
our view, would stop the inhumane process of further mining in territory of the
Chechen Republic. The
second step is to adopt an international program of humanitarian mine clearing
on territory of the Chechen Republic. And,
the third step is to provide assistance to innocent victims of this brutal war. The
government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is now considering the necessity
of preparing a plan for a National program on humanitarian mine clearing in the
territory of our country as well as for creating programs to educate children
and for the rehabilitation of victims (The Center for the Rehabilitation of the
Handicapped). The creation of a special agency for gathering information on
victims of mines and other explosive devices is on the working plan for
rehabilitation programs for victims and for humanitarian mine clearing.
However,
as mentioned above, even after the termination of the war we are not capable of
coping with a mine problem on our own and we require the help of international
organizations in order to implement programs for the destruction of mines,
humanitarian mine clearing, and the rehabilitation of victims. In addition, the
absence of maps of minefields will inhibit the process of mine clearing on the
territory of our country after the end of the war. We
see the implementation of such programs as being through the close cooperation
of Chechen and international non-governmental organizations. These programs
should be commissioned at once after the termination of war, and it is necessary
to start developing them right away. In
the conclusion, allow me to express hope for the development of our cooperation
in a name of building a world free from wars and mines!
Sincerely yours,
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