Horror and hysteria: Russia and Chechnya. posted by Richard Seymour

The horror is real enough - but you know the reaction to it is hysterical when the common sense judgement also happens to be diametrically opposed to the truth.
For instance, Neil C of the MediaLens message board accused me of "amorality" for failing to distinguish between levels of heinousness in what the Russian government does and what a group of Chechens have just done. I had suggested that Russia was co-responsible for the atrocious actions in Beslan. He says that:

"Fortunately, whatever their faults, the Russians are thousands of times more humane than these animals - otherwise they would have [launched an all out campaign to kill as many Chechen children as possible] already.

Your amorality in failing to distinguish between levels of villiany is deplorable."

The descriptions emerging from the news of children being forced to drink their own piss, being starved, then being shot as they attempted to escape invite such reactions, of course, and one expects them. For instance, when that bus was detonated in Israel recently, the media coverage of it seemed to imply that everything was going along just swimmingly until this happened. On Russia, they have not been quite so obtuse but the fact is that it has taken a series of grotesque episodes to produce even a particle of discussion on what is being done to Chechnya.

So, what has been done to Chechnya? Here are a few clues:

1) 150,000 civilians killed in the second war alone .

2) Rape .

3) Killings, disappearances & torture .

4) Arbitrary detention, shootings and looting .

5) The conscious targeting of civilians .

To be sure, this should never be confused with what was done to those school-children - I do impose a very precise distinction. For one thing, this makes the seige of a single school look small-time. For another, no Chechen group could even dream of matching the deathly results of Russian policy.

The most important difference, however? No pictures.