ASF Chechnya Brief 5. Proposals for a Peace Process This briefing paper on the history of conflict in Chechnya was prepared by Mr. Edward Kline, President, The Andrei Sakharov Foundation. Please, e-mail questions to Mr. Kline (ekline@inx.net). This briefing paper provides background information on Chechnya, the land, its people, its history, and the armed conflict now going on there. .

"In order to end the bloodshed in the Chechen Republic and move toward political settlement of the conflict, I propose the following principles for peace negotiations. They have been drafted taking into account my conversation with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and with representatives of the Chechen side.

First Steps

• 1. Immediately halt use in the war zone of aircraft, artillery, tanks and other armor, massed rifle fire, and grenade launchers. Snipers should be recalled. The Chechen side to be responsible for controlling its militia detachments and vigilantes. Movement of troops or weapons within Grozny without the express consent of both parties to be strictly forbidden.
• 2. As soon as agreement is reached for a temporary ceasefire, a joint Military Control Commission will be organized and empowered to decide all questions with respect to the ceasefire agreement.

Further Steps

The first order of business of the Commission should be finding solutions to the following problems:-- sufficient physical separation of the opposing sides to preclude the exchange of rifle fire. Establishment of a complete ceasefire. The lines to which the armed forces of the opposing sides must withdraw will be fixed by the joint Control Commission.

• Military activity of any kind will be forbidden in the security zone between the perimeters of the opposing sides;
• the removal of the dead and the evacuation of wounded federal soldiers and civilians and of noncombattants wishing to leave Grozny;
• a mutual exchange of prisoners by the parties to the conflict after appropriate negotiations;
• extension of the agreement to the entire territory of the Chechen Republic.
• >As soon as this has been achieved, a complete ban on the introduction onto Chechen territory of any units of the Russian Armed Forces;
• the staged withdrawal of units of the Russian Armed Forces from the Chechen Republic and their replacement by units under the command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs;
• negotiations seeking the Chechens' return to federal control of armor and other heavy weapons and the simultaneous withdrawal from Chechen territory by the federal forces of artillery, tanks and other armor. Further airstrikes -- whether using conventional bombs or rockets -- to be prohibited;-- redeployment of regular military units of the Russian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to permanent stations following Chechen guarantees not to attack them.
• The police to be assigned responsibility for maintaining law and order.

Proposals for a Political Settlement.

In pursuit of a subsequent broad political settlement, I consider it advisable to:-- conduct in the Chechen Republic a national round-table conference which would define the fundamental principles of Chechnya's internal government structures and select a delegation to negotiate with Russia's federal authorities;-- conduct negotiations without preconditions between delegations representing Russia's federal authorities and Chechnya about regulating their relations;-- begin preparations for and as soon as practical convene a Caucasian Peace Conference with representatives of public organi-zations of the peoples of the Caucasus and representatives of the government bodies of the republics, territories, and regions of the North Caucasus. The Conference should work out and propose to the government bodies of the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic a plan for a peace settlement in Chechnya. In the future, the Caucasian Peace Conference might be accorded permanent status and assigned the task of working out proposals for the normalization of the situation in the region as a whole, including settlement of the Ingush question.Observers, including international observers, may take part in the negotiations and settlement."

Self-determination vs Territorial Integrity of States

The crux of peace negotiations, when they take place, will be the clash between the principle of self-determination and the internationally recognized right of sovereign states to defend their territorial integrity and the inviolability of their frontiers. Several neutral observers have suggested that Chechnya should recognize Russian sovereignty, and Russia in return should grant Chechnya broad autonomy in ordering its domestic affairs, similar to that enjoyed by Tatarstan in Russia, the Aaland Islands in Finland, or Puerto Rico in the United States. Few are willing to address what should be done if the Chechens reject Russian sovereignty, bring up the "long train of abuses and usurpations" by Russian governments over the last two hundred years, and assert that "it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government" and become an independent nation-state.

There is no easy, no finally just solution to the Russian-Chechen conflict, nor to other similar, deep-rooted inter- ethnic confrontations. Competing interests must be acknowledged, and all possible solutions, including secession, population exchange, and various models of political or cultural autonomy with possible international oversight, candidly explored. Unless we are willing to condone the crime of genocide, we should resist the now fashionable idea that nations are artifical constructs. We should recognize that the Chechens constitute a people, a nation. They, like other peoples, enjoy the right to self-determination, which should be exercised with due respect for the rights of other peoples and nations. We should at the same time acknowledge that the right of self-determination does not necessarily mean international recognition of every people as an independent, sovereign state.

March 24, 1995

Edward Kline (ekline@inx.net)

Select Bibliography:
English-language

• Marie Broxup, editor. The North Caucasus Barrier, Hurst, London, 1992. The articles by Abdurahman Avtorkhanov "The Chechens and the Ingush during the Soviet Period and its Antecedents," and by Marie Broxup "Russia and the North Caucasus" and "After the Putsch" are especially valuable.
• Suzanne Goldenberg, The Pride of Small Nations: The Caucasus and Post-Soviet Disorder, Zed Books, London, 1994.
• Paul Henze, Chechnia: A Report of a Fact-Finding Mission, September 23-October 3, 1992, International Alert, London,

Russian-language

• Timur Muzaev, Zurab Todya, Novaya Checheno-Ingushetiya, Panorama, Moscow, 1992. Politicheskii landshaft Rossii (The Political Landscape of Russia), January 1995, Center for the Study of Political Geography, Moscow. The January 1995 issue of this new journal, devoted to articles on the Chechen conflict, is up-to-date and useful.

Acknowledgments:

Professor Andrew Blane

Professor emeritus of Russian history at City University of New York and secretary of the Human Rights Project Group, made a great many constructive contributions to the content and style of this briefing paper.

Frederick C. Cuny

An emergency management consultant, spent three weeks in January and February 1995 assessing the humanitarian situation in Chechnya and the surrounding region. His article in the April 6 New York Review of Books and a meeting with him provided important information on the situation in Chechnya.

• Previous
  
• 1. History: late 18 century - 1960
• 2. History: Perestroika and the breakup of Soviet Empire
• 3. "Independence" (1992-1994)
• 4. War