Djohar-G1ala, 21 July 2003

From Chechen and foreign, including Russian, human rights, public organizations, politicians and statesmen as well as individual citizens, making every effort to stop Russia's colonial war against the Chechen people, have addressed to me questions regarding “the proposal of conditional independence under an international administration”, which, on my instruction, had been worked out by the Chechen Foreign Ministry as the basis for a peaceful resolution of the Russian-Chechen conflict.

The proposal is a generalized result of suggestions from the international democratic public and it takes into consideration genuine interests, even fears, often imaginary, of Russia and Europe regarding the role of Chechnya in the Caucasian region. This proposal removes the ground for the fears inculcated by Russia's propaganda upon a part of European political community that an independent Chechnya will turn into a source of Islamic extremism posing a threat to European countries. It also makes pointless assertions of the Russian government about the threat of a civil war or a threat to Russia's security from the territory of an independent Chechnya. The proposal guarantees a stable democratic development in the post-war Chechnya and, therefore, will contribute to stabilization of the political situation in the whole Caucasus, where, as we know, interests of many world powers are concentrated.

As the Chechen government has repeatedly stated, independence is not an end in itself for the Chechen people, but only a means to put an end, as our prominent fellow countryman A. Avtorkhanov correctly noted, to a more than four-century-long mourning of the Chechen people and to ensure its guaranteed security in the future. A bitter, tragic experience of numerous attempts during the last two centuries to stop the genocide of the Chechen people by means of "wide autonomies," "sovereignties within Russia," each time confirmed by "firm guarantees and promises on oath," reveal an absolute impossibility to solve the problem of security, physical preservation of the Chechen people within the Russian constitutional framework. In the past, each of such attempts turned into a tragedy and the genocide of the Chechen people. The same, only on a larger scale and in more cruel forms, is taking place today.

It should be noted that the proposal of conditional independence does not contradict to the Constitution, the Law on protection of state sovereignty of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, because it is just an alternative peaceful way of protecting the right of the Chechen people to a free and safe existence. The key instrument to achieve the stated aim is international legal mechanisms, which have a positive experience of resolving similar conflicts.

Taking into account the tragic results of the latest years of the Russian-Chechen war: hundreds of thousands of Chechen refugees, concentration camps, tortures, mass robbery, daily mass terror, extra-judicial executions, hidden mass graves, more than 200,000 of killed Chechens, tens of thousands of maimed, destroyed towns and villages, the gravest war crimes and crimes against humanity, I state that the Kremlin's irresponsible policy - a persistent and consistent rejection of our appeals and the will of the majority of Russians - to begin real peace talks, leave no doubts that without a participation and a responsible policy of the international community a peace between Russia and Chechnya is impossible. The Kremlin pre-election imitations of "a political dialog" in Chechnya are doomed to failure. This is the road to nowhere.

The Chechen Resistance has enough forces, means and will to continue the struggle for freedom of the Chechen people until Chechnya is totally liberated, which is proved by the self-sacrificing heroic resistance of the small tormented and bleeding Chechen people to a huge cruel colonial Empire over the last decade. Chechens deserve freedom and we will obtain it, the question is how much human blood must be shed until the Kremlin realizes that a true political dialog has to be held with Chechens, rather than the policy of state terror and an imitation of the dialog.

Today it is clear that the Kremlin has learnt no lessons from the 400 years experience of the history of the Russian-Chechen relations. Refusing to voluntarily apply the civilized legal experience of the humankind in solving political issues, the Russian side consistently follows routine imperial ambitions - to solve political differences by force. That is not going to bring peace to Chechnya and Russia. On the contrary, it is likely to widen the range of destabilization and to throw us back for long decades with the worst consequences for all of us.

Aspiring to open the road to a mutually acceptable peace and to stop endless violence, we have made a step towards peace and suggest a compromise formula of "conditional independence under an international administration." We believe that this formula corresponds to genuine national interests not only of Chechnya, but also of Russia.

I urge parliaments, governments of democratic countries of the world, democratic parties, human rights groups, all those who value human life, peace, rights and freedoms of individual and nations to support the proposal of conditional independence. It is a real way to peacefully resolve the Russian-Chechen conflict and stop the extermination of the Chechen people. We have the right to expect from the world community, in particular the UN, an adequate reaction to our proposal.

It would prove that numerous assurances from leaders of some western countries, including the US President, about their intention to fight for freedom of nations around the globe and to eliminate despotic regimes that sow terror and violence - are not merely words, but the will of the progressive mankind in the face of the real threat of international terrorism, in the struggle against which we rightfully consider ourselves the avant-garde.

Aslan Maskhadov
President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria