The NKVD swept into our republic, corralling civilians like cattle and herding them into boxcars. Those too young or infirm to travel were summarily executed. Those dwelling too far from the railways were locked in their homes and put to the torch. Half of the Chechen nation perished. Not even Hitler killed so many, so quickly.

For thirteen years the remnants of our nation lived as strangers in a strange land; surviving without the most basic rights, subsisting by force of will alone. Yet despite the crucible of genocide and exile, we surrendered neither our identity nor our integrity. Stalin destroyed our families, but not our faith. Our dignity, language and traditions remained intact.

Though Soviet crimes against Chechnya are now known, the lessons of that painful era still go unheeded. Today, the government of Vladimir Putin is exterminating our people in a manner just as brutal and calculated as in 1944. Death squads and Tuberculosis stalk our homeland. The ecology is ruined. Half our population is now dead or displaced.

In the wake of the Holocaust, the peoples of North America and Western Europe swore never to permit such atrocities again. The lessons of Munich still resonate: all peoples have the right to live in freedom and peace; injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere; appeasement carries high moral hazards.

The nature and extent of the Russian government's crimes are known throughout the international community. Yet sadly, we see in the cynicism of world leaders the same blindness and weak policies that gave rise to fascism and left the Jewish people defenseless and decimated.

On this sad and sorry day, the Chechen people appeal to all governments, all nations, all faiths and all people of good will to remember our plight. The systematic repression and annihilation of our nation is a crime of aggression and a crime against the human family. Together, we can stop this war before it is too late.

Ilyas Akhmadov
Foreign Minister