Demonstrators in Helsinki charge Russia with genocide in Chechnya

print this

"He was from my home village. Joined the resistance and died in battle", Kyyre Moullaev points at number 242, Umal Debizov (born 1978, Starie Atag village), on a cardboard list.
      Moullaev recognises other familiar persons as well among the nearly 900 names on the list. They all have lost their lives since Russia began its military operations in Chechnya in 1994.
      "I just heard a mother of seven was killed in my village", says Moullaev, who escaped to Finland five years ago.
     
Moullaev was one of the nearly 30 protesters who marched through Central Helsinki on Thursday carrying anti-Russian slogans and demonstrating against Russian military operations in Chechnya.
      The peaceful protest was organised by the Finland-Chechnya Society. It was not until outside the Russian Embassy that the demonstrators begin to exercise their vocal chords in earnest.
     
"Putin murderer! Shame on Russia!" cries echoed in the embassy courtyard, where three vigilant men monitored the protesters' movements. The shouters blamed Russia for genocide and demanded freedom for Chechnya.
      The aim of the protest, organised on the commemoration day of the mass murder of the Chechens instigated byJosef Stalin, was to bring to focus the past and the present plight of the Chechen people.
      Stalin began the "cleansing" of Chechnya on February 23rd, 1944. Half of the Chechen population died at that time, some of them from bullets, others of hunger and disease, or in concentrations camps or in internal exile.
      A large proportion of the population were deported to Kazakhstan. One of them, Alihan Futijev, now 64, took part in the protest march in Helsinki.
      Futijev's sister still lives in the Chechen capital, Grozny. "When I call her, she is afraid to tell the truth on the phone. She just keeps repeating that everything is alright", Futijev says.
     
The Russians are not the only ones guilty of atrocities in Chechnya. The Chechen rebels have killed and kidnapped people for years.
      "In my mind these are not crimes. The freedom fighters are merely retaliating against the Russian cruelties".
      A couple of Finns also took part in the demonstration. "I am angered by the fact that young girls are taken from their homes to be raped", Heidi Hintze, 64, criticises the Russian soldiers' actions in Chechnya. "I pity both sides. A group of murderers and rapists will return home to St. Petersburg."
      "Russia is a terrorist state", says another Finn, who wished to remain anonymous.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russia and the difficult game of international public relations (24.5.2005)
  Helena Ranta involved in plans for forensic medicine centre in Chechnya (16.9.2005)

Links:
  Finland-Chechnya Society

Helsingin Sanomat