MOSNEWS, Russia
Aug 31 2004
The Ingredients of Terror
Created: 30.08.2004 17:23 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:33 MSK, 2 hours
45 minutes ago
Georgy Bovt
How does terror become possible in a country? Actually, it is much
easier than you may think. Terror in our country became possible all
by itself. Our way of life, as it is, makes for terror.
Yes, there are Chechens each of whom has had one of his nearest and
dearest killed over the past ten years, someone dragged away by
camouflaged men, someone tortured, and someone raped. Hence, any of
them could seek revenge. Not everyone will, but any of them could.
The only exception, perhaps, are the members of the Grozny football
team Terek, where there are only a couple of ethnic Chechens.
And in this case it is not in the least bit necessary to go into the
moral and ethical particulars of who bears the blame, whether this
war is fair and why it is still on. It is too late to moralize now.
We have gone too far.
Even if the war was to end tomorrow in victory, their souls would
still crave for revenge. And for decades to come Chechens will have a
reason to kill Russians. As, for instance, Armenian rebels killed
Turks across the globe throughout the 20th century, taking revenge
for the massacres of 1915.
And there is no use pretending we do not understand it.
And there is no use pretending that following the “convincing
victory” of yet another Chechen president in yet another presidential
election the only news from Chechnya will be the reports of another
victory for the Grozny football team Terek or some other nonsense.
Maybe, those will be the main reports coming from the war-torn
province, but they are unlikely to be revealing the truth.
And there is no need to pretend that it is possible to regain the
Soviet-era’s confidence in the future by just bringing together all
the remains, symbols, all the fetishes — be it the old anthem, red
banners, holidays, Victory Day, films, secretary generals, etc — of
the glorious Soviet past.
That kind of confidence cannot be regained. Life will never again be
as carefree as it used to be in the era of stagnation, however hard
the Vremya news program on the state-controlled First Channel tries
to revive that era.
And there is no need pretending that it is enough to revive old fears
in people’s minds to re-establish the old ORDER. Fear is not a
prerequisite for order. And there is no need to pretend that we do
not know that…
The other day I took a ride on a trolley-bus. There were not many
people on it, and the streets were free from traffic. And then
suddenly the driver addressed the passengers with a somewhat unusual
request. He explained that he was not native to Moscow — judging by
his appearance he was a migrant from Tajikistan — and hence he did
not know the way. In other words, the driver did not know the route
and went astray at some intersection. He had not received the
necessary training, he was simply given a place behind the wheel and
told: “The passengers will show you the way themselves.”
You may ask what has this got to do with terror?
No direct link. However, at the same time it is absolutely clear that
in a country where a bus driver is given no adequate training before
he takes his seat behind the wheel on public transport anything can
blow up at anytime.
This goes for water parks. As far as I am concerned, I am convinced
that a roof over a water park where vodka is sold freely amid rather
dangerous attractions will sooner or later collapse. Indeed, there is
and cannot be any direct link between those things. But there is a
link of a different nature. There is some steel-and-concrete fatalism
that sooner or later results in disaster.
Take a look at any Russian airport. There are always slow-witted,
slovenly dressed cops who you would rather not address with a
request. Importunate taxi drivers, porters guarding trolleys that are
supposed to be free for travelers. Sullen female border guards too
preoccupied with choosing perfumes at the duty-free shops and
flirting with airport security men to notice anything going on around
them, and male guards too engrossed in doing business by purchasing
liquors from the same shops.
Someone is helping someone else to jump the queue at passport
control; someone is trying to accuse someone of not having declared
200 dollars or having brought too much luggage from abroad,
suspecting them of being a shuttle trader. Suspicions evaporate as
soon as the suspect produces a couple of green notes…
Is there any direct link between all that and terrorism?
None, whatsoever. There is no direct link. But still, there is
another kind of link. And that link is lethal. All that blends into
that very broth where terror emerges at the time most convenient for
the terrorists themselves.
Raising salaries for airport staff, giving them better uniforms and
beefing up security would not help. Is there really any need to
allocate extra budget funds and tighten security to spot a lone
Chechen woman buying a ticket at the eleventh hour — and this at the
height of the Chechen war? Is there any need for some special orders
from the president or the FSB for such women to be thoroughly checked
and searched before they are allowed on board?
No, but it was Tuesday evening, and the airport staff were too tired
to take any heed of suicide bombers who easily passed all security
checks. The man commanding the sniffer dogs had already left for
home. The cops were too preoccupied with spotting illegal migrants in
the crowd.
All those people together aided in the murder of nearly 90 innocent
people
I knew only one of them. Andrei Yermolayev, a flight engineer on the
Tu-154. His wife and adopted daughter had been so happy with him it
seemed such happiness could not be real. Maybe it was him who pushed
the SOS button before the contact with the jet was lost. Two hours
earlier someone at the airport failed to push the button.