FLASHPOINTS IN THE CAUCASUS
Agence France Presse
August 27, 2008 Wednesday 6:33 PM GMT
The strategic flashpoint region of the Caucasus is the scene of
regular clashes between its different ethnic groups.
CHECHNYA: Chechnya unilaterally proclaimed independence from Russia
in late 1991, just before the fall of the Soviet Union. Russia fought
two wars to crush separatist rebels in the 1990s and continues to
have sporadic clashes with them even after imposing a pro-Moscow
regional government. Chechen rebel forces led a fierce independence
fight in which as many as 100,000 civilians — about 10 percent of
the population — are feared to have been killed since 1994.
DAGESTAN: The biggest of Russia’s Caucasus republics, mainly-Muslim
Dagestan has been the scene since 1999 of incursions by Chechen
rebels, in which several hundred have been killed. Dagestan kept
out of the first Chechen war though it was used by the Chechens as
a supply corridor. In 1999, homegrown Muslim radicals were joined by
guerrillas from Chechnya in an attempt to establish an Islamic state
that was quickly stamped out by the Russian army.
INGUSHETIA: Ingushetia, a sister republic to Chechnya inhabited by
a related ethnic group, is one of Russia’s poorest regions. Like the
Chechens, the Ingush were deported to Central Asia in 1944 by Stalin
for "collaborating" with Nazi Germany. There has been some spillover
from the Chechen conflict, and members of the military and police
are regularly targeted in Ingushetia amid frequent clashes between
security forces and pro-Chechen rebels.
NORTH OSSETIA: North Ossetia, one of the smallest Russian republics,
hosts the main Russian military base in the Caucasus and has
historically had closer ties to Moscow than any other republic in
the region. In 1992, more than 500 died in a brief ethnic conflict
pitting North Ossetia against Ingushetia over a disputed region. In
2004, armed rebels seized a school in the North Ossetian town of
Beslan and more than 330 hostages, mostly children, were killed in the
ensuing bloodbath. North Ossetians accuse the Ingush Muslim minority
of fuelling terrorism in the region.
SOUTH OSSETIA: South Ossetia, whose independence was recognised on
Tuesday by Moscow less than 20 days after a failed Georgian attempt
to retake control, is a pro-Russian separatist region of Georgia
which proclaimed its independence after the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1991. It has long sought unification with the neighbouring
Russian region of North Ossetia.
In 1992, after a conflict with Georgia, a peacekeeping force of
Ossetians, Georgians and Russians was deployed in the region but
incidents continued.
ABKHAZIA: Abkhazia, whose independence was recognised on Tuesday
by Russia, is a pro-Russian separatist territory situated along
Georgia’s Black Sea coast which took up arms in 1992 to proclaim
its independence.
The conflict, which left thousands dead and 250,000 mostly ethnic
Georgians displaced, ended in 1993 with the victory of the Abkhazians
backed by Moscow. Despite a ceasefire signed in 1994 followed by the
deployment of a Russian peacekeeping force and a UN observer mission,
clashes continued. Many took place in the Kodori Gorge, a sliver of
territory along the Abkhazian-Georgian administrative border.
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: Backed by Armenia, ethnic Armenian forces took
control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a 4,400 square kilometre (1,699 square
mile) enclave surrounded by Azerbaijan but with a predominantly
Armenian population, during a war in the early 1990s that killed
thousands and forced nearly a million people on both sides to flee
their homes.
A ceasefire was signed between the two former Soviet republics in
1994 but the dispute remains unresolved after more than a decade
of negotiations. Troops remain in a tense stand-off and shootings
are common.