XI. Read the extract from the interview. What kind of terrorist groups operate in Chechnya? Who are the Chechens? Is there a connection between Chechen terrorist groups and Al-Qaeda?

CHECHNYA-BASED TERRORISTS

Information about groups linked to the conflict in Chechnya is hard to come by, experts say, but some individual terrorists have been identified. A squad led by Movsar Baraev, a Chechen commander, took hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater in October 2002. Russian officials also blame Chechen terrorists for a 1999 spree of deadly apartment bombings in Moscow and two other Russian cities that killed nearly 300 people. The bloody guerrilla war that pits rebels in the breakaway Russian republic against the Russian army has also attracted militants from elsewhere the Muslim world, including a number of veterans of the 1979-89 war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and, the Russians allege, members of Al-Qaeda.

The Chechens are a fiercely independent, largely Muslim ethnic group that has lived for centuries in the mountainous Caucasus region and has consistently resisted Russian subjugation. During World War II, the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin accused the Chechens of cooperating with the Nazis and forcibly deported the entire population to the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan. Tens of thousands of Chechens died; only after Stalin’s death in 1953 were the survivors allowed to return home. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chechen separatists have sought independence from Moscow. In two costly wars, the Russian army has devastated Chechnya. Tens of thousands of Chechens and Russians have been killed or wounded, and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced.

Russian officials accuse Chechen terrorists of blowing up apartment buildings in Moscow and two other Russian cities in 1999. (Russia resumed fighting in Chechnya after the attacks, although non-Chechen suspects have been identified and a debate over who was responsible continues.) Other high-profile incidents include:

The October 2002 seizure of a Moscow theater where some 700 people were attending a performance. Russian special forces launched a commando raid, and the opium-derived gas they used to disable the hostage-takers killed more than 120 hostages, as well as many of the terrorists.

A failed plot to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Azerbaijan in January 2001. Azerbaijani officials said the would-be assassin, an Iraqi, had trained in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, fought in Chechnya, and had contacts with Al-Qaeda associates.

The hijackings of a Turkish ferry in January 1996 and a Russian airliner in Saudi Arabia in March 2001.

The seizure of more than 1,000 hostages by Chechen fighters during a June 1995 attack on a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk.

Russia also blamed Chechen terrorists for the bomb blast that killed at least 41 people, including 17 children, during a military parade in the southwestern town of Kaspiisk in May 2002.

Evidence of a direct Chechen connection to Al-Qaeda includes several threads. One concerns reported ties between Osama bin Laden and the Chechen warlord Khattab, a Jordanian-born fighter who was killed in Chechnya in April 2002. Khattab apparentlyfirst met bin Laden while both men were fighting the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, said shortly after September 11, “We have long recognized that Osama bin Laden and other international networks have been fueling the flames in Chechnya, including the involvement of foreign commanders like Khattab.”

Individuals linked to the September 11 attacks may also have ties to Chechnya. A Moroccan man charged with abetting the hijackers told a German court in October 2002 that the plot’s ringleader, Muhammad Atta, initially planned to join the fight in Chechnya. The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Zacarias Moussaoui, whom U.S. authorities have charged with being the “20th hijacker” in the September 11 attacks, was formerly “a recruiter for al-Qaeda-backed rebels in Chechnya.”

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan was one of the only governments to recognize Chechen independence, and Chechen militants reportedly fought alongside Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001.

Most experts put the number of foreign militants in Chechnya at approximately 200, out of several thousand fighters. Rus­sian authorities, including Putin, have repeatedly stressed the involvement of international terrorists and bin Laden associates in Chechnya—in part to generate Western sympathy for Russia’s bloody military campaign against the Chechen rebels, experts say. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov claimed that a videotape of Khattab meeting with bin Laden had been found in Afghanistan, but Russia has not aired the tape publicly.

a) Make up derivatives from the words below.

hard (adj) allege (v) apparent(adj) involve (v)

forcibly (adj) authorities (n) generate (v) devastate (v)

assassinate (v) charge (v) terrorize (v)

b) Translate the sentences and explain how the meanings of the italicized words vary in different contexts.

1. The Senator’s speeches are always so involved that it is difficult to follow his line of thought.

The woman’s involvement with the criminal was never satisfactorily proved.

2. She was asked to identify the criminal.

She identified herself to the police as the driver of the vehicle.

He is too closely identified with the previous administration.

The body had been badly burned so identification was difficult.

His only means of identification was passport.

His identification with the hero of the book is doubtful.

3. The new aircraft carrier was officially launched.

He launched a fierce attack at his opponent.

Were you at the launch of the new ship?

They held a special party at the launch of the new book.

He launched himself at thief and brought him to the ground.

4. There’s no train service between here and Wales.

The telephone rang and interrupted my train of thoughts.

These dogs are trained to detect drugs.

He’s training to be a doctor.

The firemen trained their hoses on the burning building.

5. A plot to assassinate the president was completed.

They made an assassination attempt to do away with him.

6. The police reported that the blast occurred at 3 p.m.

Enormous numbers of people were killed by blast.

They are blasting a tunnel through the mountain.

They are working at full blast to complete the order before the holidays.

The request is for a real blast from the past.

The news blasted out hopes. We had a blast at the fair.

7. The report of my death was an exaggeration.

An interim report on the progress of arms control talks.

They came back after a week to report (on) progress.

The committee of inquiry will not report until next year?

Did you hear the newspaper reports of the accident?

He cabled to say he had nothing to report.

He is reported to have been seen in Brighton.

8. They charge a heavy tax on imported cars.

Charge the purchases to my account.

This shop doesn’t charge for delivery.

All of a sudden the wild animal charged at us.

Can you afford this fur coat? No, but I’ll charge it.

He was charged with the robbery.

The shareholders charged that the directors had withheld vital information. She charged me to look after her son.

Charge the car battery / your glasses with wine.

She hadn’t got the correct coins for the phone box so she had to speak to reverse the charges.

I’d like speak to the person in charge.

Student nurses shouldn’t be left in charge of hospital of hospital wards.

He was arrested on a charge of murder generate.

9. The accident generated a lot of public interest.

Thee personnel department seems to be generating a lot of paperwork these days.

We lived in our house estate for generations for generations.

How can teachers help to bridge the generation gap between parents and children?

Discussion exercises

TERRORISM AS A KEY NOTION