Letter: Terror in Chechnya

Sir: I have received this letter from a friend in Moscow: "The situation here in Moscow is terrible.... Fewer and fewer people support the ordinary Chechen people. The most awful feeling is that I cannot find support for my feelings even among my relatives.... Worse, there was one moment when I myself justified the government's actions...."

When in Russia during 1995-96, at the height of the last war in Chechnya, I was overwhelmed at the humanity of so many ordinary Russians in opposing the war. I witnessed miners carrying banners reading, "Yeltsin: the miner is hungry. The Chechen is terrified." Everyone contrasted the non-payment of wages with the vast sums spent on death, and the perception was widespread that the war was simply being waged for oil.

But Western governments must take their share of the blame for the dramatic change in mood. My friend opposed Nato's war in the Balkans just as she now opposes Russia's war in Chechnya. But her consistency and anti-chauvinist principle are overwhelmed by the hypocrisy of Western politicians whose awkward, equivocal condemnations now only add fuel to the fires of national chauvinism.

The shift from mass opposition to large-scale support for the Russian government's warmongering is not due only to the bombs that killed innocent Moscow inhabitants in their homes, but also to the bombs that fell on innocent civilians in the Balkans.

ROB FERGUSON

Egham, Surrey