Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 31 – Twenty years ago today, Russia and
Chechnya signed the Khasavyurt accords, an act that will be remembered not only
as the day on which the first post-Soviet Chechen war ended but also one which for
the last time “showed that Russia was a federation,” according to Vadim Shtepa.
This accord, the Russian regionalist
who now lives in exile in Estonia continues, was possible only in a federal
system with self-administered subjects. But “in the late Yeltsin years, not to
speak already about the Putin ones, Russia in fact ceased to be a federation
having evolved into a harsh unitary ‘vertical’ (rufabula.com/articles/2016/08/31/last-contract).
Because of the significance of this
document and because so many of the commentaries about it, especially in
Moscow, so distort what it says, Shtepa gives the two-page accord in full. The
English version below is taken from peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/RU_960831_Khasavyourt%20Joint%20Declaration%20and%20Principles%20for%20Mutual%20Relations.pdf.
Khasavyourt Joint
Declaration and Principles for Mutual Relations
Khasavyourt, Dagestan, 31 August 1996
We, the
undersigned,
Taking into
account the progress achieved in implementing the agreement on the cessation of
military activities,Striving to create mutually acceptable preconditions for a
political resolution of the armed conflict, Recognising the inadmissibility of
using armed force or threatening its usage in the resolution of all issues, Proceeding
from the universally recognized right of
peoples to self-determination,
the principles of equality, voluntary and free expression of will, strengthening
interethnic accord and the security of peoples, Expressing the will to protect
unconditionally human rights and freedoms and those of the citizen,
irrespective of ethnic origin, religious beliefs, place of residence or any
other distinctions, and to prevent acts of violence against political
opponents, in doing so proceeding from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Have
jointly developed Principles concerning mutual relations between the Russian Federation
and the Chechen Republic, on the basis of which the future negotiation process will
be conducted.
(Signed)
A. Lebed [for the
Russian Federation] and A. Maskhadov [for Chechnya]
B. Khartamov S.
Abumuslimov
31 August 1996
In the presence of
the Head of the OSCE Assistance Group of the Chechen Republic, (signed) T.
Guldimann
Principles
for Determining the Basis for Mutual Relations
between the
Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic
1.An
Agreement on the basis for mutual relations between the Russian Federation and
the Chechen Republic, to be determined in accordance with universally
recognised principles and norms of international law, should be achieved by 31
December 2001.
2.
A Joint Commission shall be established by 1 October 1996, composed of
representatives of the organs of state power of the Russian Federation and the
Chechen Republic, the tasks of which shall be:
·
To monitor the implementation of Decree No. 985 of the
President of the Russian Federation of 25 June 1995 and to prepare proposals
concerning the completion of the withdrawal of troops;
·
To prepare and monitor the fulfilment of agreed measures
against crime, terrorism and manifestations of ethnic and religious enmity;
·
To prepare proposals for the restoration of currency,
financial and budgetary interrelations;
·
To prepare and submit to the Government of the Russian
Federation programs for the restoration of the socio-economic structure of the
Chechen Republic;
·
To monitor the coordinated interaction of the organs of
state power and other interested parties in the provision of food and medicines
for the population.
3.Legislation
of the Chechen Republic shall be based on the observance of human and civil rights,
the right of peoples to self-determination, the principles of equality among nationalities,
the guaranteeing of civil peace, interethnic accord and the security of those residing
on the territory of the Chechen Republic, irrespective of their ethnic origin, religious
beliefs or other distinctions.
4.The
Joint Commission shall complete its work by mutual agreement.
Shtepa
points out that “nothing is said in this document about ‘the separation’ of
Chechnya. The resolution of the status of the republic is put off for five
years over the course of which intensify negotiations were to take place. But
instead of negotiations, Russia in 1999 began the second Chechen war and
President Maskhadov was declared ‘a terrorist.’”
Russia’s
negotiator, General Aleksandr Lebed, in September 1999 said what he thought he
and Aslan Maskhadov had achieved. He suggested that the two of them had “given
Russia a chance s rare for it to escape from a war which had brought it from
80,000 to 120,000 deaths. But what happened then?” (russianseattle.com/news_092899_exo_lebed.htm).
“In May 1997, the president of
Russia and the president of Chechnya signed ‘a peace treaty,’ in which Yeltsin
with the stroke of a pen eliminated any reference to the Khasavyurt agreements.
For two and a half years after this event,” Lebed pointed out, “nothing
happened.” And that led to disaster.
Shtepa takes up the story: “Having
become prime minister in August 1999, Putin committed himself to the
restoration of ‘the territorial integrity of Russia,’ which meant the complete
ignoring of the Khasavyurt accords and the renewal of the Chechen war. And the
war of course led to the radicalization of attitudes, including religious ones.”
In fact what happened in Chechnya in
the 1990s was that its people “’took as much sovereignty as they could swallow,’”
as Yeltsin suggested for all the non-Russian republics in 1990. But four years
later, Shtepa says, “he forgot his own words and returned Russia to its imperial
‘one and indivisible’ paradigm.”
Like General de Gaulle in France,
General Lebed was “a unique personality” who could “conduct peace talks with
the Chechens and return the country to a policy of real federalism.” Not surprisingly, “the imperial ‘patriots’
already in 1996 called him ‘a traitor,’” just as French radical nationalists
did de Gaulle.
(An even more interesting parallel
for Lebed was offered by the then head of the Russian interior ministry, Shtepa
says. Anatoly Kulikov compared Lebed to General Vlasov who led the Russian
Liberation Army against Stalin during World War II and was executed by Stalin
after that conflict.)
Shtepa expresses regret that “today
in Russian politics, no such people are around. All of the present-day generals
close to power are mutually interchangeable special service ‘cogs’ of a single
imperial system. The federation in Russia has been replaced in principle.”
But as the regionalist writer says, “the
restoration of the imperial has led to an unexpected result,” one that has been
pointed out by Andrey Piontkovsky and others.
“Seeking to make Chechnya ‘an inalienable part of Russia,’” Shtepa says,
has created a situation in which “Russia itself has become an inalienable part
of Chechnya.”
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