Dear friends, As an American living in Russia doing peace work here for several years, I have the fortune of going back to the USA 1-2 times a year. And it never fails to strike me how what goes on in the rest of the world does not even seem to enter the mental radar screen of people I know, who I consider progressive, and who I would consider activists. What goes on in Russia is very far from people's consciousness. I suspect the above is true to a much lesser degree for my OS colleagues overall, and particularly non-US OS colleagues.
My question requires a little background. I consider Russia's most pressing problem at the current moment the war in Chechnya, or more precisely the Chechen Genocide. I don't think you can call it anything else: 1. 1/5 of all Chechens since 1994 have been killed. 2. 1=4 of all Chechens are disabled. 3. Cancer and TB has risen among Chechens 75 fold. According to a Russian newspaper, Obshchaya Gazeta (www.og.ru in Russian, Th. July 26th; good English-language info on the war is available at www.glasnostonline.org ) has published the results of a recent roundtable on Chechnya. The roundtable drew seven conclusions on the war as it is currently: 1. It has shifted to a partisan war that is unmanageable. 2. The growth of antireform, antiwestern, antidemocratic sentiments in Russia. 3. A profound "primitization" of society-an increase of the number of people violating all human and higher laws-murderers. 4. Russian servicemen now kill other Russian servicemen - a turf battle over control of oil wells in Chechnya, a source of money. 5. The danger of the war in Chechnya shifting from a partisan war to an all-out rebellion, an intifada 6. The danger of this conflict shifting into an all-Caucasian war. 7. The absence of an exit from the war on the part of the Russian government. And "what do officers and soldiers say during so-called mopping-up operations? 'I will not let you procreate. I came here to kill as many as you as possible." Half of all men who have been detained in filtration camps (these men are for the most part civilians who have nothing to do with the war) emerge with mutilated genitalia." If you feel that this message is not appropriate to this list, I hope that this will be my first and last such message on this topic to OST-L. If people would like to receive information about Chechnya and what you can do to create peace there, contact me off-list. What do we as people and also as OS'ers feel called to do in connection to this war in Chechnya? What can we commit ourselves to doing? Might there be a place for doing OS's in our communities on this theme: What can we in city X do to create peace in Chechnya? If OST is about empowerment, building civil society, democracy, and social change, where do we fit in this picture in relation to Chechnya? I feel that our deafening silence in relation to this war is perceived as consent. That it is ok with us. One of the lessons I drew from the OST training in Novosibirsk is that I saw yet again that we as people are capable of anything we wish to create. All we need is the desire and the intention. And one more thought, I believe profoundly that the bulk of the responsibility in creating peace in Chechnya lies on the citizenry of Russia. I think it is critical to dispel the myth of a "civilized West" common in Russia, and of a West that will end the war in Chechnya. There is no such thing as a "civilized West". We have plenty of our own skeletons. We Westerners are no less or more "civilized" than others. If people deem this issue relevant, but best continued offlist, get in touch with me. Share your ideas and I'll share mine. In peace, Raffi Aftandelian Moscow * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
