The Conflict
Chechnya was conquered by Russia in the second half of the 19th century after 50 years of military campaigns.

At the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechens seized the opportunity to regain independence by declaring the sovereignty of their Republic. However, the new democratic Russia of Boris Yeltsin was not ready to grant freedom to this oil-rich colonial dominion. On 11 December 1994, confronted with the refusal of the Chechens to sign the Russian Federation Treaty, Moscow launched the first invasion.

In September 1999 a Russian army, 140,000 strong, marched again into Chechnya. The bombing of Grozny by long-range artillery and strategic missiles began a month later. The paediatric and maternity hospitals of Grozny were among the first targets (1 November 1999). "To win this war, one has to destroy the entire male population of Chechnya" declared former Russian Prime Minister, Sergey Stepashin three days later. After a five-month resistance, the Chechen forces withdrew from the besieged city. Grozny was reduced to rubble.

Of the population of 300,000 people before the onslaught, only 30,000 were left when the Russian troops entered Grozny.

The remainder were either dead, killed in the air bombings and buried in the ruins, or had fled the city. Regardless of alleged political mistakes by the Chechen leadership during the inter-war period, nothing could justify such ferocious and undiscriminating use of force with "collateral damage" well beyond the acceptable level. Moscow wants Chechnya as part of Russia no matter how many Chechens have to die. It is a war against a whole nation. The wasting of Chechnya marks a new phase in the annals of modern atrocity: a grudge genocide fuelled by revenge for the humiliating defeat of August 1996.