And we were there, once again. That utter astonishment that always comes along with tragedy. Some of us cry, some mourn, the majority simply feel like they are not feeling enough. We desperately look for signs that testify our emotional involvement, signs that show that we care about what is going on. In fact, we do care, even though our emotions do not seem to fit in any of the usual categories.
In the same way the Russians care about what has happened on the 29th of March on the red line of the magnificent Moscow metro. They care about the 40 passengers killed in the two bomb blasts that took place in Liubyanka and Park Kultury metro stations. They care about the 140 and more injured. In spite of their resilience in bringing things back to normal as soon as possible. The metro was running regularly a few hours after the attacks, fathers holding their children’s hand were getting on at the very same stations were the explosions took place.
Emotions and reactions can be very different, sometimes even contradictory, but they are always a response to something external that we cannot control. Terrorist attacks are a response to something too. Mariam Sharipova and Dzhanet Abdurakhmanova, the two suicide bombers responsible for the events in Moscow, provide an example of this . They were what the Russians commonly refer to as Shahidkas (Black Widows). Shahidkas are usually women who have lost their husbands during military operations led by the Russians in the Caucasus and were converted to Islamism, brainwashed and convinced to sacrifice their lives for revenge. Many of the suicide bombers who took under siege the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow in 2002 and a school in Beslan in 2004 were Shahidkas. They were mothers, sisters and wives of men who died fighting for the independence of their region (mainly Chechnya), in a context that is very difficult to judge without being biased. They were mothers, sisters and wives whose feelings were forced upon them. They were told what to feel and the way to react to their tragedies. For the radical Islamists in search of new recruits that lured them into the abyss they were easy pray, driven by despair and victims of poverty and lack of education.
If we want to condemn someone for what has happened in Moscow we should be extremely careful. To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction. Or, even better, for every reaction there is always an action that preceded it. If you look at what has happened in the past in the Caucasus and is happening nowadays in Dagestan and Moscow this rule perfectly applies. The Russian government has had a great part of responsibility in the developments of the situation in the Caucasus. Unable to cope with the separatist movements in the area the central government has in the end decided to abandon it to destitution and instability. Problems, however, don’t disappear, but in many case come back in worse shapes. That is why a major action is required by the government not only to punish those who commissioned the attacks, but first of all to solve tackle extensively the many issues faced by the population in the Caucasus. Needless to say, this will take a long time and a mea culpa by the Russian authorities. Anyone sees it coming anytime soon?
Abyssus abyssum invocat.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh it's alright, I am not going to delete the post, as you are making some very interesting points. And I had a feeling that it wasn't the correct form(Google has tricked me once more). I am going to change the post though :)
ReplyDeleteAnd it's true, people too often don't analyse things enough. But if we want to judge, we should know what we are talking about. A few years ago radical Islamism was not common in the Caucasus. Now it is. People don't wonder why. But they should, if they wish to understand. How did it happen that radical Islamism took root? I am not going and don't want to justify the reasons behind those terrorist attacks, but it is necessary to underline that occasional anti-terrorism measures are not the way to solve the problem. If Russia wants to stop this tragedy it has to work hard in order to change the system that rules the whole area and that makes its population so easy to maneuver.
Here is an article by Masha Lipman that says it all:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/04/AR2010040402723.html
REVISED COMMENT
ReplyDelete(I have removed a reference in the original comment to make it more respectful of our host. The rest of the comment I have reposted for all. Thanks very much to Ilaria for her patience with my original version. So gracious!)
We have lost our complete distrust of Russia and events like this make us feel much more solidarity with them. Now there might be conditions in Chechnya and region that Russians brought upon themselves, but we understand it is unacceptable to absorb attacks on our capitals, regardless of the opposition's cause. And in the scheme of things, as these are "religious zealots" of the same religion as people attacking USA, not many people here are going to stop to wonder if those attacks are justified, before supporting Russia in devastating what we perceive as a common enemy. Be that perception correct or not, we see common cause with Russia when Moscow is attacked in this fashion, and besides our hearts going out to the victims, so also does our willingness to countenance a fierce response -- justified or not. We aren't too picky about the fine points of a situation like this: we perceive the similarities and on that basis alone, would probably support almost anything the Russians do to protect themselves. That is the view from the US street. Many people here would think "the more of those zealots they kill, the better." Without further analysis.