Chechnya: To the Heart of a Conflict

The main focus of this book is the massacre at Aldy, a town or suburb of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. The Chechens want their independence but the Russians want to retain them in the Federation. What has happened is that a purely colonial stuggle is taken on a conflict in the cultural fault zone. The Chechens have become fanatical Islamists using terror to kill and hurt innocent Russians. In turn, the Russians have used terror tactics (ala the Soviet Union) to kill innocent Chechens such as what happened in Aldy. This has become a personal grudge match between the two nations. In Aldy, 60 elderly men, women, and children were killed by OMRON Russian forces. The new Russian judicial authorities have managed to bury this in the courts. However, the terror continues in Russia and Chechnya. This a a good read showing that Russia has not evolved much since the Soviet Union. Maybe the reporting is more open, but the conflicts are as bloody as in the old Soviet times. This is a good perspective on the new Russia.

If the cover doesn't break your heart the content of this courageous and brutally bleak piece of journalism will. Meier was able to go where no other western journalist had the ability or courage to go. And his report of the decimation in Chechnya, particularly in the village of Aldy, is an important and critical piece of journalism, which is crucial for understanding Russia's actions in the region and the response of Chechens in their quest for independence. If the Aldy massacre had the media attention Beslan did the portrayal of this centuries old conflict would be much more fairly represented in the press.