It has been reported that there were a number of women among the dead Chechen rebels, who on September 1 laid siege to a school in North Ossetia (neighbouring republic of Chechnya), and the horrific bloodbath that followed on September 3, that killed hundreds of people including children. The barbaric massacre shows the extent of the fight between the Chechen rebels and the Russian forces. The rebels' demand was withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and release of Chechen fighters arrested in June in Ingushetia , another neignbouring republic of Chechnya.

Prior to the school siege, on August 24, two aeroplanes from Moscow that crashed soon after their take off had the names of two Chechen women on their passenger lists, one on each plane. No one reportedly came forward to claim their bodies.

In 2003, a 20-year old Chechen woman blew herself up outside a rock concert in Moscow. Sixteen died. Another 26-year old woman (widow of a Chechen rebel commander) exploded a bomb near the Hotel National, originally planned in front of the State Parliament. Again six were killed and 14 injured.

In October 2002, veiled Chechen women (Black Widows) were among those who laid siege to a theatre in Moscow during a production of the musical Nord-Ost (North-East). They held around 800 people hostage and demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities in Chechnya and withdrawal of Russian armed forces. Russian Special Forces pumped a paralysing gas into the theatre and then stormed it. All the 41 Chechen rebels including 18 women and 129 hostages died.

Chechens' situation different from Arabs'
During the 10-year war in Chechnya, many Chechen rebel commanders and their followers were reportedly tortured and killed, making their wives widows. The widows think that they have nothing to lose and have decided to take up arms to avenge the deaths of their loved-ones

It was reported that a young Chechen woman, Zarema Muzhakhoyeva (22), was arrested in July last year when she failed to set off a bomb in a café in Moscow. Captured by Russian police after her mission failed, she had the chance to tell her story in the Russian media, via the police. Surprisingly, it was reported that Zarema is not an Islamic fundamentalist desperate for martyrdom. Her action was not based on any ideology, but arose out of helplessness and utter desperation, typical for a person that has known nothing but war for a decade and lost her loved ones.

Political observers believe that the Chechen situation is different from that in Arab countries, where terrorism is linked with Islamic fundamentalism. For Chechen women, it is overwhelmingly for personal reasons to avenge the death of her husband or brother or her child. The Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who met dozens of women from Chechnya, reportedly said that a major motive for suicide missions was revenge for the death of loved ones, and they rarely had a religious cause. One Russian woman survivor who has lost her husband and daughter in the theatre siege in 2002, had even some sympathy with Chechen women. She reportedly said : "I related in some way to the women. One said she had lost her husband and child, and maybe any mother in that position would be capable of that."

Background of Chechen war
Chechnya is about 5,800 square miles located in southern Russia on the rugged Caucasus mountains. Chechens were converted to Islam during the 16th century and they speak a language which is non-slavic (Russians are Slavic) and non-Persian. They are rooted in Indo-European language, but distinctly Caucasian. Chechnya's population is about 1.1 million. There is a legend that to Chechens: "Their god is freedom and their law is war."

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many Soviet republics became independent, such as the Central Asian Muslim republics Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Chechnya also followed the same route. But the difficulty is that unlike the Central Asian Republics, Chechnya, is considered an integral part of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, its location in the northern Caucasus is vital for transportation of oil from the Caspian Sea to Russia and beyond. Chechnya commands mountain passes into the South Caucasus that borders the oil-rich Caspian Sea and therefore its location and control is of immense strategic importance to Russia.

On October 12, 1994, the President of the Chechen republic declared its independence from the Russian Federation. In 1995, a peace agreement was signed ending the war in Chechnya. Former President Boris Yeltsin was reportedly making some moves towards a separate Chechen state but the idea never materialised. In 1997, the new president of the Chechen republic, Aslan Maskhadov, signed another peace agreement with President Yeltsin. But the peace agreements did not address the core issue of constitutional relationship between Chechnya and Russia. Chechnya, however, agreed to allow transportation of oil to Russia through Chechen territory.

Since Vladimir Putin became president, observers believe that he adopted a heavy-handed policy towards Chechnya and is a fierce advocate of use of force to curb the separatists' rebellion in Chechnya. It is reported that he declared in 2000 that Russian forces would seek out terrorists wherever they were and even "drown them in the toilet" if they found them there.

Russia is maintaining a force of 150,000 in Chechnya. Security operations by Russian forces in Chechnya created numerous claims of atrocities and human rights violations, according to human rights organisations in Western countries. Even the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, after visiting Chechnya in 2000, reportedly said: "The sheer scale of human rights abuses is very worrying and very devastating … people live in great fear." Russia has consistently rejected the allegations of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

President Putin has consistently refused to negotiate with rebels. The part of the problem of Russia's policy is that it considers the rebels as terrorists, part of international terrorism. It ignores the demands of the Chechen people. Political problems cannot be resolved militarily. We have witnessed in 1971 when Pakistani military unleashed a reign of terror and massacre on the people of Bangladesh and freedom fighters were called "miscreants." It brought independent Bangladesh into existence. Political issues relating to ethnical differences or territorial grievances need to be resolved through negotiation.

The Washington Post wrote recently that continuation of war in Chechnya has "destroyed the republic, bled and corrupted the occupying Russian army, and contributed to the crumbling of democracy and free speech in Russia itself. Responsibility for this debacle lies squarely with Vladimir Putin."

Conclusion
Russia has to acknowledge that Chechnya war will not go away, despite its unleashing of massive forces against Chechen rebels in Chechnya. Many political observers believe that it is naïve to ignore the root causes of Chechnya's instability and Putin's hard-line policy does not seem to be the answer to a deep-seated territorial discord of the Chechen people.

In London, The Independent, said it was time for Putin to act for peace: "It would be in the interests of war-weary Chechens, in the interest of Mr. Putin himself, to invite all parties to renounce violence and sit around a table to talk."

Remember the old adage: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." To lump all freedom fighters as "rotten terrorists" is not likely to ease the situation in Chechnya and the terror of the "Black Widows" may remain unabated in Russia.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid is former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.