Beslan looks to shake Russia in a way that the Nord-Ost siege did not, in a way that the subway and concert and bus stop bombings did not, and in a way that the plane bombings would not have. But before I speculate on any of those things, I want to lay down a marker, a basic point of reference, one that is completely expected but ought to be said anyway.
Targeting a school for an attack is vile. It is more vile than attacking a whole population center, knowing that schools will fall under attack as well. It is worse than random terror, worse than anything else that the Chechens have done, and worse than anything that I can recall that al-Qaeda has done or been accused of.
Certainly there is no shortage of atrocities in this world, but specifically targeting children warrants a special place in the inferno.
Why is targeting a school more vile than attacking a population center? Especially since attacking a population center will probably kill more people.
Are children’s lives worth more than adults? Are the lives of children in schools worth more than the lives of children at home?
Why is it necessary to declare the events at Beslan as some kind of apotheosis of atrocity? I don’t understand why there has to be some kind of superbowl of atrocities.
I believe genocide is more serious, for example. It is in fact going on right now in Darfur, but for some reason people seem way more concerned about the Beslan incident than the thousands and thousands of dead in Darfur. No one has yet to my mind suggested that anyone wishes to commit genocide against the Ossetians or Russians.
So why is this event some special place in the inferno, as opposed to all the other atrocities going on now?
“I don?t understand why there has to be some kind of superbowl of atrocities.
Of course in a sense you are right Hektor but still there is something special about Beslan, compared even with Darfur.
The difference is the level of calculation, of scheming.
Via the site of Global Security and this interesting Dutch site I learned about the Janjaweed that:
“Armed raids on rich agricultural areas and skirmishes with rival groups are part of the historical way of life for the nomadic herders, and constitute a survival strategy in the face of natural calamity and threatened destitution, enabling the maintenance of their social fabric. While the Fur and other cultivators did not traditionally have the same degree of military organisation, their relations with the nomads alternated between negotiation and hostility over the intrusion of nomads’ herds on to farming land”
And now
“However, due to prolonged drought, the quality of the soil in Darfur is deteriorating and land and water resources are dwindling. This has strained the relations between farmers and nomads. Many nomads are no longer allowed to let their camels graze on the land. To the nomads, this is more than an economic crisis.”
I strongly objected against the line of reasoning of the man who wrote the abovementioned but the horrible violence of the Janjaweed is directed at the tribes they see as their competitors; it’s like “them or us”. The Beslan child-murderers probably hate the inhabitants of Ossetia but clearly the Russians are the ones they want to hit.
It’s not that the people of Beslan suffered more than the people of Darfur: the utter cynical calculating attitude of the child-killers is more frightening (to us).
There is even less hope that something can be done against these madmen.
“It is worse than random terror, worse than anything else that the Chechens have done,”
‘The’ Chechens?
“and worse than anything that I can recall that al-Qaeda has done or been accused of.”
But, unfortunately, not worse than what some Russian soldiers have done in Chechnya, leaving behind booby-trapped childrens’ toys. Which doesn’t lessen the Beslan crime in any way, but points to the fact that those in the position to act don’t have Frans’s question on their mind (what can be done against these madmen), at least not within the same framework of enlightened moral the Beslan terrorists left.
But, unfortunately, not worse than what some Russian soldiers have done in Chechnya, leaving behind booby-trapped childrens’ toys.
I’d be interested in seeing a source for this. Are you thinking of Afghanistan, perhaps?
As for the larger point being raised, here’s my take on the differences in reaction. Atrocities against civilian populations are a traditional component of warfare. One can find it in a fairly authentic form in Africa to this day, practiced especially by groups pitted against one another in rural, ethnic conflict. The warrior ethos of desert nomads can be particularly austere, but nomads don’t have a monopoly for outrages. Remember Rwanda. If that doesn’t seem to trump September 11, perhaps that’s partly because it has a visceral impact of a natural disaster rather than something hatched in darker corners of a perverted psyche, something that didn’t occur quite in the same reality we inhabit. Perhaps it’s also because we haven’t seen the killing field live on TV.
The West also introduced a particular asymmetry into its warfare. Western powers have built, especially in recent decades, armies with checks and balances, precision weapons, and carefully honed soldier psychology. Wholesale destruction of civilian population caught on the frontlines, which seemed like a painful but natural consequence of war only 50 years ago, has gradually become unpalatable. Consequently, the atrocities committed by the guerilla against civilians stand out today more than they did in the past. Russia doesn’t have a modern Western military. The Russian army is sclerotic, blunt in its force, barely checked by law, and its decade-old social fabric inspires gang mentality more than camaraderie among the hapless draftees. But the Chechnya conflict nevertheless has typical features of asymmetrical conflict, with the army mainly killing civilians while targeting insurgents, and some insurgents targeting and killing civilians.
There is a widespread tendency to try to explain modern terrorism as a kind of classic asymmetry. Not only Beslan. The most common explanation in the Arab press is that the reason terrorism now has become a near monopoly among Muslims is because Muslims now have a near monopoly on being brutally oppressed. The exaltation of victimhood perhaps goes some way toward explaining why the aljazeera.net online poll that ended yesterday had just over half of the 70,000 respondents opining that al Qaeda’s operations “serve Arab and Muslim causes” (not sure what percentage of these respondents think that the worst attacks are the work of Mossad, CIA, and FSB.) But I can’t get rid of the feeling there’s something more, particularly in this element of the atrocity superbowl. How much it has to do with the media, with the coverage of terrorist attacks and American warfare alike bringing deaths of people “just like you” into your living room, and how much it has to do with something else, I simply don’t know. Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of Chechen terrorism is that the Chechen society as a whole doesn’t even have anything resembling the Palestine-based cult of indiscriminate guerilla martyrdom. I believe this particular brand of attacks is something original and novel that is happening to the entire “civilized” world, and in that sense all of us really are in the same boat.
Michael S: “I’d be interested in seeing a source for this. Are you thinking of Afghanistan, perhaps?”
No, it is a practice in Chechnya too. There are several such claims from Chechen ex-pats, but here is one SFGate article that refers to it.
Michael S, not disputing your main point that indiscriminate guerilla martyrdom is something original and novel that is happening to the entire “civilized” world; isn’t modern guerilla martyrdom in the Middle East[*] Iran-based? Spreading first in the eighties to the also Shi’a Hezbollah in Lebanon, and only in the nineties to Sunnite Hamas in Palestine? (The first suicide bombing in Israel was sold as “response” to the Baruch Goldstein massacre.)
[*] I read somewhere that by far the most suicide attacks were committed by the Tamil separatists on Sri Lanka, but I don’t have it handy – and have no clue whether Iranians were influenced by their example.
SFGate article
No, it is a practice in Chechnya too. There are several such claims from Chechen ex-pats, but here is one SFGate article that refers to it.
Hmm…
Thousands of children in Chechnya have died or lost their limbs after stepping on land mines or picking up unexploded ordnance or homemade bombs disguised as toys, videotapes or cigarette lighters, relief agencies say.
Yes, I’ve seen reports of rebel IEDs disguised as toys, which is I think what is meant here. I remain sceptical about the claim for Afghanistan, for the same reasons that Blum mentions in the chapter I linked to. I mean, given credible evidence, I wouldn’t be shocked to note isolated acts of exceptionally perverted revenge in Afghanistan, and even in Chechnya, though the conflict there is a few notches less brutal. But, particularly as a “practice” it strikes me as rather far-fetched.
DoDo,
Suicide missions were of course a big deal in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. I think these belonged entirely to the realm of battlefield sacrifice, which was glorified since time immemorial. It’s very probable, given its religious Shi’a overtones, that the cult found an ideological echo in the Hezbollah bombings, aside from the apparent logistical support. Nonetheless, I think the Hezbollah is celebrated in the Arab world primarily as a traditional guerilla group. By Palestine-based I meant the cult of suicide bombings against civilians as a popular and media phenomenon, with the fame, the glorification, and all the rest. Aside from breaking the classic formula of atrocity — kill the men, rape the women, burn down the house, and spare the children (why are children special? not sure, but I think it’s something in our genes) — the Beslan massacre just like much of today’s terrorism was clearly conceived as a spectacle to be experienced in the privacy our living rooms.
DoDo, re “the Chechens,” not the best formulation, I agree, but not completely objectionable shorthand. Later, you’ll probably catch me talking about “the Russians” as well, and if I had a dime for every time somebody wrote about “the U.S.” or “the Americans” I’d be blogging a lot more because I wouldn’t have to work.
The Russians seem to have changed their tone, somewhat:
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=39076
Michael S, your point about the distinction of Palestinian suicide bombings from its Hezbollah and Iranian origins is well taken, but then you should consider separate traditions of indiscriminate guerilla martyrdom for al-Qaida and Tamil separatists.
As for the booby-trapped toys, obviously both sides would blame it on the other, but I can hardly think of a reason why even the most cruel followers of Basajev would plant such. (As for ‘homemade’, aren’t all booby-trapped toys are homemade?) Tough its hard to tell when no international de-mining experts are allowed in, as German TV ARD notes. (BTW, this abomination is more common than we’d like to believe; this NATO release speaks about de-mining such in Bosnia, where IIRC both Serbs and Muslims used this ‘weapon’.)
Doug, OK, it is a useful shorthand 🙂 The reason of my pickyness (I just admonished Edward for a ‘the Kurds’ too :-)) is that while normally language expresses thoughts, sometimes thoughts [not only the utterer’s] are influenced by language – and I fear more direct danger to more people with ‘the Kurds’ or ‘the Chechens’ than with ‘the Russians’ or ‘the Americans’, at least presently.
DoDo,
I agree, the Tamil Tiger bombings are important for context. I don’t mention them only because I know very little about Sri Lanka.
As for the disguised booby-traps, I would imagine that rebels warn the people living in the vicinity. The ARD article doesn’t mention examples of toy bombs (does anyone?), but cigarette lighters and cassette decks sound much like what the soldiers — mostly teenagers from the lower income bracket — might be tempted to pick up. That would be my conjecture, anyway. Google doesn’t seem to bring up anything relevant in HRW reports.
By the way, the Recent Comments bar above shows a couple of my responses to your comments under older posts. (This is just to make sure I’m not arguing with you behind your back.)
While I lived in Russia, during the early years of the 2nd chechan war, Russia specifially shelled the university in Grozny during finals, calling it a bed of terrorists. (It was in Jan. ’00). Does this count as vile, too, or does that only apply to primary schools? I’d pick the former. It was clearly done for terror reasons.
Michael S, I quoted the ARD article not because it would mention examples of toy bombs, but because it points out that it is hard to tell whether Russian or Chechen claims of who made these weapons is true when no international de-mining experts are allowed in. I suspect such and similar limitations also explain why you didn’t find anything from HRW.