Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Most of the studies on Chechen terrorism analyse the violent actions of the Chechen armed groups. And most of the attention is turned toward women who committed suicide attacks. Although we have a better understanding of the facts, there is unfortunately no thorough analysis of the social process behind Chechen terrorism. Thus, this paper put forward an analysis to explain why Chechen armed groups goes on terrorism attacks. Indeed Chechen warlords —for instance Shamil Basayev and Arbi Barayev— mobilized the strategy of terrorism in their war against the Russian army and their Chechen opponents. They also use it in the political and symbolic competition which opposed the different tendencies within the separatist camp. My analysis is narrowed down to this very specific dimension. It relies on qualitative sources like the Chechen documents, interviews with Chechen refugees in Europe and Chechen pro-separatists’ websites. Since the 1991 declaration of independence, the Chechen state failed to control its territory and to impose a legitimate use of violence. Several groups appeared, therefore, and relied on private violence. A context of social anarchy started off. The first Russo-Chechen war of 1994-1996 and the aftermath context had previously amplified the situation. War tore apart the Chechen society when violence becomes a daily fact. By the same time some Chechen warlords adopted and diffused the Islamist doctrines as an instrument in their fight. The competition between the moderate and the radical separatists almost lead to civil war in 1998. When a year later Russia came back in Chechnya, the Chechen groups never really joined up under a unified commandment. On the contrary, the war fuelled the competition between the groups which started to use terrorism. Terrorism gave them visibility and contributes to marginalize the moderate separatists who never stopped to negotiating with the Russian officials. This social process provides, according to me, an interesting explanation of the terrorist actions made by Chechen armed groups. In conclusion, I will claim that political violence and terrorism in Chechnya result first and foremost from the weakness of the separatist movement and their incapacity to control violence.