From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Subject: Re: Confederation of the Mountain Peoples
Organization: Systems'n'Software
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 92 05:24:48 GMT

Here is a news item that may be of interest....

    MINI-REPUBLIC OF CHECHENYA BRACES FOR WAR AGAINST RUSSIA 
    GROSNO, CHECHENYA (Aug. 29) - The tiny Caucasian Muslim 
autonomous republic of Chechenya is bracing itself for an 
attack by Russia which it believes is part of a global 
assault on Muslim nations. 
    "Russia has declared war against Chechenya. I know. We 
are doing everything to defend ourselves. The aggression 
against Abkhazia is the first step, it is an aggression 
against Chechenya," says Chechen President and former Soviet 
General Dzhokar Dudayev. 
    Speaking in an interview in his nine-story government 
house in the center of the Chechen capital of Grosno -- 
described by many as "Dodge City," Dudayev hardly seems awed 
by a prospect of armed conflict against the nation on whose 
territory his autonomous republic was established. 
    His perception of neighboring Georgia joining the fracas 
against his tiny country does little to deter him. 
    On the contrary, just back from his first ever foreign 
tour to oil-rich Arab states in the Gulf, Dudayev warns that 
expansion of the conflict between Georgia and the autonomous 
republic of Abkhazia in northwestern Georgia could escalate 
into a trans-Caucasian war. 
    Claiming that Abkhaz guerrillas were disrupting 
Georgia's lifeline by attacking the crucial railway link 
between Russia, Georgia and Armenia, Georgian President 
Eduard Shevardnadze earlier this month ordered Georgian 
troops to occupy the Abkhaz capital of Sukhumi. At least 50 
people died in the fighting. 
    Scores of people are believed to have died this week in 
a counter-offensive by Abkhaz guerrillas, armed supporters 
of Grosno-based ousted Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia 
as well as thousands of volunteers of the confederation of 
north Caucasian mountain peoples. 
    "A Caucasian war would be very dangerous. It would not 
only be fought on the territory of the Caucasus. We don't 
want war on our territory. It would be crazy to fight it on 
our territory," he says. 
    Instead, he says, Chechenya will carry hostilities to 
the territory of its neighbors. "We will wage a guerrilla 
war, not only in Russia, but also in those countries that 
support it. Please believe me that we will retaliate. We 
have enough potential to do so," he says. "Thousands of our 
volunteers are going to help the Abkhazians. They leave only 
after being trained. We try to keep them here, but we don't 
stop them from going. If we did, they would become very 
aggressive," Dudayev adds. 
    Dudayev is aware of the risk of involving his oil-rich 
nation of 1.6 million people in a regional conflict. "Now, 
it's enough to say that the Chechen republic is interfering 
in the internal affairs of Georgia for Russia to wage war 
against us," he says. 
    But he argues, "the Georgians are in hard conditions. 
They need more help than others because the military junta 
is repressing the people. Our task is to help Georgia." 
    A staunch supporter of Gamsakhurdia, Dudayev sees the 
war between the Shevardnadze's "junta" and the Abkhazians, 
ethnic cousins of his own people, as the "logical 
continuation of Russia's imperial policy." 
    He points to this week's decree by Russian President 
Boris Yeltsin establishing a new Russian army command for 
trans-Caucasia in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. 
    The decree came as a surprise given that Georgia is not 
a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) 
created by the majority of former Soviet republics after 
last year's demise of the Soviet Union. 
    "There is a special emphasis now on the fight against 
Muslim nations: Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, Tajikistan, Bosnia-
Hercegovina. It's all part of one cycle. They are trying to 
encircle the Caucasian peoples. The main idea is directed 
against the Chechen republic. Their main goal is to kill the 
Chechen republic," Dudayev says. 
    "The Russians are encouraging the wars here to keep 
control. That's why reforms are making little headway here. 
It's Russia's fault, Yeltsin's fault. The Russians don't 
want democracy because of their imperialist past," says Musa 
Temislav, editor of "Icherka," the city's opposition 
newspaper. 
    "Russians and Georgians are the same. Shevardnadze is 
not a democrat, he's a dictator, a communist career 
politician. He's no better than Saddam Hussein or Adolf 
Hitler," Temislav says. 
    One policeman has little doubt that his country is on 
the way to victory. "Bloody Eduard," he says, referring to 
Shevardnadze, "will lose the war." Firing some shots from 
his own AK-47 into the air, he adds: "we will defeat the 
Russian pigs, the Russian communist pigs.