Word: chechnya
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...Causing horrific civilian deaths is often perfectly defensible under the laws of war, which favor conventional over unconventional forces in asymmetric warfare. The outright “crimes,” like the My Lai massacre, Abu Ghraib, or Russian massacres in Afghanistan and then in Chechnya, are less important for the civilian victims than the daily tactics of air assault, bombardment, and brutal door-to-door sweeps, meant to draw fire from the resisters that will justify leveling houses and the people in them...
...what really put Markelov in the spotlight was his representation of the family of Elza Kungayeva - the 18-year-old Chechen woman whom Budanov had strangled in his quarters in March 2000 just as Russia's second war in Chechnya was beginning. The Budanov case became a symbol for the thousands of human-rights abuses committed by both sides in Chechnya. Budanov served part of a 10-year sentence but was paroled for good behavior and released last Thursday. At the news conference just before his death, Markelov said he might file an appeal against Budanov's early release...
...Budanov's release sparked protests across Chechnya. On Tuesday, hundreds gathered in Grozny, the Chechen capital, to mourn the murders. Though Chechnya has recently experienced an economic rebound of sorts, the general instability of the region has reached far beyond the borders of the small republic. Just five months ago, Ruslan Yamadayev, the head of a leading Chechen clan opposed to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, was gunned down while waiting at a red light in front of the British embassy in central Moscow. A week ago, Umar Israilov, a former Kadyrov bodyguard, was shot to death in Vienna...
Earlier this month, someone shot and killed Ruslan Yamadayev, whose family helped win the Chechen war for Vladimir Putin when it sided with him against Shamil Basayev's terrorists and their radical Wahhabi allies. The Yamadayevs, however, ran afoul of Ramzan Kadyrov, the man Putin installed as ruler of Chechnya. And so Yamadayev, a hero of Russia, a colonel of the Russian Army and, until recently, a member of the Duma, was dismissed as the Chechen regional head of Putin's United Russia Party. His brother Sulim, also a hero of Russia and a Lieut. Colonel of the Russian Army...
Politkovskaya's murder had stirred up strong public passions of disgust over what was seen as a blatantly political assassination. (She was fearless and one of the most trusted journalists on the subject of Chechnya. She had survived a previous attempt on her life when someone attempted to poison her as she prepared to cover the siege and massacre in Beslan in 2004, perhaps because of her ties to moderate Chechens.) Her funeral turned into a powerful outcry against the brutality of Russia's politics. However, the trial of two accused accomplices to the murder will most likely be held...