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Chechnya: A Nation Suffering at the Hands of Scoundrels
An Interview with Khassan Baiev

Khassan Baiev is a native Chechen and surgeon by profession, arguably most well known for having operated on Shamil Basayev, the Chechen separatist and guerilla leader said to have masterminded numerous terrorist attacks in Russia and the Caucasus region. From 1994 to 2000, he worked in Chechnya, treating anyone in need of medical attention: both Chechen rebels and Russian soldiers came under his knife. With the help of human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, he moved to the United States in 2000. He is the author of The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire.

Question: Ten years have passed since the war in Chechnya began. Ten years ago, could you have imagined that this war would begin?

Baiev: No one in Chechnya could have imagined that conflict was in the offing, that we would be bombed and shot at. We didn’t take [the threat] seriously: our entire lives, we lived in one and the same country; we spoke the same language. Many Chechens were educated in Russia; we all served in the Soviet Army. Many had friends in Russia ….

During the first war there was a sense of common sympathy and understanding. The Chechens and the Russians tried to help one another. On many occasions, chance encounters of those who had served together earlier in the armed forces would lead to one helping the other to emigrate or gain freedom from captivity. Chechen families took in thousands of Russian soldiers…. No one ever wrote or talked much about such incidents because the awful mess that took place there had to be justified and explained; people had to be convinced that the Russian Army was fighting against hoards of armed troops. Yes, there were Russian soldiers held captive; it was, after all, a war. But statistics told another story: many [Russian] soldiers knew all too well that Chechens had nothing against them….

I traveled extensively throughout the country. When I would show my documents at check posts and it would become known that I was a physician, I and my profession were always shown respect. But during the second conflict, such understanding disappeared.

Question: Did Chechnya really want independence from Russia?

Baiev: Such a question had never been asked. Chechens never could have imagined how they could live independently. We were, after all, throughout our entire lives a part of Russia. You can justify a war any way you like... Dudayev clearly understood that little Chechnya could never put up a fight with Russia. When the war began, many [Russians] claimed that Dudayev never sought to negotiate. But he was never allowed to meet with Yeltsin. If such a meeting could have occurred, there might not have been a war. Yeltsin’s people… didn’t want it to happen.

Question: How have Chechen attitudes changed over the past decade?

Baiev: In 1999, when the kidnappings began in Chechnya, people had become thoroughly exhausted from the volatility, the unpredictability. Nations have always suffered at the hands of a small band of scoundrels. Hospitals and schools were laid to waste… people were tired and prepared for Russians to enter the country. Around 80% of the population wanted to remain in the Russian Federation. But when they did come, no one anticipated that they would be so destructive. In 2000, I said at a press conference that the more you shoot at innocent people, the more victims there are among the populace, the more innocent people you detain, all the more hatred you will reap and people you will recruit for Basayev and Maskhadov. Chechens were given no other alternative. Either they were rounded up and detained in “filtration camps,” tortured and executed, or they could escape into the forests and defend themselves. All the purges and murder have changed people’s attitudes to such a degree that there is no end in sight to the war.

Question: Russia is now counting on a number of Chechen groups that are offering guarantees of peace in the offing. Do you think this plan will work?

Baiev: No, I don’t. Over the course of the past ten years, 250,000 civilians have been killed. Before the war, the population numbered approximately 1 million. Some 42,000 children have perished and another 26,000 have been orphaned. I witnessed with my own eyes bombings and shootings in settlements where not one guerilla was located. Every day I saw entire families murdered…. A person who has lost his family has nothing left in his soul but hatred. And, worst of all, we cannot forget that an entire generation has grown up without ever receiving a proper education, a generation that doesn’t know Russian and has seen nothing but violence.

Question: What has been the state of civilian medical assistance during the second war in Chechnya?

Baiev: The hospitals had been all but destroyed during the first war. Many doctors and medical assistants had been killed; often they died in the operating room. When the second conflict began, many medical professionals had already left Chechnya. Not many physicians were left (there were no more than 15 surgeons in the entire country)… My specialty was plastic surgery, but I had to conduct every kind of operation imaginable. Medical equipment and drugs were in terribly short supply. When as many as 40 injured need attention every day, supplies quickly run out. I didn’t have antibiotics or general anesthetics…. I had to use a saw to carry out amputations…. For the amputations we used lidocaine, a local anesthetic used by dentists…. I treated burns with a sour cream and egg yolk mixture. I substituted common household thread for sutures and torn sheets for bandages. We had no blood reserves, so we were forced to give blood ourselves; we simply had no other choice.

Question: It is said that you were strongly disliked by the Russians for treating Chechen rebels, including Shamil Basayev. Conversely, some Chechens detested you for treating members of the Russian military. Is this true?

Baiev: Yes, that’s right. I was faced with this problem during both wars… I am a doctor, not a politician. If I begin to differentiate between people by their nationality, or religion, then I cease being a doctor… I never liked being dictated to about who I should save first. And sometimes I got [in trouble for my actions]…

Question: You provided medical treatment to Basayev. What kind of person is he?

Baiev: People change. During the first war he was a national hero. But after Budennovsk and Dagestan, attitudes toward him quickly changed. People’s behavior and psyche become deranged in times of war. I saw how people changed when they witnessed death and destruction on a daily basis…. I am personally offended when he talks about the terrorist acts he has committed. Many have accused me of saving a man’s life who has created so many problems for the Chechens. I can only say to them that I am a doctor and not a policeman. Every one has a calling. I operated on people; whatever else they did was not my concern.

Question: When you see how Chechens are portrayed in the Russian media, what’s your reaction?

Baiev: I watch NTV [Russian television channel] every day. I follow the news about Russia and Chechnya in the print media very closely. Of course, it’s offensive how the propaganda war has been led against Chechens, constantly showing Maskhadov, Basayev, Raduyev and all the other terrible, bearded…Did we really have so few intellectuals!? Chechens represented Russia at the Olympics and even came home with medals; why doesn’t anyone talk about them…? Instead, [Chechens] are always made out to be the “archetypal enemy.” They are constantly portrayed as monsters capable of nothing more than banditry and terrorism. It reminds me of the Cold War: when I attended school, all the papers featured caricatures of Americans riding atomic bombs covered with the blood of others. Now, the exact same kind of propaganda war is being waged against the Chechens. But we are human beings, just like everyone else! We also want to live, laugh, work and learn….

Question: What is your prognosis of future outcomes in Chechnya?

Baiev: Before the first war Chechens were willing to live with Russians. Today, they don’t see any point in it. Politicians may say that Chechnya and Russia can’t get along without each other, but that’s no longer true. It’s too late. Chechens are terribly depressed. They are psychologically ill. They don’t care who the presidents of Russia and Chechnya are. People have lost their loved ones. Over the past decade, not once, not even when a thousand people died in one day in Chechnya, has Russia declared an official day of mourning. Everyone has gotten used to the war in Chechnya…. Honestly, I see no way out of this conflict. Let those that started the war find an end to it. I personally have lost all hope….