Terrorism is a constant
worry for people in America and since 9/11/01 we have been very concerned with the
issue of the Middle East. The Taliban, and other terrorists foreign and
domestic cause constant worry for Americans, but what we fail to see is that
terrorism is not a narrow faucet only aimed at America, there are many acts of
terrorism in other countries that have been going on for decades that we here
in America fail to see. For instance Russia has had a conflict with the
Chechens sin the late 18th century. This century’s long conflict,
often armed, between the Russian government and the various Chechen forces
started when Russia took an interest in the North Caucasus as a communication
route and way to keep a watchful eye on its enemies the Persian and Ottoman
empires. The Chechens and Russians have battled before but in 1991 the Chechens
took advantage of the disintegrating Soviet Russia and claimed independence. In
1994 the first Chechen War broke out and by 2000 the Russians established
control over Chechnya. So still today Chechnya is not free and chooses to take
its anger out on the civilians of Russia by planning and executing various
terrorists attacks in the name of Chechen nationalists.
The most notorious attack shook the world
in 2004, when over 30 Chechen terrorists captured 1,128 people as hostages in
Beslan’s secondary school in North Ossetia, on the first day of the school
year, September 1. For more than 50 hours, the hostages were held at gunpoint
and denied water, food or medical help. The three-day siege left 334 people
dead, 318 of them hostages, including 186 children. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev
claimed responsibility for the terrorist act.
Meanwhile, Russia’s most wanted fugitive is Islamist Chechen warlord
Doku Umarov, who took responsibility for the Moscow Metro bombings of 2010, in
which two female suicide bombers detonated bombs in a metro station, killing
thirty-nine people.
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