Chechen Rebels Mainly Driven by Nationalism
MOSCOW, Sept. 11 - Chechnya's separatists have received money, men, training and ideological inspiration from international Islamic organizations, but they remain an indigenous and largely self-sustaining force motivated by nationalist more than Islamic goals, Russian and international officials and experts say.
The flow of financing from Islamic groups that supported Chechnya's separatist movement has slowed from its peak in the late 1990's, Sergei N. Ignatchenko, the chief spokesman for the Federal Security Service, said in an interview on Friday. Yet Chechen separatists have recently managed to carry out the most devastating attacks against Russia in years, killing nearly 600 people since late June alone. [..]
Despite assertions that Arab fighters took part in the seizure of Middle School No. 1 in Beslan 10 days ago, officials have yet to establish that any of the fighters came from abroad or received training or supplies elsewhere. Of the dead identified so far, all came from Ingushetia or were ethnic Chechens, including some who raided police and other security garrisons in Ingushetia in June, killing nearly 100.
Some of the weapons and ammunition used in the school seizure had been captured in those raids, the Russian deputy prosecutor general, Vladimir I. Kolesnikov, announced Friday.
Those holding the school and at least 1,200 hostages cited no grievances about conditions in the larger Muslim world, but focused demands on Chechnya's independence, according to official accounts so far.
Officials and experts said in interviews that as Russia's conflict in Chechnya has evolved, descending from separatist bravado into barbarity, a portion of the republic's separatists have merged nationalist goals and tribal codes with the ideology and tactics of groups like Al Qaeda, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, has cited Chechen resistance as part of his global religious war.
The influence of Islamic extremism is clear in much of Chechnya's terrorism now, including large-scale attacks and, increasingly, suicide bombings intended to shock and sow fear more than to accomplish a clear military or political objective. The Chechen fighters have also adopted Al Qaeda's methods of securing money through conduits masquerading as charities, officials say.
Islamic ideology has also left its mark among the separatist fighters, who have adopted, at least outwardly, the dress, slogans and strictures of extremist fighters elsewhere, though it has not taken root in Chechnya's relatively secular society.
Nevertheless, many officials and experts said that influence was limited and, to Russia's critics, overstated by the Kremlin in order to avoid addressing the roots of war in Chechnya. The number of foreign fighters is also thought to be very small - from a dozen to 200, though most estimates fall on the lower end. [..]
The officials and experts said the principal motivation for Chechnya's fighters remains independence, though a goal that after 10 years of war, has increasingly become entwined with Chechnya's traditional codes of revenge, known as adat. Mixed with them are smaller elements of Islamic extremism, including that of the Saudi branch called Wahhabism. [..]
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