The military: thugs in ragged uniforms: poverty, corruption, and brutality
By James Meek

A curious discovery awaited detectives inside the flat at 20 Rublyov Highway where the two elderly residents--Anna Ichko and her husband, Andrei--had been killed. The murderers took clothes, an old radio, some jewelry, and cash. But perhaps made careless by the vodka they had found in the fridge, they left behind two rough khaki jackets of the kind worn by soldiers in the Russian army. After killing the pensioners, the perpetrators sat down and laboriously pinned Andrei Ichko's 20 or so military decorations to one of the jackets.

Suspicion fell on two young conscripts from the Volga region who had deserted from a garrison near the Ichkos' flat five days before the murders. After an intensive manhunt, they were tracked down to a hostel in Petrozavodsk, near the Finnish border. Police say they confessed immediately.

The case has strengthened the growing association in the public mind between the armed forces and crime. The pampered military behemoth of Soviet days has sunk lower in both power and prestige than would have been thought possible five years ago. Analysts estimate that of its 78 divisions, the Russian army could now field and supply only one in full battle order. To mention the army is to conjure up an image of hunger and rags, of officers and their families struggling to survive in single dormitory rooms without being paid for months on end, of corruption, pilfering, bullying, and draft dodging on a huge scale.

At the same time as the Ichko case, two soldiers at an air-defense base on the Pacific island of Sakhalin went AWOL after gunning down four of their colleagues. The new generation of young urban Russians look on the army as a throwback to a darker age and on national service as a punishment for a crime not committed.

2nd part


The military: thugs in ragged uniforms: poverty, corruption, and brutality
By James Meek


"The army is a mirror of the country as a whole. If there's no order in the country, how can there be in the army?" says Maria Fedulova of the Russian Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, the most active organization working to protect conscripts.

Two years ago, Yura was making a reasonable living as a vodka salesman. He had just graduated from school and hoped to get into an elite economics institute, which would have saved him from the draft. He failed and heeded the call up without too much concern, expecting to have some time to prepare for another attempt at college. He was assigned to a regiment near the Volga city of Ulyanovsk.

One of the obscure legacies of Soviet days plaguing conscripts is that they are not allowed access to radio or television in their first year of service. Only by rumor did Yura's company hear that Russian forces had rolled into Chechnya in December, 1994. In July, they were sent themselves. They were told they were going for three months. In fact, it was 10.

Yura's reminiscences have an eerie echo of the tales of U.S. GIs in Vietnam: the uncertainty about what they were supposed to be doing, the unseen enemy picking them off from the hills--his regiment lost 30 men--the hostility between officers and enlisted men, and the desperate attempts to speed the passage of time.

"It was difficult to get vodka," he says. "Some people picked hemp, which grows wild in Chechnya. It was too weak to smoke so you could roast it or cook it with milk--but there wasn't any milk, so we usually fried and ate it. To get away from reality. Folk drank chefir, which is a whole box of tea in a single mug of water. Some people sniffed petrol."

The company lived in trenches, ate porridge--potatoes on holidays--and slept on mattresses on wooden boards. In winter, on a good day, there was wood for a fire. Otherwise, they quarreled over who got to wear the few chemical-warfare capes. Fighting between the soldiers was constant: At one point a private, fed up with being bullied, opened up with his rifle. Whole months would go by without the men seeing their officers. "Basically, everything was settled by force there," says Yura.

Yura's war ended with the news that his father had died. The telegram never reached him, but a former teacher knew he was in Chechnya and contacted the Soldiers' Mothers Committee. It took Yura three days to get back to Moscow and he missed the funeral. With the committee's help, he was able to get a discharge. But he feels Moscow is not as he remembers it. "They just spit on all these people dying," he says. "The Americans suffer for every one of their soldiers who dies. It's not like that with us."

The Russian army has always brutalized its recruits. During the Crimean War, Tolstoy was struck by the difference between the confident bearing of British prisoners and the servility of the Russian troops. In the Imperial Russian army, soldiers were not conscripted en masse, but those required to go were obliged to serve for 20 years. Much of the success of the Red Army during World War II was due to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of men in frontal attacks.

For military analysts such as Aleksandr Golts of the army newspaper Krasnaya Zuezda, the main priority is to make the armed forces an effective fighting machine. "From 1991, when the Russian armed forces were created, it was clear that such an army was an unbearable burden on the economy," says Golts. "We will have to recognize that cardinal military reforms can't be carried out. Better to accept the inevitability of a slow, tortuous process of reform over 10 years."

But Fedulova of the Mothers Committee believes the first job should be to make the armed forces--and society--care about individuals. The best hope, she believes, is the growing rebelliousness of the young. "The kids have already grown up a little bit differently. They've become less yielding to authority. They've begun to think freely--not much, but they have begun," she says.

One of the conscripts at the Mothers Committee offices in Moscow recently was 19-year-old Sergei, who was trying to get a transfer from a unit in the Siberian city of Barnaul where, he says, he is being bullied mercilessly by conscripts from the north Caucasus. His unit is responsible for a flight of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles. What had the officers said when he complained to them about the bullying? "They told me to sort it out for myself."

Crime without punishment - Russia in the Caucasus

By Eric Margolis

One of the worst crimes of our time continues in the Caucasus mountains - while the world turns its eyes away.

While China is rightly condemned worldwide for its brutal repression of Tibet, and jailing of dissidents, Russia's savagery in Chechenya is utterly ignored.

A year ago this month, the Russian Army invaded the tiny mountain republic to crush the attempt by the 1.2 million, mainly Muslim, Chechens to regain their independence after a century and a half of savage Russian colonial rule.

At the time, Russian Defense Pavel Grachev boasted he would "liquidate" the uprising in a few days. What could a few thousand irregular Chechen fighters do against 50,000 Russian troops, backed by armor, artillery, helicopter gunships and aircraft? Hadn't the rebellious Caucasian mountaineers learned their lesson when Stalin deported 80% of all Chechens to Siberian concentration camps in 1944?

Evidently not. Showing all their legendary courage, ferocity, and tenacity, lightly armed Chechen fighters stopped the Russian Army, troops of the Interior Ministry, and KGB units, in their tracks. Proclaiming a Jihad, or holy war, the Chechen mujihadin defeated Russian tanks and armored fighting vehicles in the streets of the capitol, Grozny, with only Molotov cocktails and hand-held RPG anti- tank rockets.

While the western world celebrated Christmas,1994, Russian forces used heavy artillery, massed rocket batteries, and carpet bombing, to grind Grozny and any Chechen village that resisted, to rubble. Over the past year, at least 45,000 Chechens, mainly civilians, have been killed by the Russians. Moscow admits to losing 2,300 soldiers; the true figure is likely above 6,000. Human rights groups accuse the Russians of widespread torture, mass executions, reprisals, and collective punishment in Chechnya.

This week, Chechen mujihadin launched fierce attacks on their Russian occupiers aimed at disrupted phony elections staged by Moscow to install a Chechen puppet communist regime, led by Quisling named Zavgayev. Chechen still strongly support their elected president, Gen. Dzhokar Dudayev, who leads the national resistance from the nation's wild southern mountains.

Dudayev ousted the communist regime in 1991 in a freeÔ the decomposing Soviet Union. Though other republics, like Ukraine, Uzbekistan or Lithuania, successfully quit the USSR, not a single nation recognized free Chechenya. It was too remote, too unimportant.

Russia was determined to hold on to Chechnya: it controls important oil pipeline running from Azerbaijan. Freedom for Chechenya could break Moscow's hold on the entire strategic Caucasus region. The KGB tried three times to assassinate Gen. Dudayev. When these attempts failed, KGB mounted a covert invasion of Chechenya in summer, 1994, using regular Russian troops masquerading as Chechen. The Russians were humiliatingly routed. Yeltsin's `Bay of Pigs' cost US $650 million - some of it supplied by western aid donors. Six months later, Moscow openly invaded Chechenya.

Chechens are used to Russian invasions. Tsarist Russia first began conquering the Muslim emirates of the Caucasus in the 1830's. The great Chechen leader, Imam Shamil, lead a magnificent, 29-year resistance to Russia's armies. The Chechen were finally overwhelmed by Russian numbers. But they rebelled anew in 1863, during the Polish revolt. In 1877, after which Russia slaughtered 60% of the total population. In 1917, and in 1920.

No people anywhere on earth fought so long or hard against tyranny and colonialism as the Chechen - and none has suffered so much. Stalin attempted genocide by sending almost the entire Chechen nation to the Gulag, including the parents of the current leader, Dzhokar Dudayev, and those of the renowned mujihadin commander, Shamil Basaev, a true "saif ul-Islam" (sword of Islam). A few Chechen survived.

Their offspring, the children of the concentration camps, are now fighting Russian rule.

Bloody battles raged in Chechenya all this week. Chechen mujihadin seized two major cities and held them against the full might of massed Russian firepower. Moscow poured more troops, tanks, guns and aircraft into Chechnya - so far, to no avail. But how long can a few mountaineers, no matter how valiant and fearless, fight mighty Russia, with 149 million people and the world's second largest ground forces?

The world turns its back on Chechenya. President Clinton gave Moscow a free hand in Chechenya, in exchange for Russian acquiescing to the farcical American invasion of Haiti. No one wants to anger Moscow by supporting tiny Chechenya. Not even Islamic nations, who have totally ignored the Jihad in Chechnya. The nearby Turks and Iranians are so frightened by Moscow they dare not supply the Chechen even a few bullets. The Chechen's sole source of arms and supplies are those captured from Russian forces.Ô "independent" Georgia and Azerbaijan, to cut off any potential supplies for the mujihadin. Anti-insurgent techniques perfected in Afghanistan, where the Soviets slaughtered 1.5 million people, are being used again in Chechnya.

What can the world do? Cut off all financial and technical aid to Moscow. Boycott Russian exports of oil, vodka, and raw materials. Arm the Chechens. Keep denouncing Russian atrocities until Moscow is compelled by world outrage to leave Chechnya -just as it was finally forced to quit Afghanistan.

In Chechnya, "democratic" Boris Yeltsin and his generals are committing crimes worthy of Josef Stalin. The world's silence is shameful and sickening.

Please Every One Read

Allâh bears witness that Lâ ilâha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), and the angels, and those having knowledge (also give this witness); (He is always) maintaining His creation in Justice. Lâ ilâh illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.19. Truly, the religion with Allâh is Islâm. Those who were given the Scripture (Jews and Christians) did not differ except, out of mutual jealousy, after knowledge had come to them. And whoever disbelieves in the Ayât (proofs, evidences, verses, signs, revelations, etc.) of Allâh, then surely, Allâh is Swift in calling to account.20. So if they dispute with you (Muhammad SAW) say: "I have submitted myself to Allâh (in Islâm), and (so have) those who follow me." And say to those who were given the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and to those who are illiterates (Arab pagans): "Do you (also) submit yourselves (to Allâh in Islâm)?" If they do, they are rightly guided; but if they turn away, your duty is only to convey the Message; and Allâh is All-Seer of (His ) slaves[].21. Verily! Those who disbelieve in the Ayât (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) of Allâh and kill the Prophets without right, and kill those men who order just dealings, … announce to them a painful torment. 22. They are those whose works will be lost in this world and in the Hereafter, and they will have no helpers. 23. Have you not seen those who have been given a portion of the Scripture? They are being invited to the Book of Allâh to settle their dispute, then a party of them turn away, and they are averse.24. This is because they say: "The Fire shall not touch us but for a number of days." And that which they used to invent regarding their religion has deceived them.

Quran 3:18-24

VERSES FROM THE HOLI QURAN

And the Jews say: 'Uzair (Ezra) is the son of Allâh, and the Christians say: Messiah is the son of Allâh. That is a saying from their mouths. They imitate the saying of the disbelievers of old. Allâh's Curse be on them, how they are deluded away from the truth![]31. They (Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords besides Allâh (by obeying them in things which they made lawful or unlawful according to their own desires without being ordered by Allâh), and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary), while they (Jews and Christians) were commanded [in the Taurât (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)) to worship none but One Ilâh (God - Allâh) Lâ ilâha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He)[]. Praise and glory be to Him, (far above is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him)."32. They (the disbelievers, the Jews and the Christians) want to extinguish Allâh's Light (with which Muhammad SAW has been sent - Islâmic Monotheism) with their mouths, but Allâh will not allow except that His Light should be perfected even though the Kâfirûn (disbelievers) hate (it).33. It is He Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad SAW) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islâm), to make it superior over all religions even though the Mushrikûn (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allâh) hate (it).34. O you who believe! Verily, there are many of the (Jewish) rabbis and the (Christian) monks who devour the wealth of mankind in falsehood, and hinder (them) from the Way of Allâh (i.e. Allâh's Religion of Islâmic Monotheism). And those who hoard up gold and silver [Al-Kanz: the money, the Zakât of which has not been paid], and spend it not in the Way of Allâh, -announce unto them a painful torment.

QURAN 9;30-34

ERIC FOR YOUR INFORMATION...
UKRAINE, UZBEKISTAN AND LITHUANIA,AS WELL AS GEORGIA, ARMENIA, TAJIKISTAN, BELARUS AND OTHERS, WERE REPUBLICS AND WERE PART OF USSR, BUT NOT PART OF RUSSIA, UNLIKE CHECHNYA.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/p/ap/19991207/wl/russia_chechnya_ch8.html

C'mon, you won't to be next hero?

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/p/ap/19991207/wl/russia_chechnya_ch8.html

The future of Islam ...

Read most of the posts here, and you will know how much the west hates Islam and Muslims. This is a truth we can not deny.

The media could successfully convince western people that Islam is the religion of terrorism, polygamy and divorce. They could convince western woman that Islam persecutes woman and does not respect her. They could also convince a lot of people that Muslims now are in the back of civilization because of their religion.

Based on that, the world does not feel any sympathy when any Islamic country is under agony or threat. To be frank, they do not mind that, and if they have the chance to support it, they will do it. You can find a lot of examples to support that last viewpoint in Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cheychan, Kashmir and so on.

When we read the history in a fair way, we can see how much the west hates Islam and Muslims. Read about crusades and what the west did in Islamic lands, read about the colonization and what England, France and many European countries did in Africa.

France, the country that is so proud of its revolution killed ONE MILLION Muslims in Algeria. England stole lots of wealth from Africa and Asia. Now, USA is leading the new war against Islam in a different way. It is a way that depends on both military actions and culture deformation action (the media and the Christian relgious thinkers take care of this one) .

USA is bombing Iraq daily, USA is seiging Libya, USA has bombed Sudan and Afghanistan, USA is doing its best to help the west of Sudan to get the separation, USA is playing with the presidents and kings or Arabian and Islamic countries as if they were a toy in USA hands.

Can King Fahed or president Mubark, or any muslim leader declare against a USA decision that is connected with the affairs of their countries ? NO. If USA can find a justification to bomb a country like Egypt or Saudi Arabia, or Algeria or Pakistan what will be the reaction ? NOTHING.


It is a war against ISLAM. After the english army colonized a lot of lands from the arabian countries in modern age, one of the officers of the army kicked the grave of Salah Eldeen with his feet and said " We came back Salah Eldeen"

After the Islamic Front won the election in Algeria about 5 years ago, France declared that it would take military actions against Algeria if the Islamic Front got the authority. What did the Algerian government do ? They arrested all the leaders of the Islamic Front and put them in prison. They accused them of being terrorists. The same happened in Turkey, and it happens every day in Saudi Arabia , Egypt and all Islamic countries.

So, Islamic countries now are completely under siege by the western world. Islam is attacked from all directions and most of the muslim leaders are nothing but servants to the west.

Now, the question, DO MUSLIMS DESERVE THAT ? The answer is YES. Muslims now are far from the Quran and Sunna. Many muslims think that Democracy, Socialism or any other positive system can lead their countries successfully. Many muslims do not know the meaning of LA ELAH ELA ALLAH. Many muslims have forgot their religion and their traditions. I am here a muslim living in USA, I can see a lot of muslims drink wine, eat pork, commit adultery, do not pray, do not fast, do not know any thing about Islam, and if they know, they do not follow it. We MUSLIMS have lost our identity, we are not a good islamic example. Allah says in the holy quran " God will not change the state of any group of people, until they change themselves ". We have to change, we have to hold and follow the holy quran and sunna.


Islam will never disappear. Allah says in the holy quran " We have inspired the holy quran to you - Mohamed-, and it is our duty to preserve it from corruption " . After more than 1400 years, we muslims still have one Quraan. Go to any Islamic country, you will find the same book, in Pakistan, in Egypt, in saudi Arabia, in Sudan, in Somalia, in Cheychan and in any islamic country or even non muslim country, you will find the same Quraan, the only remaining word of god. We have the quran according to Allah, not according to St John, or St Matthew, or St Luke, or St Mark. We have the divine version, just one version, not King James Version or Revised Standard Edition, or New International Version and so on.
I would like to conclude this post with a statement from someone who converted to Islam.

"Everything made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur'an; it asks you to reflect and reason....When I read the Qur'an further, it talked about prayer, kindness and charity. I was not a Muslim yet, but I felt the only answer for me was the Qur'an and God had sent it to me." Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam), former British pop star.


Mahmoud, NY, USA

Hullilui and God Bless you Mahmoud. May the Christ be always with you!

to US MUSLIM
don't even pronounce the name of Jesus, u filthy barbarian

http://internettrash.com/users/russophobiac/index.html


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Mahmoud,

"The media could successfully convince western people that Islam is the religion of terrorism, polygamy and divorce. They could convince western woman that Islam persecutes woman and does not respect her. They could also convince a lot of people that Muslims now are in the back of civilization because of their religion."

So what, I still don't need no man tellin' me what to do. Men are the weeker when it comes to responsibility,emotional strength to see things through,putting the needs of the loved ones in their lives first before their own. It is men who need the guidance of women.
Don't try to convert me to your backward religion.

Female Chauvenist

Dear Female Chauvenist,

I am not trying to convert you to a backward religion. I am sure that you know which religion is the backward. I would like to inform you with something that might shock you. The number of women converting to Islam is greater than the number of men. If you want to make sure, go to this site, and see the writings of women who converted to Islam. www.beconvinced.com

Now, let me ask you, what is the Bible attitude towards woman ?


MENSES IN THE BIBLE

---

[Levi. 15:19]
When a woman has a discharge of blood which in her regular discharge from
her body, she shall be apart seven days.
And WHOSOEVER TOUCHES HER SHALL BE UNCLEAN until the evening. And every thing that she lies upon in her SEPARATION shall be unclean. Every thing also that SHE SITS UPON SHALL BE UNCLEAN.
And whosoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. And whosoever touches anything THAT SHE SAT UPON SHALL WASH HIS CLOTHES, and
bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. And if it be on her bed, or any thing whereon she sits when he touches it:
he SHALL BE UNCLEAN UNTIL THE EVENING. And if any man lie with her at all, and her flowers be upon him: he shall be
unclean seven days, and all the bed WHEREON SHE LIES SHALL BE UNCLEAN.

And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her SEPARATION: all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her SEPARATION, she
shall be unclean. Every bed whereon she lies all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the
bed of her SEPARATION, and whatsoever she sits upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her SEPARATION.

And WHOSOEVER TOUCHES THOSE THINGS SHALL BE UNCLEAN and shall wash his clothes and bathes himself in water, and he BE UNCLEAN UNTIL THE EVENING. But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtles or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest to
the door of the meeting tent.

THE REASON BEHIND PAINS OF DELIVERY

---

[Gen 3:16]
God said to Eve when she tempted Adam, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing, in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.

POSTPARTUM IN THE BIBLE

---

[Levi. 12:2]
If a woman conceives, and bears a MALE CHILD, then she shall be unclean seven
days.. But if she bears a FEMALE CHILD then she shall be unclean two weeks.

AFTER AN INTERCOURSE

---

[Levi. 15:16]
If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water, and
be unclean until the evening. Every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the evening.

[Levi. 22:17] WHEN THE SUN IS DOWN HE SHALL BE CLEAN.

[Levi. 15:18]
If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen both of them shall bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening.

WOMAN'S VEIL IN THE BIBLE (not only in Islam)

---

[1 Corin. 11:5]
But any woman who prays and prophecies with her head unveiled dishonours her head - it is the same as if her head were shaven, for if a woman will not veil herself then she should cut off her hair. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her wear a veil.
JUDGE FOR YOURSELVES; is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
(It seems that Christians are unaware of the obligation of the veil in the Bible, and for those who attack the veil in Islam should notice these verses of their own Bible, and notice also this verse "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.)

WOMAN IS NOT THE GLORY OF GOD

---

[1 Corin. 11:7]
For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man, for man was not made for woman, but woman from man, neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.

WOMAN IS EVIL !

---

[Zech. 5:7]
The leaden cover was lifted, there was a woman sitting, and he (the angel) said: this is wickedness.

HIDE WOMAN'S VOICE !

---

[1 Corin. 14:34]
The woman should keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to
speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is any thing they desire to know let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.


I hope you read this carefully, and then try to guess the backward religion.

Just like the Moscow bombings targetted Russian civilians, the same is true for Russian civilians trapped in Grozny. In both cities the Russian war criminals led by Putin are behind the carnage. No doubt about it.

"Much of the city has been reduced to smoldering rubble, and those still there remain only because they lack the funds or the energy to leave.

Ruslan Aushev, president of Ingushetia, said: "I am afraid that as in the first (Chechen) war, grenades will be thrown into cellars, that a storm of shells will fall on Grozny, that high caliber ammunition will be fired."

Many of those stranded are Russian speakers. Ethnic Chechens found it easier to escape, because they had friends and relatives living in surrounding villages which have so far been spared the might of Russia's military machine.

The resident said that relations between the Russians and Chechens in Grozny were remarkable good, and that he knew of several cases where Chechens were sheltering relatives of those Russians killed in the bombings."