For them, no bells toll. No Spielberg blockbuster evokes sympathy for their plight. No Otto Frank diaries document their anguished plight. Memorials to their holocaust adorn not the boulevards of world capitals. The United Nations repeatedly ignores their pleas for justice. The people of the world are oblivious to their struggle.
Until last week.
Suddenly, the world awoke to the nightmare in Moscow. Armed Chechen rebels commandeered a theater and threatened to blow up the 700-strong audience. Their one solitary demand: Stop the war in Chechnya. The Chechens had brought their war to the heart of Russia. From a Moscow theater, they had brought attention to their plight on the world stage.
The events of the tragedy are well known.
In the end, 167 people were dead, with hundreds hospitalized as a consequence of a poorly executed raid by authorities. The proportion of deaths was strikingly similar to the history of forays into Chechnya itself: The Russians had killed 165 (including 117 of their own) in the theater - the rebels killed two.
Until last week.
Suddenly, the world awoke to the nightmare in Moscow. Armed Chechen rebels commandeered a theater and threatened to blow up the 700-strong audience. Their one solitary demand: Stop the war in Chechnya. The Chechens had brought their war to the heart of Russia. From a Moscow theater, they had brought attention to their plight on the world stage.
The events of the tragedy are well known.
In the end, 167 people were dead, with hundreds hospitalized as a consequence of a poorly executed raid by authorities. The proportion of deaths was strikingly similar to the history of forays into Chechnya itself: The Russians had killed 165 (including 117 of their own) in the theater - the rebels killed two.