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Russian Toll
in Chechnya Put at 12,000
Agence France Presse
MOSCOW, 9 August 2003
More than 12,000
Russian soldiers have died in the nearly four-year war in separatist
Chechnya, almost triple the officially disclosed figure, the Soldiers
Mothers Committee rights group said yesterday.
Valentina Malnikova, a representative of the respected group, told Moscow
Echo radio that the figures included soldiers who died on their way
to a hospital or from injuries at a later date deaths that are
not officially registered by the authorities.
The estimate suggests that on an average, nearly nine Russian soldiers
have died daily since President Vladimir Putin launched the self-declared
anti-terror campaign while still serving as prime minister in October
1999. Unfortunately, our way of counting the dead soldiers more
closely corresponds to reality, Malnikova said.
Russia rarely issues official toll statistics concerning the conflict,
and when it does, the figures often contradict each other.
The latest official estimate puts the Russian toll at more than 4,500
dead and the Chechen rebel toll at about 15,000. The civilian casualties
have never been officially disclosed and rights groups fear the figure
could stand in the thousands.
Putin has scheduled presidential elections in the predominantly Muslim
North Caucasus republic for Oct. 5 as part of a political peace process
that has been rejected by more radical Chechen leaders. Daily guerrilla
fighting rages in Chechnya despite Putin s declaration that the war
has been won and that troops in the republic are there only to perform
policing functions. The war has increasingly taken on traits of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Chechens resort to suicide bombings,
often using young women in the deadly attacks.
Russian troops and armed police were combing woodland near Chechnya
yesterday after rebels killed six Russian soldiers and wounded seven
others in a suspected cross- border raid, local officials said. The
group that attacked Russian forces late on Thursday in Ingushetia, neighboring
Chechnya, with grenades and machinegun fire may have numbered up to
50 men, a senior regional official said.
Chechenpress
Valentina Melnikova "resurrected" 3,000 soldiers
On radio "Ekho Moskvy", Valentina Melnikova, Executive Secretary of
the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, cited data according
to which the number of killed Russian soldiers in the second Russian-Chechen
war was 12,000 on 8 August, 2003. According to V. Melnikova, this number
contains soldiers who died directly in combat, as well as those who
died on their way to hospital or in hospital itself.
This number causes bewilderment. It's a fact that on Monday, 17 February,
V. Melnikova published data in the Russian media, that during the period
since the beginning of the second Russian-Chechen war, Russia lost 15,000
killed and 25,000 injured soldiers. Almost 6 months have gone from 17
February to 8 August. And in an absolutely incomprehensible way, V.
Melnikova's number of Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya has decreased
by 3,000 soldiers and officers. As if Russian soldiers didn't die during
these months - to the contrary, they rose again, 500 men each month.
We'd like to add that according to data estimated by the ChRI State
Defense Committee, 35,000 occupiers have been killed in Chechnya during
the second Russian-Chechen war.
08.08.03
http://www.chechenpress.com/news/08_2003/17_08_08.shtml
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I haven't seen the original statements, but some confusion might be
created by the fact that the Soldiers' Mothers only count the losses
among regular Russian servicemen - though I don't understand either
how 15,000 can become 12,000 in 6 months. The discrepancy between the
12-15,000 losses counted by the mothers and the 35,000 counted by the
Chechens might be created by the fact that there are at least as many
so-called "police" forces and mercenaries from various independent military
organizations in Chechnya as there are regular soldiers. Since much
of the "fighting" is done by the mercenaries (and most killed enemies
reported by the Chechens are mercenaries), it would only be natural
that a number at least as high as that published by the mothers should
be added in order to get the total losses.
[Translation and
comment by N.S.]
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