Christoph Bluth: Female suicide bombers blow apart Kremlin security myth

NOT long ago, the Kremlin announced that counterterrorist operations in the North Caucasus had ceased, thereby proclaiming final victory against the Chechen rebels.

Yesterday, the detonation of two explosive devices by suicide bombers in the Moscow metro finally shattered the myth that the campaign by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his successor Dmitri Medvedev had succeeded in hunting down all of the rebels in this volatile region.

According to the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, two female suicide bombers were involved. Their devices went off near the Lubyanka and Park Kultury metro stations, killing at least 34 people.

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Chechen female suicide bombers first came to prominence when 900 people were taken hostage at a Moscow theatre in 2002. They are known as "Shahidkas" or "black widows", in reference to the many widows of Chechen rebels killed by Russian forces. Most of the Shahidkas are 15-19 year-old women, many of whom have been sold by their parents to be used for these missions.

Some have been pressured by the wahabbist families to become Shahidkas, others have been kidnapped or tricked.

Many have clearly been coerced into suicide missions, by being given narcotics and by rape (meaning they can never marry).

Often Shahidkas are detonated by remote control. During the Beslan school siege in 2004, when the Shahidkas discovered that children were the targets of the attack, they complained and subsequently were blown up by the leaders of the raid. Some 334 hostages (including 186 children) died after the explosions and a chaotic shoot-out. Black widows were involved in an attempt to assassinate then president of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov, resulting in the deaths of 14 people, and are also believed to have been responsible for two aircraft disasters in 2004.

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The two main reasons for the use of female suicide bombers seem to be that women are believed to arouse less suspicion and therefore find it easier to reach the targets, and women can be coerced into suicide attacks more easily than other Chechen fighters can be persuaded to take on this role.

This latest attack is part of the ongoing conflict which started with the second Chechen war that was launched by Putin in August 2009. This war was officially a response to an invasion of neighbouring Daghestan by Chechens and a series of bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow (allegedly by Chechens).

It then, however, assumed great importance as a means for Putin to ensure his election as President, portraying himself as the defender of Russia against extremists and terrorists.

However, despite Putin's determination to crush the rebels, it proved very hard to gain control over Chechnya and large-scale fighting continued for a number of years, which also saw an increasing number of terrorist attacks in various parts of Russia. At the same time, Russian soldiers were accused of significant and systematic human rights

violations.

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The fighting spilled over into neighbouring republics, such as

Daghestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ossetia, Ingushetia and Karachayevo-Cherkessia. In 2003, a new constitution was adopted in Chechnya at Russia's behest, limiting its autonomy, and Ramzan Kadyrov became Chechnya's Moscow-appointed leader after the assassination of his father.

In March 2005, the Chechen commander and President Aslan Maskhadov was killed in a shootout with Russian forces. While on one level this helped the Russians to consolidate their efforts to control the country and put in place a puppet government, on the other hand, Maskhadov's efforts to restrain the more extreme rebels were now nullified.

Fighting in Chechnya itself gradually subsided and major reconstruction efforts were undertaken. But just as Russia declared victory by

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withdrawing most of its troops, terrorist activity has begun to

escalate again.

Until his death on March 18, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov is

believed to have commanded about 480 insurgents in the North Caucasus mountains. According to Russian President Medvedev, 308 terrorist acts were committed in 2009, killing 75 law enforcement officers and 48 civilians, as well as 112 militants. Attacks using improvised explore devices (IEDs) have also been on the increase.

Yesterday's attack on the Moscow metro may well be revenge for the killing of Umarov and is a powerful signal that the insurgency in the North Caucasus is far from over.

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Until Moscow reconsiders its relations with Chechnya and allows the Chechen people to choose their own leaders, the insurgency is likely to grow despite all efforts to suppress it.

Christoph Bluth is professor of politics and international studies at the University of Leeds.

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