Chechnya is one of eight states that want Independence from Russia: just like Idel-Ural, Karelia, Tatarstan, Kaliningrad, Udmurtia, Circassia, Karachay-Balkaria. Russia's North Caucasus has insurgency from Chechnya As the war subsided, the authorities put pressure on the displaced to return home, and in 2004 the authorities closed the camps in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia that housed the majority of refugees People: Chechen's Militant organisation: Chechen separatists Proposed state: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (government in exile)
Chechnya, which lies between the Caspian and Black Sea in southern Russia, has suffered amid years of war between separatist fighters and the Russian army.
Chechen separatists began fighting for autonomy after the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former air force officer, seized power and declared the province's independence from Russia.
The rebels want to establish an independent republic in the region, which is culturally different from much of Russia. The people are predominantly Muslim, instead of Orthodox Christian, and speak their own language.
Moscow first sent in troops to Chechnya in 1994, in an attempt to suppress the rebellion, but they suffered heavy and humiliating losses and withdrew two years later. An estimated 50,000 civilians had also lost their lives in the fighting, according to Memorial, a Russian human rights organisation.
Russia initially recognized the government and a peace agreement granting the region substantial autonomy was agreed.
Women protest in Grozny against Russian control of Chechnya [AFP]
Chechnya, which lies between the Caspian and Black Sea in southern Russia, has suffered amid years of war between separatist fighters and the Russian army.
Chechen separatists began fighting for autonomy after the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991, when Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former air force officer, seized power and declared the province's independence from Russia.
The rebels want to establish an independent republic in the region, which is culturally different from much of Russia. The people are predominantly Muslim, instead of Orthodox Christian, and speak their own language.
Moscow first sent in troops to Chechnya in 1994, in an attempt to suppress the rebellion, but they suffered heavy and humiliating losses and withdrew two years later.
An estimated 50,000 civilians had also lost their lives in the fighting, according to Memorial, a Russian human rights organisation.
Russia initially recognized the government and a peace agreement granting the region substantial autonomy was agreed.
Bomb attacks
However, the agreement quickly broke down and the conflict started up again after a series of cross-border attacks by Chechen fighters on neighboring Dagestan in 1999.
In the same year, Moscow blamed a series of bomb attacks that killed about 300 Russians on Chechen rebels.
Vladimir Putin, who had recently been installed as president, reacted swiftly, sending thousands of troops back to the republic and ushering in another sustained period of violence in which up to 25,000 civilians died. Hundreds of thousands of people were also forced to leave their homes as many of the region's towns and city's were reduced to rubble by the fighting. At the height of the conflict in early 2000, Human Rights Watch said 300,000 people had left their homes due to violence and human rights abuses by security forces and Chechen rebels. due to the fighting and Russia treatment they are very poor Russia's solders have reportedly had extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances and torture have continued under Kadyrov.
Still fighting
However, suspected rebel fighters continued to stage attacks, including the siege at a Moscow theater that left more than 100 people dead in 2002, and an attack on a school in Beslan in North Ossetia that killed 300 people the following year.
Kadyrov controls Chechnya with the help of a powerful private militia [AFP] Shamil Basayev, the alleged mastermind of the two attacks, was killed by Russian special forces in July 2006.
Armed separatists are still fighting in mountain areas and the south of the former breakaway republic, but Russia says only a few hundred remain. Independent analysts say there are no more than 2,000 still fighting.
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