Bitter conflict in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya has been simmering at different temperatures since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. At least 18,000 Russian soldiers and many times that number of Chechens have died in two wars since then, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
What are the humanitarian consequences of the conflict?About 50,000 people were killed between 1994 and 1996 during the first stage of the separatist war that saw Russian troops sent in to quash the rebellion but retreat after heavy losses. There are no official estimates of the death toll since the conflict flared again in 1999.
The Chechen capital of Grozny has been one big bombsite since a major Russian offensive at the end of 1994. Historian Tony Wood says the beating Grozny got in December 1994 was worse than anything unleashed on Lebanon's Beirut or Bosnia's Sarajevo.
Estimates of the number of people displaced vary widely. Human Rights Watch says 300,000 were forced to flee their homes at the height of the conflict in early 2000. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a Washington-based research centre, puts the figure at 600,000.
How many people are still displaced?About 210,000 Chechens - more than 20 percent of the population - were still displaced within the Russian Federation in 2004, according to the MPI. That includes people living in the war zone and those taking shelter in neighbouring republics.
As the war shifted to a low-intensity conflict by mid-2000, Russia closed down camps in Ingushetia, Chechnya's western neighbour, to put heavy pressure on refugees to return. Refugee rights organisations have criticised Russia for forcing people to go back to Chechnya against their will.
A report by M'decins Sans Frontieres said in August 2004 that the number of displaced people in Ingushetia had dropped to about 50,000, after the camps were shut down. Meanwhile, a growing number of Chechens ' about 100,000 -- are claiming asylum abroad, the MPI says.
How safe is Chechnya for aid workers?Human Rights Watch estimated that two people a day disappeared in Chechnya in 2003 and 2004 -- the highest disappearance rate in the world. The risk of kidnapping is high for both journalists and aid workers.
Dutch M'decins Sans Fronti'res worker Arjan Erkel was kidnapped in 2002 and held for 20 months. While armed rebels are responsible for most kidnappings in Chechnya, it appeared after Erkel's release that the Russian government was connected to his capture.
Human Rights Watch estimates that Chechen security forces are responsible for around two-thirds of disappearances.
Apart from the risk of abduction, aid workers have to watch out for crossfire and landmines. Many agencies control their operations remotely, leaving a lot of the work to local staff in Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia.
Is the fighting still going on?Armed Chechen separatists announced a ceasefire in early February 2005 and urged Russia to start peace talks. But the local government, which is pro-Moscow, dismissed the call.
The pro-Moscow local government, meanwhile, is haggling for power with Russia. It wants more power, without outright autonomy. For the pro-separatists, that's not good enough. They want self-rule at the very least. Most ordinary Chechens just want peace. As the violence continues, thousands of houses have been destroyed and countless civilians don't feel safe enough to live in their own homes.
So it's basically a fight for autonomy from Moscow?Yes, it's basically a separatist struggle. Chechnya is on the edge of the Soviet sphere of influence - the north Caucasus republic lies between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. It is culturally different from Russia, with a largely Muslim population, and the rebels are seeking to form a viable independent republic. Moscow looks unwilling to let go.
How did it start?Chechens claimed independence in 1991, and at first Moscow left the situation alone for a while. When it sent troops to suppress the rebellion in 1994, they suffered surprising and humiliating losses, and withdrew in 1996 after two years of fighting.
Aslan Maskhadov, who led rebels during the 1994-1996 war, was elected Chechen president in 1997. Russia initially recognised the government, and a peace agreement at the time granted the region substantial autonomy but not full independence, so it soon broke down.
Hardline Chechen rebels defied Maskhadov's leadership and launched cross-border attacks neighbouring Dagestan to the east, sparking a Russian crackdown that hasn't let up since 1999. Abdul-Khalim Saduleyev took over leadership of the rebels after Maskhadov was killed in March 2005.
Why does the Chechen president seem to be anti-Chechen?In the words of Tom de Waal of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, it's become 'an inter-Chechen' war, pitting a Russian-backed president against the separatist insurgents. Russian-backed Alu Alkhanov was sworn in as Chechnya's president in October 2004. It's a risky job -- three of his four predecessors have been killed on the job.
What have Chechens got against Russia?Chechens have a separate culture, with its own language. And they're Muslim, unlike the Orthodox Russians. They can trace their presence in their land for 6,000 years, and they've been rebelling for centuries - against Cossack settlers in the 16th century, and then against the Tsarist Empire in the 19th.
Chechnya and its near neighbours are much poorer than the rest of Russia ' wages are lower, and unemployment and infant mortality significantly higher. And the experience of mass deportations to Siberia in 1944 hasn't been forgotten or forgiven.
Mass deportations?Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin accused the Chechens and Inguish of siding with the Nazis during World War Two ' although thousands of them had fought with the Red Army ' and deported almost half a million of them.
About one-fifth died. It was called Operation Lentil. That might seem an odd name, but the start of the Russian word for lentil ' chechevitsa ' identifies who its principal targets were. They weren't allowed back until 1957.
How is Chechnya connected to its neighbours?Chechnya is a republic within the Russian Federation, which is dominated by Moscow. Thousands of Chechens have sought refuge in the neighbouring Russian republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan, where they have ties of family, culture and religion. Ingushetia is immediately to the west of Chechnya, and Dagestan lies to the east and north, on the way to the Caspian Sea.
Chechnya and Ingushetia have historically been united, but Ingushetia decided to break with Chechnya in 1991, partly because its people seem to prefer avoiding direct confrontation with Moscow.
In October 2005, dozens died when police quashed a rebellion in the town of Nalchik, the capital of the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, which lies to the west of Chechnya on the other side of Ingushetia and North Ossetia. Chechen rebels said they staged the Nalchik raid with support from local anti-Kremlin insurgents.
Russia accuses Georgia ' Chechnya's southern neighbour ' of allowing Chechen rebels to shelter in its Pankisi Gorge. Georgia was formerly part of the Soviet Union but is now independent from the Russian Federation.
How important is Islam in this struggle?It's more about independence than religion. Some Chechen nationalists are in favour of introducing Shari'a Islamic law and others advocate an independent secular state.
Sufi Islam has played a role in differentiating Chechen identity from other peoples around them, and religious leaders have united disparate cultures against Russian colonialism through the centuries.
The Chechen struggle has garnered support from Muslim sympathisers around the world, and some of them are willing to travel to take up arms.
Are Chechen fighters linked to Al-Qaeda?Many commentators think it's quite likely. 'It has been known for years that Muslim volunteers have travelled to Chechnya to join the fight, reportedly after attending training camps in Afghanistan or Pakistan,' the British Broadcasting Company says in an online Q&A on the Chechen conflict.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has certainly used the world climate after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States to garner international support for his own 'war on terrorism'.
What do ordinary Russians think about all this?The Russian public is angry at the number of young soldiers dying in Chechnya ' many of them conscripted into the army -- and has become very hostile to the Chechen separatist cause in the wake of countless deadly attacks, many of them on Russian civilians.
Putin's 1999 election mandate was primarily based on his promise to crack down on the perpetrators of bomb attacks in 1999 that killed about 300 Russians.
Russia was also deeply affected by the seizure of 800 hostages by Chechen rebels in a Moscow theatre in October 2002. Most of the rebels and about 120 hostages were killed when security forces stormed the building.
And Russia blames the September 2003 siege of a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, on fighters with links to Chechen separatists. At least 330 people died in the attack, more than half of them children.
'We've been blinded to what's happening in Chechnya by the horror of Beslan,' British TV journalist Jonathan Miller told AlertNet.
Moscow plays down its casualties, but historian Tony Wood says the monthly average for Russian losses in Chechnya was higher in 2004 than U.S. deaths in Iraq in the same year. There are about 60,000 Russian troops fighting against 5,000 resistance fighters.
Where can I read more?- BBC territory profile of Chechnya
- Institute for War and Peace Reporting Caucasus page
- ReliefWeb Russian Federation-Chechnya complex emergency
- EXPERTS TALK: Chechen conflict
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