War thru the eyes of Chechen
childeren
War
is hard on kids. In Chechnya thousand of childeren huddled in freezing and
dark basements for months, while Russian warplanes systemetically reduced
the capital Grozny ro rubble.
There was no water, electricity or food: only constant explosions. In the
refugee camps in Ingushetia, many children suffered extreme cold
throughout the winter and start to cry when the warplanes fly over on
their bombing missions to Chechnya.
Many children have become orphans, and others have become direct victims.
In one hospital, I met a five-year-old girl, the only survivor in her
family, thrashing around in her bed from the shrapnel wounds which had
become infected with gangrene. In the next room was a wounded father, who
recounted to me how his younger daughter had died in his arms from an
exploding bomb.
One day, while I was interviewing
refugees in Ingushetia, a beautiful little girl came up to me and asked me
shyly in English: "Hello, what is your name?" She knew very little
English, so I decided to give her some English language tapes. The
next day, I saw her mother, who told me that Maryam had stayed up the
whole night listening to the tape. I was leaving a few days later,
and Maryam wrote me a letter in Russian, telling me how much she missed
her school:
All these wars
fell hard on my studies. The school year started very well. I was
attending school, and was fond of music and fond of English. But one day
the war crossed it all out. We became refugees in Ingushetia. I am
missing my school year....
Peter, when you are in America,
please ask all children to write letters to Putin to stop the war in
Chechnya and not to kill civilians, especially children. During the first
war, I spent 20 days in the cellar with my parents. In fact, it is not as
romantic as it appears to be in the action movies. Our house was hit by a
bomb.
The impact of the war goes beyond the
terror of the bombing and the immediate brutality of the conflict. Most
of the children living in the squalid refugee camps in Ingushetia are not
attending school, once again interrupting their education and limiting
their future. They have known little but war in their young lives, and
are desperate for something different.
he following drawings were drawn by
Chechen children living in the refugee camps in Ingushetia. Their
classroom is in a tent, and they were asked to draw "What I have seen in
the war in Chechnya." Better than any words, the
drawings show the deeply traumatic impact of the conflict on the children
of Chechnya. They draw of the bombardment of Grozny, the battles in the
streets, death, chaos, and destruction, and of their new lives as refugees
in Ingushetia.
Human Right Watch / 1999 - 2000
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