Yeltsin: West has 'no right' to criticize Chechen campaign

November 18, 1999

Web posted at: 9:56 a.m. EST (1456 GMT)

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin defended his military's campaign against Islamic militants in Chechnya on Thursday, saying Western critics have "no right" to complain about the assault.

Yeltsin later broke up a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder after five minutes, saying he was leaving the summit and returning to Moscow "to deal with Chechnya," according to Chirac's spokeswoman.

Speaking at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit, which opened on Thursday in Istanbul, Yeltsin promised Russia's military would abide by U.N. conventions during its new Chechen war. But he took a broad swipe at critics who fear Moscow's attempt to uproot Muslim guerrillas will create a humanitarian disaster in the northern Caucasus.

"You have no right to criticize Russia for Chechnya," he said. "As a result of a bloody wave of terrorist acts that have swept over Moscow and other towns, 1,580 peaceful inhabitants of our towns have suffered. The pain of this tragedy has been felt in every corner of Russia."

In rebuttal, U.S. President Bill Clinton said Russia had the right to fight terrorism on its own territory -- but said the attack undermines Russia's transition to a stable democracy. The two leaders began bilateral talks on the summit's sidelines shortly after their comments.

Russian authorities blame the guerrillas -- who attempted to set up an Islamic state in the Russian republic of Dagestan over the summer -- for a series of September bombings in Moscow and other cities. The attacks killed about 300 people and injured hundreds more.

Yeltsin also reminded Western leaders that before the Russian assault began, Chechen kidnappers had taken more than 900 people -- including numerous Westerners -- hostage. Some have been killed, and about 200 are still being held, Yeltsin said.

Russian leader warns of terrorism's spread

Moscow favors a peaceful, political solution to the conflict, he said, but first it must "completely eliminate the bandit formations." He accused the Chechens of planning to export terrorism as well.

"Thousands of mercenaries are being trained in camps in the territory of Chechnya, as well as being brought in from abroad, and are preparing to spread extremist ideas all over the world," he said.

In a jab at the NATO countries that mounted an 11-week bombardment of Yugoslavia over Serb authorities' persecution of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, he urged OSCE members to make "non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states" a pillar of 21st-century security arrangements.

"I'm thinking in particular of the appeals for humanitarian interference -- this is a new idea -- in the internal affairs of another state, even when this is done on the pretext of protecting human rights and freedoms," Yeltsin said.

"We all know already what disproportionate consequences such interference can cause. Suffice it to recall the aggression of NATO headed by the United States that was mounted against Yugoslavia," he said. "Now, on the threshold of a new era, it is more urgently necessary than ever before that our principle commandment for our joint efforts in Europe should be 'do no harm.' "

Clinton defends NATO strike on Yugoslavia

Earlier, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder criticized the Russian campaign, saying that though the world community condemns terrorism and supports a democratic Russia, "War is no way to eliminate terrorism." Russian efforts to crack down on terrorists have hurt civilians, he said.

Clinton, whose comments followed Yeltsin's, said Russia has " not only the right, but the obligation to defend its territorial integrity." But he warned that Russia's attack on Chechnya "will undermine its ends."

"If attacks on civilians continue, the extremism Russia is trying to combat will only intensify, and the sovereignty Russia rightly is defending will be more and more rejected by ordinary Chechens who are not part of the terror or the resistance."

Clinton defended the NATO attack on Yugoslavia, saying the world community a wider catastrophe, like the one that followed Bosnian independence.

"So I believe we did the right thing. And I do not believe there will ever be a time in human affairs when we will ever be able to say we simply cannot criticize this or that or the other action because it happened within the territorial borders of a single nation."

Invoking Yeltsin's defiance of the 1991 Soviet coup attempt, Clinton said calls for non-interference could have been used against reformers there.

"If they had put you in jail instead of electing you president, I would hope that every leader of every country around this table would have stood up for you and for freedom in Russia and not said, 'Well, that is an internal Russian affair that we cannot be a part of,' " he said.