Free Is Journalism Worth Dying For?: Final Dispatches by Anna Politkovskaya, Arch Tait Page B

Hundreds of thousands have been killed or have disappeared without trace. There are refugees; ruins in place of cities and villages. Thousands of our sons, both soldiers and officers, have died. There have been hundreds of innocent victims of terror. A whole generation of young Chechens and Russian servicemen has been crippled by the experience of violence and lawlessness. Thousands of impoverished invalids are doomed to a life of penury. Tens of thousands of families grieve over the loss of those dear to them. Such is the cost of this war, which long ago exceeded the losses incurred during the Afghan War. Ten years of war have not brought the desired results either for you or for the federal authorities. Terror engenders anti-terror, and vice versa. Neither in Chechnya nor in Russia do people feel safe.
Commanders of the Chechen armed groups! You will kill or be killed without end. You will not be able to change anything until you are recognised as negotiating partners. The Soldiers’ Mothers appeal to those of you who truly seek the good of the Chechen people with a proposal to give peace a chance and open negotiations for a peaceful settlement. We are willing to travel anywhere, to meet those you authorise anywhere, in order only to halt this deadly race. In coming forward as the initiator of negotiations, we will make all necessary efforts to involve in the negotiation process representatives of the leadership of the Chechen Republic and the Russian Presidential Administration, inter-governmental and peace organizations, and influential and respected public figures. We await your reply.
Members of the Coordinating Council of the Union ofCommittees of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia, Valentina Melnikova, Maria Fedulova, Natalia Zhukova.
    The reply was not long in coming. The very next day Aslan Maskhadov communicated through Akhmed Zakayev, his envoy in Europe, that he and the fighters of the resistance welcomed the Soldiers’ Mothers’ initiative: for their part, they were willing to attend such a meeting. A day later, Zakayev rang Melnikova and their communications ceased to be only in writing. “We agreed that the meeting should take place in a European country in November,” Valentina explains briefly.
    The Mothers flew to London on February 24. Their accommodation was decidedly acceptable: the Waldorf, one of central London’s most luxurious hotels, near the famous Waterloo Bridge across the Thames. They came down to the hotel lobby at about 5.00 p.m., at first behaving like secret agents behind enemy lines. They were very nervous. On this note the meeting began between Ida Kuklina’s group (and it was she, a colleague of Pamfilova and member of President Putin’s “Committee to Promote Civil Society,” who was running the Mothers’ show) and Zakayev’s team. The meeting was held in the hotel’s conference room from 5:00 p.m. until midnight. At first the Mothers demanded secret negotiations, which suggested that these representatives of civil society had secrets they wanted to keep from civil society. At 7.00 p.m., however, at the Chechens’ insistence, observers representing Novaya gazeta and Radio Liberty were admitted. It was clear that journalists, unlike politicians, just wanted to see somebody at last agreeing to seek peace in Chechnya, and doing something to make it happen. Yet it soon became apparent why the Mothers were so reluctant to admit outsiders. They had come to London without any proposals other than that “a Multi-Lateral Working Group should be set up to to begin considering preliminary steps for the negotiating process,” as Ida Kuklina put it.
    “What, in your view, should be the mechanism for a ceasefire?” the Chechens asked.
    “That is for the Working Group to decide,” the Mothers replied.
    “But the Working Group cannot work while the war is continuing,”one Mother said doubtfully. “We need a ceasefire. That is the main thing.”
    “That is a matter for the Working