In Chechnya, women left with detritus of war

October 9, 1995
Web posted at: 5:50 p.m. EDT (2150 GMT)

From Moscow Bureau Chief Eileen O'Connor

ALKHASUROVO, Russia (CNN) -- They sing for Allah's help. (60K AIFF sound or 60K WAV sound) God knows the women of Chechnya need it. They have fled from the firing, and grieved for their sons, their daughters, their husbands and their fathers. And now, it is left for them to pick up the pieces.

Women don¹t often make the decisions that set wars in place. But more often than not, as in Chechnya, they suffer much of the burden.

Medenat, one of the women of Chechnya, says if women were in charge there would be fewer wars. "We don't want war and we don't want the Russian soldiers to be killed, either. They, too, have mothers who are suffering," she said.

Medenat and other Muslim women tell of rape, of the murder of small children, of the terrorization of villages -- all psychological warfare used to frighten them into the arms of the other side. "Two of our boys went outside the village to collect some hay. Both were killed," said one.

As is often the case, the women are the only ones left to support their families and to rebuild a nation destroyed by war. For them, equal pay is a luxury they cannot afford as they struggle to feed the elderly and raise children scarred with war wounds.

"Our children grow up psychopathic," explained a Chechen man. "As soon as they hear even a tractor along the road, they shout 'plane...plane.' And then they hide under the bed."

But the adult women cannot hide from the horrors or the responsibilities of wars -- wars they rarely wage themselves, but which destroy them nonetheless.

In Chechnya, women left with detritus of war

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