Chechen Suicide Bombers

full article: http://www.newstatesman.com/200409060023
While we wait for further news to surface about the bombings in Moscow, I would like to take the chance to post some information about suicide bombers in that part of the world. I usually think of a suicide bomber as a crazed ideological zealot but these Chechens gave me a new insight. Apparently, they coerce some of their bombers into blowing themselves up. Here are a few snippets.

"Surprisingly, Zarema is not a defiant Islamist desperate for a place in heaven. Her story is one of poverty and desperation typical of a land that has known nothing but war for a decade. "

"Her debts became so great that a group of men from whom she had taken a loan told her she had no choice but to pay them back with her life: if she would complete a suicide mission, her debts would be repaid and her family would also receive money. She claims she lived in a mountain village for a month with Chechen independence fighters, who fed her stories of Russian atrocities.

"Zarema has claimed she wanted to carry out the suicide bombing to avenge her husband's death, but she also says she was drugged regularly in her orange juice, which gave her headaches. On the designated day, she was sent to a central Moscow cafe: she attempted to detonate the device in three different places before being arrested in a fourth restaurant. Police reported that she was extremely upset by the death of the officer who tried to defuse the bomb."

"Was Zarema willing to sacrifice herself, or an exploited victim? Her story perhaps shows that, for many of Chechnya's "black widows", their motives lie somewhere between choice and coercion."

"in reality, the Chechen situation is completely different from that in Arab countries, where terrorism is closely linked to Islamist fundamentalism: far from being freedom fighters with an equal right to die for their beliefs, Chechnya's female martyrs are more likely to be forced, blackmailed or brainwashed to their deaths."

This is a sad situation that goes against we normally think about suicide bombers. If you want more info check out this book.