War Articles

Aghanistan, 1994 Click on the photo above for a photo album from the war zones of the former Soviet Uion.

'I'm addicted to war': A former war buff embarks on her own 12 step program
My name is Maria, and I’m addicted to war. I had my first taste of combat shortly after I turned 23, in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. From then on, war was my constant companion, friend and spiritual adviser. Whenever I returned from a war zone, I would immediately start planning my next trip out. The last time I returned from a war zone was eight years ago, and for all of those eight years I’ve been preparing for my next combat assignment.
Quill Subscription Required (March 2003)

Ethics and war
Since Sept. 11, American journalists have been walking a fine ethical line. On the one hand, there are grim warnings about spilling military secrets, undermining national security and consorting with the enemy. On the other hand, there’s the fear that journalists aren’t doing their jobs...
Quill (December 2001)

Religious Warriors Ready to Avenge Human Rights Abuses
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan --  Private Pavel Mikheyev will never know what hit him. Walking home throughthe town of Kurgan-Tyube, in Tajikistan, last week, the Russian soldier was
caught in a hail of bullets fired by three gunmen who fled the scene.
Guardian (Jun. 7, 1994)

Runaway Russian "Slaves" Plague Caucasus Republic
According to newspaper accounts and television programmes in Russia and Ossetia, Russians are tricked into coming to the south Russian republic of Ingushetia by promises of high wages, and are then sold into slavery. Slaves? Not according to Dzhebrail Bagatyrev. For this Ingush official, the "slaves" are no more than Russian tramps working here illegally. He says the accusations are fabricated by hostile Ossetians to make Ingushetia look bad in Russian-brokered peace talks.
Reuters (April 10, 1994)

Cossacks and Chechens: A Caucasus Cauldron
Legend has it that in 1774 the women and children of Naurskaya fought off an attack by the Turks, armed ...
Moscow Times (Paid Archive) Feature (March 29, 1994)

Cossacks Accuse Chechens of Terror Tactics
Legend has it that in 1774 the women and children ofNaurskaya fought off an attack by the Turks, armed only with pitchforks and pots of hot soup. As Cossacks, Russian warrior-farmers, it was their duty under the Tsars to defend Christian Russia's expanding southern borders against Moslem Tatars and Turks. Today, the Cossack women of this village are once again ready to take up pitchforks.
Reuters (March 27, 1994)

Ingushetia Poll Marked by Violations, Opposition Says
Preliminary poll results on Monday showed that General Ruslan Aushev was headed for re-election as president of the volatile southern Russian republic of Ingushetia. Opponents accused Aushev, whose army of uniformed police patrolled the polling stations, of securing victory in the north Caucasian republic by force and trickery.
Reuters (February 28, 1994)

Azerbaijan Army Regroups, Pulls Itself Together
Six months ago Azerbaijan's army suffered defeats so monumental that the president fled the country and a fifth of the Transcausasian republic ended up in enemy hands. Critics from all sides castigated the military for gross incompetence in the face of attacks by separatist Armenian forces pushing into the republic from the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Reuters (Jan 21, 1994)

Russians Thrown into Tajik Breach
PYANJ, Tajikistan (The Guardian) -- On the other side of the electrified barbed-wire fence is a mine field, a couple of hundred yards of brush, the Pyanj river, and Afghanistan. All along the 620-mile border, Russian soldiers peer nervously through binoculars and night scopes, from observation towers, out of trenches, and from behind artillery equipment.
Guardian (Sep. 6, 1993)

Ghost of Gamsakhurdia Continues to Haunt Georgia
JIKHASKARI, Georgia (The Guardian) --  By all accounts, Georgia's first democratically-elected post-Soviet president is dead and buried near the west Georgian village of Jikhaskari. But Zviad Gamsakhurdia isn't about to let a little thing like death slow him down.
Guardian (Feb. 14, 1993)

Refugees Flee Torture by Soldiers in Abkhazia
It is noon in Gagra, Abhkazia, where refugees gather in the courtyard of a former resort hotel converted to wartime use. "They came with tanks," said 16-year-old Astanda. "A helicopter flew over us and dropped bombs. We lay down and the fragments flew over us, but the bomb did not hit. It is a war like in the movies."
The Moscow Tribune (January 20, 1993)

Tadzhikistan replaces leader again
KHODZENT, Tadzhikistan (UPI) -- Tadzhikistan's Parliament removed the acting president by an overwhelming vote Thursday and replaced him with the country's third leader since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
UPI (Nov. 19, 1992)

Tajik Combatants Ignore Calls for Peace
KURGAN-TYUBE, Tadzhikistan (UPI) -- Combatants in the strife-torn Central Asian republic of Tadzhikistan Thursday ignored calls by a newly-created interim council to cease fire and work towards a settlement in the long-running civil war.
UPI (Nov. 12, 1992)

Portrait of a small Caucasus war
UPPER ESHERA, Georgia (UPI) -- Sound carries well in the coastal foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, which at sunrise these days means rifle fire and bursting shells mixed in with crowing roosters and coughing tractor engines.
UPI (Nov. 11, 1992)

Bombs and bullets, not ballots, concern in west of Georgia
GAGRA, Georgia (UPI) -- While most of the rest of Georgia was to vote Sunday in parliamentary elections, refugees returning to the north of the breakaway Abkhazia region were concerned about bread and bullets rather than ballots.
UPI (Nov. 10, 1992)

Separatist fight costly in western Georgia
GUDAUTA, Georgia (UPI) -- Besieged towns in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazian region were clearing roads of explosives and attempting to open supply lines Friday during a lull in the
hostilities.
UPI (Nov. 9, 1992)

New promises of help for war-torn Tadzhikistan
DUSHANBE, Tadzhikistan (UPI) -- A peace mission to the Central Asian state of Tadzhikistan led by officials from neighboring Kyrgyzstan ended in the Tadzhik capital Dushanbe Sunday with new promises of help for the strife-torn republic.
UPI (Nov. 8, 1992)

Russian military plays role in Tadzhikistan conflict
DUSHANBE, Tadzhikistan (UPI) -- A provisional ruling council asserted authority Friday in the strife-wracked Central Asian republic of Tadzhikistan and Russian troops began playing an active role to prevent more bloodshed.
UPI (Nov. 6, 1992)

Caucasus Confederation Threatens Georgia
GROZNY, Russia - The Caucasus Mountain People's Confederation threatened on Sunday to send 40, 000 troops to Abkhazia if ...
Moscow Times (Paid Archive) Feature (October 5, 1992)