The harrowing episode of hostage taking of hundreds of children in Beslan has drawn the attention of the international community to the often-neglected armed conflict in Chechnya. The hard line policy of President Vladimir Putin, a man who believes more in statistics than human lives, is turning the conflict into the most serious human right crisis in Europe's recent history.

The conflict, beginning at the end of the 18th century with the Russian conquest of the North Caucasus, has two governing factors: one is the animosities rooted in a historical, ethnic, religious and territorial claims; the other is the struggle for geo-strategic space and vital resources like oil and oil pipeline routes.

The current conflict began at the end of the cold war, when Chechnya declared independence from the Russian Federation after a number of regions managed to gain independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991. The result was a horrendous war in which Kremlin renewed the tragedy that has dragged on for centuries. The war led to the death of almost 100,000 Chechens (from a total population about 1.23 million) and has created another 100,000 refugees. Over the last decade, while the Chechens saw their people imprisoned, tortured, and yielding to the temptation of terrorism, the Russians found their soldiers killed in thousands, returned secretly to the cemeteries. Yet the international community remained silent. British Journalist Lindsey Hilsum notes: "Chechnya is a shameful example of western leaders refusing to confront another government on human rights abuses and war crimes because, in the end, strategic and political issues matter more. Chechnya is complex and dangerous and miserable, and we just don't care enough to try to make a difference." US stand on this conflict is still a mystery. It is being accused of sending a green signal to the rebels in destabilizing the region in order to ensure greater control over the natural resources on one hand and is perceived as tacitly supporting Russia in its "war on terrorism" on the other.

In the meantime, the conflict between Islamic democracy and Islamic militancy within Chechnya complicates the situation further. No matter how many times prominent Islamic scholars issue fatwas against terrorism or leading Muslim political experts advise against a confrontation with Russia for strategic reasons, Russia's heavy hand on Chechnya will intensify the resistance and continue to breed terrorists.

Today the world is mourning the deaths of hundreds of children in Beslan. Our sincere attention to the deaths of thousands of children in Chechnya could have prevented this day. It is high time the international community woke up and facilitated negotiations for a realization of the 12.05.1997 peace treaty, signed by the President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation and the President Aslan Maskhadov of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Now it is up to the good will of the international community to join these two peoples, both of whom are losing tragically in a shameful war, in order to win a honourable peace.