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Media Portrayals of the Russian-Chechen Conflict

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Media Portrayals of the Russian-Chechen Conflict Media Portrayals of the Russian-Chechen Conflict Representations of Political Violence and Identity - a Discourse Analysis Anja Westberg Supervisor: Maja Povrzanovic Frykman Malmö University Total words: 20 197 Peace and Conflict Studies 91-120 Autumn 2009 Abstract The thesis aims to examine discourses about internal and “ethnic” violent conflicts as seen in media representations of the Russian-Chechen conflict. Employing the method of discourse analysis, the study analyses news coverage of the two post-Soviet wars in Chechnya between 1995 and 2009. The theoretical approach is supported by the work of political scientist Michael Evangelista (2002) as well as anthropologists Valery Tishkov (2004) and Jakob Rigi (2007). The empirical material consists primarily of a selection of articles published by CNN and two Swedish dailies; Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet . The thesis argues that this material tends to rely on a rather simplistic portrayal of the parties in the conflict. Violent responses to the Russian troops are frequently represented as a “collective resistance” from a unified group with shared aspirations, an image which stand in contrast to stories from the ground. Representations of Chechens varies between the image of “rebels” and “victims”, but this group is exclusively portrayed as an ethnic group which historically has persisted as culturally different from the rest of the population in Russia. Such images contribute to portray Chechens’ drive for independence as the primary cause for the wars, which in turn downplays the role of Chechen leaders throughout the conflict. The thesis suggests that the news coverage is embedded in dominant discourses about identity formation and war which shape the selective process of storytelling in the media. The thesis concludes that discourses which are produced during violent conflict should not be taken as evidence for the true nature of difference and antagonism between groups. Keywords: Chechnya, internal conflict, political violence, identity, discourse analysis Sammanfattning Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka diskurser om interna och ”etniska” konflikter som återfinns i representationer av den rysk-tjetjenska konflikten i media. Med diskursanalys som metod analyseras nyhetsrapportering av de två post-sovjetiska krigen i Tjetjenien mellan 1995 och 2009. Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkt baseras på studier av statsvetaren Michael Evangelista (2002) samt antropologerna Valery Tishkov (2004) och Jakob Rigi (2007). Det empiriska materialet består framförallt av ett urval artiklar publicerade av CNN samt två svenska dagstidningar, Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet . Uppsatsen argumenterar för att detta material tenderar att presentera en förenklad bild av konfliktens parter. De väpnade motattackerna mot de ryska trupperna porträtteras som ett kollektivt motstånd från en enad etnisk grupp med gemensamma mål, en bild som ofta står i kontrast till berättelser från ”marken”. Representationer av tjetjener varierar mellan bilden av ”rebeller” och ”offer”, men gruppen beskrivs uteslutande som en etnisk grupp som historiskt har bestått som kulturellt skilda från resten av den ryska befolkningen. Dessa skildringar bidrar till att tjetjeners strävan efter självständighet tolkas som den främsta förklaringen till krigen, vilket tonar ner de tjetjenska ledarnas roll i konflikten. Uppsatsen menar att nyhetsrapporteringen ger uttryck för mer dominanta diskurser om identitetsskapande och krig vilka formar historieberättandet i media. Uppsatsen argumenterar för att diskurser som produceras under väpnade konflikter inte ska tolkas som bevis för till synes naturliga skillnader och antagonism mellan olika grupper. Nyckelord: Tjetjenien, intern konflikt, politiskt våld, identitet, diskursanalys Contents 1.Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background and research problem ................................................................................... 2 1.2 Purpose and research questions ........................................................................................ 3 1.3 Disposition ....................................................................................................................... 4 2. Methodological framework 5 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 The object of study in discourse analysis ......................................................................... 6 2.3 Defining discourse ............................................................................................................ 6 2.4 The contribution of discourse analysis to social sciences ................................................ 7 2.5 Empirical material ............................................................................................................ 8 2.6 Source critical analysis ..................................................................................................... 9 3. Background: 15 years of violence in Chechnya 12 3.1 The Soviet heritage ......................................................................................................... 13 3.2 The “Chechen revolution” .............................................................................................. 13 3.3 The first war ................................................................................................................... 15 3.4 The interwar years .......................................................................................................... 15 3.5 The second war and current conflict .............................................................................. 17 4. Theoretical framework 19 4.1 General theories about “ethnic conflicts” ....................................................................... 19 4.2 Scholarly accounts of the Russian-Chechen conflict ..................................................... 21 4.2.1 State centralization and the role of leaders ............................................................... 21 4.2.2 Why violence? Accounts of the escalation to war in Chechnya .............................. 24 4.3 Identity and violence – an anthropological perspective ................................................. 26 4.4 Analytical categories in the study of conflict and violence ........................................... 28 4.4.1 The category of civilians .......................................................................................... 29 4.5 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................................... 31 5. Analysis:Representations of the Russian-Chechen conflict in the empirical material 32 5.1 Cause and effect: The origin of the Russian-Chechen conflict ...................................... 32 5.1.2 The collapse of the Soviet Union – a “Pandora’s box” for violent conflict? ........... 32 5.1.3 Ethnicity as a factor in the conflict ........................................................................... 37 5.1.4 Independence and “Chechen resistance” .................................................................. 39 5.2 Representations of violence: reasons and responsibilities ............................................. 44 5.2.1 “Collective suffering” as a motivator for violence ................................................... 44 5.2.2 Political agency and the role of leaders .................................................................... 49 5.3 Ethnicity and war ........................................................................................................... 53 5.3.1 Representations of “Chechens” as an ethnic group ................................................. 53 5.3.2 The basis for Chechen independence from Russia ................................................... 57 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 60 6.1 Research questions ......................................................................................................... 60 6.2 Concluding remarks on the findings .............................................................................. 65 List of references .................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix 1: Maps ................................................................................................................... 70 Appendix 2: Selection of articles from the empirical material ............................................... 71 1 1. Introduction The topic of this thesis covers the two wars in Chechnya, the first one that took place between 1994 and 1996, and the second which started in 1999 and officially came to an end in April 2009. In recent years Russia’s second military campaign in Chechnya has also been widely referred to as the “war in the northern Caucasus”, which in turn was named as an “anti- terrorist operation” by the Russian government after the September 11 events. The wars in Chechnya can be, and certainly have been, framed in a variety of different ways. Within the international academic community, the most frequently used theoretical categories are civil or internal war, secessionist or separatist war, and also ethnic or ethno-political war. In political, popular and media discourses, categories
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