Lost in the tributes to Elizabeth Taylor, the Hollywood icon—her beauty, her acting, her AIDS activism—is her work to help Chechen orphans. Thomas Goltz on the extraordinary turn of events that focused her on the war-torn Russian republic. From The Daily Beast
I never knew Elizabeth Taylor. But the one real memory of her that has astounded and perplexed me for over a dozen years was her extraordinary commitment to the Chechens.
Yes, reader, you read that right—Chechnya.
The year was 1996, and the first horrible Russian-Chechen war had ground down to an awful, gasping cease-fire that both sides declared as a temporary victory. A plethora of interested parties charged into this hiatus to take control. In addition to veiled pro-Moscow elements, there were hard-core Islamists, moderate nationalists, and finally “Chechen traditionalists,” which is where Taylor fit in.
Bear with me, dear reader.
During the so-called independence period between September 1996 and the renewed Russia occupation starting in December 1999, Chechnya had become an exceedingly dangerous place—as it still is now. Mysterious gangs kidnapped and often killed hostages at random in the most horrible manner, even after ransoms were paid; arguably the most gruesome was the beheading of four British Telecom workers, whose severed heads were left “like salutary Halloween pumpkins,” in the words of former NPR correspondent Lawrence Sheets, along the side of a major road. Another mass crime at the time was the slaughter of half a dozen Red Cross workers in their beds, once again by “unknowns.” That crime remains unsolved to this day—and was followed by scores more of political murders, or “disappearances.”
Into this lurid scene waltzed Elizabeth Taylor.
Read the entire article at The Daily Beast >>