Renowned Chechen surgeon and humanitarian to speak at FIU


Khassan Baiev will share his experiences during both Chechen wars and discuss the nation’s current humanitarian situation.

The Middle East Studies Program in the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) is hosting Khassan Baiev, a Chechen surgeon known internationally for treating all who sought help during the wars in Chechnya. Baiev will lecture on the current humanitarian conditions in war-torn Chechnya on Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 at Modesto A. Maidique Campus.  Khassan Baiev

During the first Chechen war (1994-1996), Baiev treated thousands of civilians, as well as Chechen fighters and Russian soldiers. During the second war (1999-present), Baiev again tried to uphold his Hippocratic Oath and treat anyone who sought help at his clinic.

Eventually, after being threatened by all sides of the conflict, the Russians issued an order for Baiev’s arrest because he saved the life of Shamil Basayev, one of the Kremlin’s most wanted field commanders.

“With a million dollar bounty on Shamil’s head, I could have been a rich man if I had let him bleed to death,” Baiev noted.

Realizing that Baiev was a man wanted by both sides, the humanitarian group Physicians for Human Rights helped him seek political asylum in the United States. He reluctantly emigrated in 2000, telling “The New York Times” “nobody likes to recall that I was saving elderly civilians by the thousands. The only thing they remember is that I was the surgeon who operated on Basayev.”

In the past several years, Baiev has become an outspoken advocate for human rights and has been honored by Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International and others. Last year, despite the ongoing simmering conflict, he returned to Chechnya to operate on the most vulnerable victims of the war – children with severe injuries.

He has been honored with awards by human rights organizations across the globe, including Physicians for Human Rights in Boston. In 2003, Baiev published his autobiography titled “The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire.”

The presentation is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. in the middle ballroom of the Graham Center.

For more information, contact Francesco Ortoleva at 305-348-1792 or visit http://mesc.fiu.edu.