From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/23/2005 3:24 AM
Blood ties
Article published in 14/03/2005 Issue


By Célia CHAUFFOUR in Tbilisi

Translated by Mihaela MATEI
       
 

Anzor Maskhadov, 29, producer of Nizam Video. The son of the rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov, killed by Russian forces on March 8th, expects a mobilization of European Council to put pressure on Moscow and to get back his father's body.


Last week’s events brought him in the news and registered his first name in the columns of the international press.
However, the man prefers to remain behind the stages. First of all because the position of his father. Representing the moderate wing of the Chechen rebels, Aslan Maskhadov had been elected President of the Republic of Itchkeria at the beginning of 1997, under the auspices of the OSCE.
Secondly, because of his name and his nationality when considering the inevitable sentence of the Kremlin fighting against Chechen "terrorism". One can easily imagine that to be called Anzor Maskhadov makes life difficult for somebody. Firstly, his recent daily life in Baku, capital city of Azerbaijan, neighbouring Chechnya and within easy reach of the Kremlin.
Finally, because of the introverted and discrete nature of this son of a Soviet army colonel. Anzor fundamentally prefers to express himself through his camera or his HTML pages. His videos and documentaries signed Nizam (the law), by the name of Chechen national television, turned around the figure of his father. A father who was sometimes the leader of the Chechen forces – who signed on August 31, 1996 the Khassaviourt agreements and put an end to the first war of Chechnya and sometimes the war leader moving with his group of armed men on the snow-covered slopes of the Chechen mountains.

The weapons of Anzor are merely the sound and the images. But they have just shown once more their limits: they will not be enough to make pressure on Moscow and to get back to his family the corpse of the independent president.
As of March 9, the general vice-prosecutor of Russia had announced that "in accordance with the anti-terrorist legislation ", Aslan Maskhadov, called by Vladimir Putin an "eliminated gangster" but that many regarded as the only possible voice for peace in Chechnya, would be buried in an anonymous grave, in a place kept secret.
Decided to get back his father’s corpse and to follow the Chechen traditions according to which each late is buried in his village, Anzor is thinking "of addressing the Council of Europe. Or any other international institution ".
One may ask whether the international community will be efficient. It has until now only shone by its absence on this conflict lasting for more than ten years.

Let’s return to the beginning of this war. In December 1994, Boris Eltsine ordered the beginning of the Russian military intervention in Chechnya, proclaimed independent in 1991, in order "to restore the constitutional order". It is the beginning of what one will call the first war of Chechnya.
"From the very beginning and until his last day, in 1996, I have been faithful to my father". Anzor presents himself as a "deserving fighter", and pointed out that he has received the Khoman Turpal medal (of the name of a Chechen hero). Afterwards, he spent the inter-war period beside his father. "Not anymore on the army ground, but within his presidential administration".
In February 1999, following his father’s advice, Anzor left the country to study English in Malaysia. On October, 1st, 1999, he learned that the Russian Prime Minister Putin had launched a new military intervention in Chechnya.
A few weeks earlier, 300 persons were killed in Russia by attacks that Moscow qualified as Chechen terrorist actions. Armed groups carried out by the radical Chamil Bassaev, assisted by Khattab, had just conducted attacks to Daghestan in order to create a North-Caucasian Islamic caliphate.

It is in exile in Malaysia, later in Turkey since 2001, and a few months after, that Anzor follows the course of the war. Always in close contact with his father. "He then asked me to leave the United Arab Emirates to be closer to him and Chechnya".
Two years ago, Anzor, accompanied by his mother, his sister and his wife, has thus elected residence in the South-Caucasus. A few hundred kilometers of Grozny. Some persons from Diaspora are regularly in touch with him in order to obtain fresh news from the battleground. But here like elsewhere, it is necessary to fear the FSB (the ex-KGB) and the denouncements. Anzor already moved on several occasions for security reasons.
In December 2004, eight members of his family were kidnapped and taken along in the Chechen village of Tsurtroï used as a basis for Ramzan Kadyrov. The last one, son of the pro-Russian Chechen President Akhmed Kadyrov killed on last May 9th, directs militia forces - Kadyrovski- the last having caused many exactions on the Chechen civil population. "But my father did not want to give up to the Russian blackmail. He declared that he fought for his family. And his family was the whole Chechen people".

What is going to happen next? Following the example of Akhmed Zakaev or Oumar Khanbiev, both being representatives of Aslan Maskhadov in Europe, Anzor invites to continue the resistance. "My father’s death should not change anything ".
He evokes the name of Abdoul Khalim Sadoulaev, 35 years, designated last Thursday like the new rebel President. A transfer of power legitimated by an agreement concluded in 2002 between Aslan Maskhadov and the unit from the Chechen guerrilla.
Neglected figure of the Chechen resistance, Abdoul Khalim would come from Argoun. Former religious counsellor of Maskhadov, he chaired until 2002 the Chechen court of the Sharia (the Islamic law).

What could be the political part which could play from now on the Chechen Diaspora? Anzor knows well Oumar Khanbiev since 1994, but also Akhmed Zakaev and Ilias Akhmadov. "The historical role of the Diaspora is to put an end to the war and to obtain the safety guarantees for the Chechen people." But for the time being, "Abdoul Khalim came as President of the Republic. Just as Zelimkhan Iandarbiev replaced Djokhar Doudaev (ex-General of the Soviet army, elected president October 1991 and killed in April 1996 by a Russian missile, our note). Abdoul Khalim will succeed where Aslan Maskhadov has, he also, succeeded ". Anzor is trustful. But he admits that he never met Abdoul Khalim.

Maskhadov’s puts his hopes in the West. Before March 8, 2005, he planned to raise funds in London, Paris or New York for the production of a movie on the Chechen conflict. The scenario is already written. And testimonies collected. He is making plans in a Luc Besson’s manner, he is speaking of scenarios like Polanski ones. And even to ask Arnold Schwarzenegger for supporting role.
"It was necessary to find a means of helping my people although being far from them. The idea of a film made its way. I wanted to show what has occurred in Chechnya for ten years now, while diffusing the message of my father: we do not want a war ". A ten million dollars movie project , born three years ago and already presented at the time of international film festivals, as in 2003 in Washington. Anzor would like also to make a documentary on the Beslan tragedy.
Today, his plans changed. He still plans to go to Brussels or Paris. But this time to make pressure on Moscow and to get back his father’s corpse. "It is my human debt".


Anzor Maskhadov’s Short Biography

November 18, 1975
Born in Platonovka, Primorsk (located in the Far East Russian territories) where his father begins his career of colonel in the Soviet army. Afterwards, he follows his father to Leningrad (Saint-Petersbourg), in Hungary, then in Lithuania.
1992
Return in Chechnya.
February 1993
He got married.
December 1994
Beginning of the first Chechen war. He fights at the side of his father, until 1996.
1996-1999
Inter-war period. Assists his father, elected President since beginning of 1997, and works within the presidential administration.
February 1999
He leaves for Malaysia.
2001
He went into exile in Turkey which it then leaves for Dubai, and later for Baku.
2004
He starts the production of documentaries: Confrontation (30 minutes shot in 2004) diffused in Europe, in Turkey, in Georgia (on the Rustavi 2 channel) as well as in Chechnya.