From: MSN Nicknamepsychoteddybear24  (Original Message)    Sent: 9/13/2007 5:21 PM
Chechnya Weekly - Volume VIII, Issue 35
September 13, 2007
 
IN THIS ISSUE:
* More Bloodshed in Ingushetia
* Ingush and Chechens Express Alarm about Ingushetia Situation
* Ingushetia’s Law-Enforcers Promise Unspecified Measures to Halt Violence
* Kadyrov Gives Zyazikov “Brotherly” Advice
* Russian and Ingush Authorities Blame Umarov and Al-Qaeda
* Kadyrov Orders Female Officials to Cover Up
* Servicemen Killed and Wounded in Chechnya
* Briefs
* Who Is Killing the Non-Muslims in Ingushetia?
By Andrei Smirnov
* Kremlin Backed Anniversary in Kabardino-Balkaria Fails to Deter Insurgents
By Fatima Tlisova
* Dagestan: Russia’s Eternal Problem
By Mairbek Vatchagaev
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More Bloodshed in Ingushetia
This past week saw no letup in the wave of violence that has swept Ingushetia in recent months. A traffic police officer was shot dead by unknown assailants near Nazran on September 12, RIA Novosti reported. “The assault took place in the early hours near the village of Kantyshevo,” a police source told the news agency. “Unknown assailants shot a traffic police officer while he was on duty using automatic weapons, and then disappeared from the crime scene.” Kavkazky Uzel on September 12 identified the murdered traffic policeman as Junior Sergeant Alikhan Dugiev and quoted law-enforcement sources as saying that he may have been targeted as part of a blood feud.
Another incident took place in the early hours of September 12, when unknown attackers fired a grenade launcher at the Matritsa Theater in Nazran, the largest theater in the republic. A law-enforcement source told Kavkazky Uzel that the attackers fired twice from a grenade-launcher at the theater, damaging the building. No one was hurt or injured in the attack.
On September 11, unidentified gunmen murdered three members of a Gypsy family in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia’s Sunzha district - 52-year-old Vasily Lyulakov and his two sons, 26-year-old Yanosh and 18-year-old Pyotr. Kommersant on September 12 quoted Svetlana Lyulakova, who witnessed the murder of her father and two brothers, as saying that the incident took place at midnight, local time. The raiders first shot the family dog, after which they burst into the house and woke up Vasily Lyulakov, demanding that he hand over gold and money. “Father fell on his knees before them and promised to hand over everything that we have, and asked only one thing – not to kill anybody,” she said. One of the raiders took off Vasily Lyulakov’s gold ring and watch, after which they took him to the kitchen and shot him. The raiders then took her two brothers, Yanosh and Pyotr, to the kitchen and shot them.
Svetlana Lyulakova said that the raiders then planned to kill her along with the wife of one of her brothers and their three children, who were also in the house. “One of the bandits aimed a weapon at us and started to shout that he’ll kill everyone, but another – a powerful red-head – said that the women and children shouldn’t be touched. It seems that the red-head was in charge.” Lyulakova said there were three raiders in all and that they spoke Russian. “In any case, they spoke Russian with us – we don’t know any other language,” she said.
The deputy head of the Sunzha district administration, Antonina Khasieva, said that the murder of the Lyulakovs was not merely the consequence of an ordinary robbery but was aimed at destabilizing the situation in the republic. “The Lyulakovs had not amassed any riches, lived in a home which was rebuilt after the 2002 flood and worked in a local collective farm as tractor drivers and blacksmiths,” she said.
The murder of the Lyulakovs was just the latest in a series of killings in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya. On September 6, two Russian-speaking ethnic Koreans, Anatoly Lagai and his son Aleksandr, were found dead in their home in the village. Law-enforcement sources quoted by Kavkazky Uzel on September 7 said the two had apparently been shot to death several days earlier. The website reported that investigators were looking into several possible motives for the crime, including the aim of destabilizing the region. In July, Lyudmila Terekhina, a 55-year-old ethnic Russian teacher, and her son and daughter, both of them university students, were shot to death by unknown gunmen in their home in Ordzhonikidzevskaya. On July 18, ten people were wounded when a bomb detonated during the funeral for Lyudmila Terekhina and her two children at a cemetery in Ordzhonikidzevskaya (Chechnya Weekly, July 19).
On September 9, two servicemen from a Russian Interior Ministry Interior Troops battalion and two rebels were killed in separate shootouts in Ingushetia. One of the servicemen was killed in a gun battle at a checkpoint in the Nazran district village of Surkhakhi, which rebel gunmen fired on with grenade launchers and machineguns. According to Kavkazky Uzel, several other servicemen were wounded in the exchange of fire, which lasted a half an hour. The second incident took place in Malgobek, when unidentified gunmen opened fire on a unit of Internal Troops based on the eastern side of the city. According to Kavkazky Uzel, that battle lasted around five hours, during which one serviceman was killed and two were wounded. The bodies of two attackers were found after the shootout ended.
Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 11 that the militants who attacked the Interior Ministry unit in eastern Malgobek had warned local residents and blocked the entranceways of apartment buildings during the five-hour-long gun battle so that locals would not be caught in the crossfire. An Ingush law-enforcement source told RIA Novosti that the attackers had set up a “temporary checkpoint” on the road leading to where the Interior Troops unit was stationed and that ten gunmen had participated in the attack on the unit. The two militants who were killed in the battle, 25-year-old Malgobek resident Magomed Velkhiev and 23-year-old Alek Azhigov, who was a resident of the village of Novy Redant, died covering the escape of their comrades.
On September 8, a member of an “illegal armed formation” was captured in the village of Verkhniy Acheluki in Ingushetia’s Malgobeksky district.
On September 7, a policeman was shot to death in the center of Nazran, while a member of a Chechen Interior Ministry regiment was wounded in Karabulak by gunmen who escaped in a silver VAZ-2110 automobile. In addition, on September 7, Natalya Mudarova, the head doctor of a blood-transfusion station, was shot to death in central Nazran, RIA Novosti reported. The independent Ingushetiya.ru website reported that Mudarova was an ethnic Russian married to a Chechen (see Andrei Smirnov’s article below).
Ingush and Chechens Express Alarm about Ingushetia Situation
Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 11 that residents of Ingushetia are alarmed by the worsening security situation in their republic and that some are even contemplating leaving Ingushetia for good. Movlatkhan, a 43-year-old Chechen refugee who lives in Nazran, told Kavkazky Uzel correspondent Timur Khamkhoev: “There has never been such a worsening of the situation in the republic as now. You walk in the streets during the day and think that something is about to blow up or that there will be shooting from somewhere, and the nighttime is even worse. You’re afraid even to fall asleep. Is it really possible to live like this? We once fled from Chechnya for these reasons. Now the same thing is happening here. Only now you don’t know where to go.”
Yusup Bedzizhev, an employee of a private firm in Ingushetia, told Kavkazky Uzel: “I never thought that Ingushetia might become a ‘hot spot’. But it seems that when someone wants it, any sleepy corner can be made a ‘hot region.'"
Akhmed, a 26-year-old from Malgobek, was critical of Ingushetia’s law-enforcement bodies. “Murders and shooting are happening every day,” he told the website. “Neither the local authorities nor the numerous force structures are able to affect the situation. The soldiers themselves have difficulty repelling attacks, [so] how can they protect the local population?”
Commenting on the September 11 murder of Vasily Lyulakov and his two sons, a contributor to a forum on the independent Ingushetiya.ru website using the alias “InGuSH” wrote: “Not a day goes by without a murder. And, as a rule, it all takes place at midnight.” Another contributor to the Ingushetiya.ru forum, “kiff,” wrote: “Everything is going according to the same plan as in Chechnya…I hope that the consequences will not be the same.” A third contributor to the forum, “fatma,” wrote: “Everyone who can leave the republic should do so, because these provocations are being done not without purpose. The Kremlin wants to start a slaughter here. A peaceful nation is suffering.”
Chechens interviewed by Kavkazky Uzel about the situation in Ingushetia echoed many of the comments of their Ingush neighbors. A 55-year-old Grozny resident, Said-Emin Makhmudov, told Kavkazky Uzel correspondent Sultan Abubakarov: “What is happening today on the territory of Ingushetia reminds me of what happened here at the start of the so-called ‘second war’ [in Chechnya]. These senseless murders, attacks on police personnel, firing on military posts and so on bring about nothing good. We already have, as they say, gone through this. It seems to me that powerful and influential forces and not a handful of separatists, as the official authorities present it, are interested in an escalation of tension on the territory of Ingushetia.”
An anonymous staffer with a Chechen NGO told the website: “I believe that the military and special services are behind the events in Ingushetia. One of my relatives lives there, and he recounted how after the murder of a local resident in Karabulak [a reference to the security forces’ killing of Apti Dolakov, who they alleged was an insurgent], the Ingush OMON detained several plainclothes FSB employees, on whom the weapon used to kill a Russian family and two natives of Dagestan was found. However, on order ‘from above,’ they were then freed, and several local guys were accused of the murders (Chechnya Weekly, September 6). And one other strange detail: for some reason all of these murders and attacks increased precisely after additional forces were introduced into Ingushetia.”
The NGO staffer continued: “What’s happening in Ingushetia looks like what happened in the autumn of 1999, when apartment buildings were blown up in Moscow and Volgodonsk, as a result of which hundreds of people were killed. The Chechens were ‘appointed’ as the perpetrators – although neither then nor now has a single Chechen been prosecuted in that case – and the ‘counter-terrorist operation’ was started in our republic. It seems to me that those generals who ‘established order’ here simply need a new small war. Because they have already gotten used to big money, ranks and titles, which during military actions rain down on them as if from a horn of plenty. In any case, all of this will hardly end well. It seems to me that the military and political leadership of the country is now feverishly looking for new ‘internal enemies’ in order to, under a plausible pretext, ‘tighten the nut’ even more strongly ahead of the upcoming [Russian] elections. It is possible that it has been decided now to appoint the Ingush as ‘the guilty ones.’”
Ingushetia’s Law-Enforcers Promise Unspecified Measures to Halt Violence
Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 11 that the heads of Ingushetia’s law-enforcement bodies had met on September 8 to discuss “additional measures to stabilize the situation in the republic.” According to sources in the republic prosecutor’s office, Ingushetia’s chief prosecutor, Yury Turygin, said during the meeting that despite steps taken by the law-enforcement bodies, the situation in the republic remained tense and a series of serious crimes had taken place, “the victims of which were representatives of different nationalities.” He called for “a complex of constructive measures” to fight terrorism. The assembled siloviki also discussed “shortcomings in the work of the internal affairs bodies to prevent and fight crime,” as well ways of uprooting these evils. The source in the prosecutor’s office said that concrete measures to achieve this were discussed, but the source did not specify what those measures were.
A possible hint of the kind of measures the republic’s leadership had in mind came in an interview that Ingush President Murat Zyazikov gave to Novye izvestia, which was published on September 10. Asked about Ingushetia residents who had held public protests charging that their relatives had been detained on the basis of false charges of abetting terrorists, Zyazikov said: “I don’t allow rallies here. Because I know how it started in Grozny – with rallies of 5-6 people, and then everything was covered with blood.” He added: “Rallies have never resolved anything in the Caucasus, and will not resolve anything. Such things are usually initiated by someone. I will not permit that here. You want to rub shoulders, put in a request, [and] the prosecutor will come, meet you in the reception room, [and] hear you out.” Zyazikov has insisted that the situation in Ingushetia is improving and has accused enemies, both foreign and domestic, of launching an “information war” against the republic (Chechnya Weekly, September 6).
Some Ingush politicians, however, have expressed alarm over what has been happening in the republic over the past several months. “Every day, innocent citizens are murdered: Russians, Ingush, representatives of other nationalities,” Kavkazky Uzel quoted Bamatgiri Mankiev, a deputy in Ingushetia’s People’s Assembly, as saying. “Without trial, young guys whose guilt has not been proven by anyone are executed by shooting. The local authorities absolutely do not control the situation. Essentially, a parallel local MVD [Ministry of Internal Affairs] structure has been created in Ingushetia that is not subordinated to the republic’s leadership. What will come of all of this, nobody knows.”
Nezavisimaya gazeta on September 10 quoted Kamil Magishev, chairman of the Svobodnoye Slovo [Free Speech] human rights association, as saying that the “preventive” operation that the military in Ingushetia has been carrying out in recent weeks has been “accompanied by an abuse of authority and the inappropriate use of force,” which has played into the “provocateurs” who ordered “the killings of teachers and doctors.” He added: “After all, the victims of the military frequently swell the ranks of the militants. Therefore, for Ingushetia, the killings of innocent women and the crudely executed zachistki [security sweeps] are equally provocative. Magas [the capital of Ingushetia], which is assuring everyone, above all Moscow, that the situation is under control, is in fact itself a hostage of circumstances. The authorities are incapable of influencing the special services and military, since these are federal structures. And, at the same time, they do not have the strength to resist the militants’ forays independently.”
Aleksei Malashenko, a member of the Moscow Carnegie Foundation’s research council, told Nezavisimaya gazeta: “Several circumstances have coincided. First, the complex relations within Ingush society, in which various clans operate. At the same time, Murat Zyazikov relies more on Moscow than on them. His popularity in the republic is not particularly high. Hence, blows are being inflicted on Zyazikov [and] his relatives. Secondly, the Islamists and other such types have settled in Ingushetia precisely because the regime here is not so strong. Third and last, I have the feeling that between those unhappy with Zyazikov, including from the main visible clans, and these Islamists, there exists, if not an agreement, then a kind of mutual understanding. It is this, evidently, that is giving them strength.”
Kavkazky Uzel on September 12 quoted Magomed Mytsolgov, head of the Ingush human rights group Mashr (Peace), as predicting that the situation in Ingushetia will worsen as the number of troops deployed in the republic increases. “Since November 1 [2006] there has been a temporary operational group (VOG) of the MVD of Russia for Ingushetia headed by militia General-Major Gennady Ivanov operating in the republic,” Mytsolgov told the website. “Operational groups have been created in each district and city police department, each of which is made up of 25-30 policemen from different regions of the Russian Federation. You essentially have a situation in which a new de facto MVD has been created in a Russian Federation subject…There have been quite a few instances in which employees of different power agencies from neighboring republics assigned to the republic [Ingushetia] have participated in the kidnapping and murder of young people in the territory of Ingushetia. Despite much evidence and data, these people have managed to escape responsibility. If the attitude of the authorities toward what’s going on does not change, then similar incidents cannot be ruled out in the future, which could lead to more tragic and large-scale consequences capable of destabilizing an already difficult situation in the North Caucasus.”
Commenting on the murder of the three members of a Gypsy family in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya – Vasily Lyulakov and his two sons – Aslanbek Apaev, a North Caucasus expert with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, told Kavkazky Uzel: “Given the number of troops [in Ingushetia], given the number of force structures, the quantity of which will probably soon exceed the population itself, it is simply absurd.” Earlier, Apaev warned that the federal center could completely lose control of the situation in Ingushetia.
Kadyrov Gives Zyazikov “Brotherly” Advice
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said in an interview with Komsomolskaya pravda published on September 10 that he is ready to help “impose order” in Ingushetia. Asked if it was possible to impose order in Ingushetia the way it was done in Chechnya, Kadyrov answered: “No problem. Especially if we are given the order, we will impose order as surely as two times two makes four. It is only a small republic.” Asked how he would do it, Kadyrov replied: “By imprisoning the criminals and eliminating the bandits. Everybody there knows who they are. Can it be difficult?” All that is needed, he said, is an order from the “supreme commander in chief” – an apparent reference to President Vladimir Putin. Kadyrov also said that “those who catch criminals in Ingushetia” need to remove their masks. “We fight criminals without wearing masks,” he said. “We are not afraid of them. But they are afraid of us. I would advise [Ingush President] Murat [Zyazikov] to work more with the people and task his law-enforcement agencies more toughly – no compromise with bandits! If Murat does that, there will be order.”
Kadyrov denied that he had “quarreled” with Zyazikov, but he admitted that his relationship with the Ingush president at present consists of little more than “an exchange of formal greetings.” He insisted, however, that Chechens and Ingush are “brothers” and that Zyazikov is his “brother.” Kadyrov added: “And we are ready to give our brothers assistance and support in any situation. And nobody and nothing will break our bonds.” When the Komsomolskaya pravda interviewer, Aleksandr Gamov, noted, “But you no longer dance the Lezginka [folk dance] with brother Murat,” Kadyrov replied: “Yes, it is a long time since we have danced the Lezginka. If we impose order there, we will dance.”
Earlier this month, Kadyrov said Chechnya had “accumulated significant experience in the fight against international terrorism” and stood “ready to render aid to fraternal Ingushetia” (Chechnya Weekly, September 6). Some observers believe Kadyrov is seeking to impose a political merger on Ingushetia (Chechnya Weekly, June 14 and May 24).
Russian and Ingush Authorities Blame Umarov and Al-Qaeda
A source in an unspecified “Russian law-enforcement agency” told Interfax on September 11 that up to 100 militants, combined into the so-called “Western Resistance Front” and led by Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov, are operating in Ingushetia. “Various estimates suggest that between 80 and 100 active militants are operating in the mobile militant groups of the ‘Western Resistance Front’ in Ingushetia,” the source told the news agency. “Most of the bandits terrorizing citizens have crossed into Ingushetia from Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus. According to our sources, the terrorists active in Ingushetia are led by the notorious Dokku Umarov, appointed to be president of secessionist Ichkeria after [Chechen rebel leader and former president Aslan] Maskhadov was killed.” The source told Interfax that the Ingush Interior Ministry’s means and resources and other law-enforcement agencies “are actively involved in work to prevent terror attacks targeting civilians” and that additional Interior Ministry troops have been deployed to seal Ingushetia’s administrative border.
Vremya novostei reported on September 11 that three al-Qaeda emissaries of Arab origin were behind the latest violence in Ingushetia. Citing an Ingush special services source, the newspaper said the emissaries were paying rebels $3,000 to $5,000 per attack. However, the Moscow Times on September 12 quoted Sergei Markedonov, a Caucasus analyst with the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, as saying that al-Qaeda involvement in Ingushetia’s violence was highly unlikely. “There are many other and more prospective places to fight a jihad – Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East,” he said. “By blaming al-Qaeda, Ingush officials are trying to dodge flak over their own failures.”
Kadyrov Orders Female Officials to Cover Up
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov ordered all female governmental officials to, as RIA Novosti put it on September 11, “dress appropriately, strictly in accordance with the republic’s dress code, and be aware of their appearance.” RIA Novosti quoted Kadyrov as saying at a meeting of heads of local administrations, ministries, agencies and law-enforcement bodies: “I demand that heads of districts, ministries and agencies of Chechnya inform their subordinates of the necessity to be aware of their appearance and dress appropriately, strictly in accordance with the workplace dress code. This especially concerns women. Their apparel must comply with the Chechen traditions. Chechen women have always been distinguished by their restraint in everything, and this image should be the model for everyone.”
According to the news agency, Kadyrov recalled that a year ago he had already talked about the necessity for women to wear scarves and observe a strict dress code at work. “I am proud to be a Muslim and a Chechen, and, as a president, I demand that officials at their workplace observe moral and ethical norms in dressing, manners and behavior,” he said. “People may tell me that I am wrong or that this is unjustified, and so on, but at work everyone must obey the established rules. Out of office, that’s a private matter.”
In an interview with Komsomolskaya pravda published on September 10, Kadyrov said that “the emissaries of Wahhabism” are “duping” young people in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, telling them that people in the North Caucasus are “deviating” from the canons of Islam. “This is what they are telling young people: Brothels are being set up in hotels in Dagestan, and also girls walk the streets in shorts,” Kadyrov told the newspaper. “And if you wear shorts like them, well...This plays into the hands of the Wahhabis. They are the ones that are complaining.” Asked if this means shorts should not be worn, Kadyrov replied: “It is not the custom in our part of the world – it should not happen. In our part of the world a woman should be covered, do you understand?”
Meanwhile, the authorities in Grozny have banned the sale of alcoholic drinks in the Chechen capital during the month of Ramadan, Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 12.
Servicemen Killed and Wounded in Chechnya
A Russian serviceman was wounded in a bomb blast in the southern Chechen district of Itum-Kale, Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 12. The incident took place near the village of Gukhoi, where one law-enforcement officer was killed and several wounded in a September 3 rebel attack (Chechnya Weekly, September 6). A serviceman of the Defense Ministry’s Zapad (West) battalion was killed during an operation to detain a “dangerous criminal,” Interfax reported on September 10. Idris Satiev was killed when the driver of a vehicle stopped for an ID check shot him. Two other servicemen sustained wounds in the shootout and were hospitalized. Sources in the Chechen Interior Ministry told Interfax that the driver, who was killed by return fire, was a resident of the Groznensky district village of Pobedinskoye and was believed to have been an active member of a “criminal armed group.” Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 10 that two servicemen were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in Grozny’s Oktyabrsky district. The website reported on September 8 that the emir of Grozny, Musa Mutiev, who was a member of the rebel group led by Rustam Basaev, a close associate of Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov and who was killed earlier this month (Chechnya Weekly, September 6), was killed by security forces.
Meanwhile, Kavkazky Uzel reported on September 13 that Bagap Tutakov, a resident of the Achkoi-Martan district village of Yandi kidnapped on September 10 by a group of gunmen in camouflage uniforms, was a deputy in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) parliament in 1995-1996 and had represented the ChRI parliament at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg.
Briefs
- Astemirov Named Acting Head of Rebel Sharia Court
The separatist Chechenpress news agency on September 8 published several decrees by Dokku Umarov, Chechen rebel leader and president of the separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, including two that dismissed the chairman of the Ichkerian Supreme Sharia Court, Mansur Yovmirzaev, and appointed Anzor Astemirov as the court’s acting chairman. Astemirov is the leader of the rebels in Kabardino-Balkaria.
- Bombs Go Off in Nalchik
Newsru.com reported on September 12 that an explosive device went off at a bus stop in downtown Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, late in the evening on September 11, but that no one was hurt in the incident. The Caucasus Times reported on September 10 that an improvised explosive device exploded about 800 meters away from a building in Nalchik housing the Kabardino-Balkaria Interior Ministry’s special police unit. According to the website, there were no casualties in that blast. On September 7, the president of Kabardino-Balkaria, Arsen Kanokov, claimed that there are 500-700 Islamists in Kabardino-Balkaria but no underground armed Islamist movement in the republic, Newsru.com reported.