From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 2/10/2008 11:59 PM
February 11, 2008

A. Zakaev "A properly formulated task would find a proper solution"

SIA CHECHENPRESS February 6, 2008


 


Q: Akhmed, the media have publicised your meeting with European MPs and representatives of international NGOs. They report about the plan to create an Association of Euro MPs for the Right of the Chechen People to Self-determination’. Could you tell us about this organization, its aims, its status and how it might cooperate with the Chechen government?

A.Zakaev: As we know many people in many countries are full of sympathy and understanding of the Chechen people’s struggle for independence and freedom. These are people from all walks of life, of different ages and religious persuasions. Members of parliament are no exception, whether they are members of national or international assemblies.

From the very beginning of the second Chechen campaign the European MPs have organised a number of protest rallies against the Russian occupation of Chechnya and the actions of the Russian army in Chechnya. Many of you might remember those events so there is no need to dwell on them now. If at the beginning MPs used to rally under the banner of ‘Peace and human rights for Chechnya’, now the emphasis has shifted to the right of the Chechen people to self-determination. Peace and human rights in Chechnya could only be achieved if the Chechens’ right to self-determination is recognised. It is the lack of such recognition by the international community that has largely encouraged Russia in its actions during the first and second Chechen campaigns. I would like to think that a properly formulated task would find a proper solution.

In any case, the government of the Chechen Republic has been pleased with the new initiative by the European MPs and will do everything it can to help it contribute to the just resolution of the Russian-Chechen conflict

Q: The Chechen people’s national liberation struggle for the last seventeen years has gone through several stages, each characterised by its own special features. It is clear that the declaration of the Caucasus Emirate marked a new stage in the struggle and its evolution. What do you think has happened?

A.Zakaev: Indeed, in the last seventeen years the Chechen people’s struggle has gone through many stages, both positive and negative. As for the declaration of the Caucasus Emirate it could be called in fact a new stage in the struggle against the national liberation movement, both of the Chechen and of other peoples of the North Caucasus.

I have already stated my opinion on the Emirate as an attempt to legitimise the self-liquidation of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya. In connection with your question I would like to remind you of what the Emirate is a stage of and what kind of evolution it represents.

At the end of the 1980s as part of his perestroika Mikhail Gorbachev announced the abolition of article 6 of the Soviet Constitution which legitimised the presence of a single party in the USSR – the CPSU. It was easy to imagine that the disaffected who had used to gather in the kitchens before and who increasingly participated in mass rallies, would organise themselves into political parties and movements under the new conditions. On the one hand, these included liberally minded citizens, on the other – national movements in the republics which craved equality with the Russians. Following the logo ‘If you are unable to prevent something, become its spearhead’, the KGB, a strike force for the CPSU, first founded the Liberal Democratic Party of Vladimir Zhirinovsky and later the Islamic Revival Party of the USSR.

Thanks to Zhirinovsky’s party Russia has not even now formed a real democratic opposition to the ruling totalitarian regime. At the same time where the Islamic Revival Party of the USSR had sprung roots in Muslim republics the society was split into the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims. This prevented it from mobilizing its citizens to meet national challenges, including that of resisting Russia’s imperial claims. The Islamists have been particularly successful in Tajikistan, and unfortunately, in Chechnya. So the Caucasus Emirate has gone through the following stages in the evolution of the Chechen branch of the Islamic Revival Party of the USSR:

1. Subversive terrorist activities carried out by Gantemirov-Deniev’s vakhabites before the commencement of the first Chechen campaign (1992-94 гг.);

2. The «Islamic order» of Udugov-Umarov accompanied by subversive terrorist activities to discredit the Chechen state order under Aslan Maskhadov;

3. The “Caucasus” TV activities to discredit the Chechens’ struggle for independence and to transform it in the eyes of the international community into a type of “international Islamic terrorism”;

4. Consistent pressure on Aslan Maskhadov to introduce non-constitutional reforms in order to strip the elected president of his constitutional powers;

5. The Chechnya-Dagestan Congress as an integral part of the FSB provocation to unleash the second Chechen war;

To be fair, these bodies and organizations – like the recently formed Caucasus Emirate - have drawn to them a great number of true Muslims and patriots of our country.

Another contribution of the Islamic Revival Party of the USSR was the disorientation of dozens and even hundreds of Chechen commanders, who had gone through the tribulations of the first Chechen campaign with great honour and glory.

As regards a real unification of the North Caucasus, I am a staunch supporter of such unification. However, I am convinced that such unification should come as an expression of the will of the peoples of the North Caucasus and not as a unilateral directive of Musa Shanibov or Isa Umarov. We do remember the role the Confederation of the Peoples of the North Caucasus played under the leadership of Shanibov and whose interests it served. The Confederation was only good for clawing back Abkhazia and South Osetiya from Georgia so that they could later join Russia. As to the Caucasus Emirate a la Isa Umarov – I have said this before and would repeat it again – it would exist as long as its founders need it. And the real founders who have masterminded the Emirate are based at Lubyanka.

Q: The Chechen media have repeatedly mentioned the fact that you have filed a lawsuit at the Sharia court about an attempt by certain circles to get rid of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya. What is the state of affairs now?

A.Zakaev: Indeed, I have filed the aforementioned lawsuit at the Sharia Committee under Farouk Khasukhanov. My litigation cannot be considered without the participation of the defendant. I will answer for my words and deeds before the Sharia Court any time, but as far as I know, so far the Sharia Committee has not commenced the hearing on this issue.

Q: Going back to the first question we would like to know your opinion on the following: does the forthcoming founding of the European MPs Association for the Chechen People’s Right to Self-determination signify a reanimation of the international interest in the Chechen issue? Has it got anything to do with the Kosovo issue and related political circumstances?

A.Zakaev: The West had its own expectations of Russia which the latter had not met, of course. The Chechen issue has been treated as a humanitarian issue so far, denying its political aspects. The main reason for this was the unwillingness by the West to recognize Abkhazia’s, South Osetiya’s and Transdniester’s right to self-determination after they had announced their plans to be associated into Russia. Western politicians had decided that having restored its territorial integrity in Chechnya Russia would finally recognize Georgia’s and Moldova’s right to restore their territorial integrity. Russia refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence as a matter of principle, not for any great love of the Serbs but in order to be able to ignore the West’s stance on the so-called post-Soviet conflicts in the future. Generally speaking, I do not rule out completely the possibility of some changes occurring in the Russian approach to the Russia-Chechnya issue.

The interview with the Head of the ChRI Cabinet of Ministers Akhmed Zakaev was conducted by Saikhan Umarov

http://www.chechenpress.co.uk/english/news/2008/02/11/01.shtml