Whose side are you on?

Militant rebels are growing in strength as the brutality of Chechnya's pro-Moscow government angers and divides the people, writes Nick Paton Walsh

Friday September 16, 2005

Just after 1pm on June 4, masked troops surrounded the Chechen village of Borozdinovskaya, rounded up the men, and herded them into the school. They pulled their shirts over their heads, and forced them to lie down in the sports hall.

Ali Magomed, 78, said: "They hit me on the head with an AK-47, and made me lie on the floor. They made us lie with our hands on our heads for nine hours. There were 300 of them, all speaking Chechen." One of the masked men then walked around the gym, lifting each man's head so he could see their faces.

Nine months after the Beslan school siege, pro-Russian Chechen soldiers staged a raid on this tiny village on the border with Dagestan, populated mostly by ethnic Dagestanis.

It was one of the most public abuses committed by the increasing number of Chechen militants serving under the pro-Moscow local government's banner.

They are broadly known as "Kadyrovtsi", after their leader, strongman and vice prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov. The raid resulted in 11 men being led away. They have not been heard of since.

One was Izaket Umarova's son, Murtuz, 18. "Six soldiers came into our home," she said. "They asked me what republic I was from. I said 'Chechnya', and they let me go. Murtuz ran to the mosque, but they got him. If my son is dead, will they please give me the body so I can bury him."

The Kadyrovtsi raid was apparently aimed at stemming support for separatist militants from residents in neighbouring Dagestan, hence the soldiers' interest in Mrs Umarova's ethnicity.

However, the inhabitants of Borozdinovskaya did not take the affront lying down. A few days after the raid, 645 of them, including Mrs Umarova, packed their belongings and very publicly fled to Dagestan.

It took a visit and assurances from Mr Kadyrov, and the president of Chechnya, Alu Alkhanov, to get them back, together with the promise of considerable compensation for homes burned and damaged in the raid.

The commander of the raid, known as "The Beard" and from a group of Kadyrovtsi under the command of Sulim Yamadayev, was also charged with carrying out the "illegal" raid.

While Mrs Umarova remains furious at being denied both her promised compensation and the return of her son, the incident was blunt proof of the increasing autonomy and brutality of the Kadyrovtsi.

Originally formed by Mr Kadyrov's late father, Akhmed, they were intended to shore up the pro-Russian Kadyrov government's control over the republic and take over the role of fighting separatist militants.

Yet since Akhmed Kadyrov's assassination in May 2004, splits have emerged among their ranks.

"Most still do what Ramzan says," said Ruslan, an officer in one of the factions, known as the "15th" after the milk factory from which they provide security to the oil infrastructure of Grozny.

Each faction has its own priorities. The head of the 15th, Movladi Baysarev, is "almost constantly" in Moscow, says Ruslan, who fears a big change in the republic's turbulent paramilitary politics may be afoot.

Ramzan Kadyrov's decision to form the "Anti-Terrorist Centre" (ATC) - a group of former militants tasked with tackling their former colleagues - has also created severe problems.

"It was a mistake to give militants guns," said Ruslan. "Nothing has changed in the republic. I have found a uniform, and that's it. There is no law. An officer in the FSB [the Russian security services] told me: 'I guarantee you there will be a third war'," he sighed.

As the Kadyrovtsi fracture, the militants are gaining strength in the southern highlands. Ruslan estimates there are at least 5,000 of them, steeled by the mercenary brutality of the Kadyrovtsi against their fellow Chechens.

Two Kadyrovtsi who hitched a lift in the Guardian's taxi in eastern Chechnya backed Ruslan's estimate, adding that in the last month alone, 50 young men had fled the town of Argun where they are based, and "gone to the hills".

Ruslan added: "There may be as many as 2,000 militants in Grozny alone. Even the Kadyrovtsi are scared of them."

Another possible catalyst for the increasing number of militants is the death of Aslan Maskhadov, the moderate Chechen separatist and president of the republic during its 1997-1999 period of independence.

At a house in the town of Tolstoi Yurt, where in March Russian state TV showed his body lying in a pool of blood in the muddy courtyard, only a pile of rubble now remains.

What is left of the basement, where prosecutors say there was a "complex" of rooms, including a toilet, appears remarkably small. Neighbours say they heard explosions, not gunfire, on the day of the purported siege.

The official version is that Mr Maskhadov was killed resisting arrest, perhaps by a bodyguard who shot him dead to prevent him being taken alive.

Yet a persistent rumour suggests Mr Maskhadov was killed elsewhere, perhaps in a fight with Mr Kadyrov's entourage, and brought to the house in Tolstoi Yurt, where Russian special forces expertly faked a siege operation in an effort to prevent a possible Chechen civil war.

Mr Maskhadov's death has angered many. Even for Ruslan, for years a fully paid-up member of the pro-Russian forces, the pictures of his former president "were unpleasant to see, him on the floor like that. He was our only legitimately chosen leader."

He added mysteriously: "I know that [Mr Maskhadov] was not killed in Tolstoi Yurt."

Mr Maskhadov's inability to rein in Beslan mastermind Shamil Basayev and other extremist militants had sapped his credibility both inside Chechnya and as far away as Washington, yet many Chechens still regarded him as their legitimately elected president.

His removal from the equation deprives any future, moderate Kremlin leader with someone to negotiate with. Now there remains only Basayev, and the separatist leader Doha Umarov, a reclusive figure, fast becoming the separatist movement's new leader.

"Basayev is not as dangerous as Umarov," said Ruslan. "He's bigger than Basayev now. One word from him, and ..."

One man who might heed Umarov's call is Taus, 29. Introduced as an active militant, he insists he has spent the last two years working for an international NGO, but clearly retains his contacts and motivations.

"In the hills, they [the militants] tend to make camp for only two to three days, then move on. Religion is strict and pure there," he adds, referring to the increasing influence of Islam on the separatist movement.

Yet many despise the extremists in the movement, he insisted, referring to them as Wahhabites, a catch-all term for religious ideas often influenced by hardliners in Saudi Arabia.

"They'll kill anyone in a uniform. They have strict rules against smoking, drinking, swearing."

He said his main goal was not religious: "For me the main thing is to create an independent Chechen republic, not necessarily an Islamic one. To free it from the Russians."

Looking anxiously around the nearby streets, he tells of how he narrowly escaped capture by pro-Russian police in 2003 by jumping out of a window at 5am. "They got me in the leg, though," he adds, pointing to his upper thigh.

While some of his friends have moved over to the Kadyrovtsi, he insists: "Anything is better than Kadyrov." Pointing around Grozny's streets, he adds: "That petrol station, that café - they're all run by him in the end."

He said: "I respect Doka Umarov, but I respect and fear Ramzan." Fear, it appears, carries currency amid a movement increasingly run by extremists. Asked about Basayev, Taus stops short of condemnation, saying instead: "Basayev is like a dog on a leash. Eventually he will get agitated and bite."
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