Paul Goble
Staunton, August 27 – Encouraged by Moscow’s call to involve councils of elders in pacifying the North Caucasus and angry at Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov for failing to improve conditions, the taips, the traditional clans of Ingush society, are re-activating the alternative parliament they had set up under Yevkurov’s despised predecessor, Murat Zyazikov.
Earlier this week, Magomed Khazbiyev, the head of the Just Ingushetia Movement, issued a statement saying that at a Nazran meeting, the taips had adopted a decision "to renew the activity of the Alternative Parliament, the Mekhk Khela, because of popular unhappiness with Yevkurov’s policies (www.zaprava.ru/content/view/2460/1/).
According to Khazbiyev’s statement, the Yevkurov regime "is not capable of defending the interests of citizens.” Moreover, "in Ingushetia the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the criminal code do not function. [And] masked armed detachments kidnap people ...