MUSLIM HATE IN MOSCOW!
what goes out comes around
Our Muslim allies actually hate us!
Chechen Rebels Radicalize
Umalt Dudayev
Institute for War and Peace Recording
The death of Aslan
Maskhadov, the moderate leader of the Chechen
separatists, one year ago has proved a turning point for the rebel movement —
though perhaps not in the way the Russian intelligence services intended when
they announced that they had killed him.
The removal of Maskhadov, elected president in 1997 and killed on March 8, 2005,
meant that the leading role passed to the radicals led by Russia’s most wanted
man, Shamil
Basayev. No major moderate figure has taken up Maskhadov’s mantle
or has called for dialogue with the Russians.
Maskhadov’s successor as rebel president, Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev, is officially
working with Basayev and has announced the creation of a “Caucasus Front” that
stretches beyond Chechnya to the rest of the North Caucasus.
In February, Sadulayev reorganized his government, giving it a more radical
complexion. In a rebuff to moderate envoys working in Europe, he called on all
officials working abroad to return home and stripped Umar Khambiev of his post
as presidential representative abroad. Another envoy Akhmed Zakayev, now
resident in Britain, was demoted from his job as deputy prime minister, leaving
him as merely culture minister.
The most eye-catching move was the appointment of the rebel movement’s exiled
ideologist, Movladi Udugov, as head of the newly-created “National Information
Service for the State Defense Committee”.
“Udugov’s appointment to a high position while Akhmed Zakayev retains only the
post of minister means just one thing: the radicals have won a victory,” said
Chechen political analyst Murad Nashkhoyev. “However, it is Moscow itself that
has untied the Chechen radicals’ hands by killing Maskhadov, the elected
president, and rejecting negotiations with its opponents.”
The rebel commanders of the Nineties grouped around Maskhadov had Soviet
backgrounds and little knowledge of Islam. They have been replaced by a new
generation who talk about jihad and feel closer to the Islamic world than to
Europe.
The thinking of these new-style rebels is typified by Ansar, a 40-year-old
Grozny resident who fought on the anti-Moscow side in both the first and second
Chechen conflicts.
“Chechnya cannot be independent if the whole of the North Caucasus is not
independent,” said Ansar. “Otherwise, Moscow will simply crush us economically
and politically, if not through war, which is what it’s currently trying to do
with Georgia. I think Sheikh Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, Shamil Basayev, Doku Umarov
and all the other current leaders have come to understand this truth.”
A 23-year-old young man who said he is a member of a guerrilla group active in
Grozny told IWPR, “Russia is engaged in real terror not only against Muslims in
Chechnya, but also against them in the whole of the North Caucasus. The same
thing’s really going on everywhere: Muslims are being killed, detained under
various invented pretexts, tortured, maimed, and humiliated. Men are afraid of
growing beards because they can be accused of being Wahhabis [Islamic radicals],
with all the consequences that can entail. Women are afraid of wearing
headscarves for the same reason.
”This is why a jihad is necessary, first and foremost the jihad of the sword —
not only in Chechnya, but throughout the North Caucasus.“
This young man, who gave his first name as Islam, was critical of Maskhadov’s
pro-western stance. Although he recognized that the late Chechen leader was ”a
very courageous man“, he said, ”We should admit that he made a lot of mistakes.
He relied on assistance from Europe and the West. He believed they would help to
stop this massacre in Chechnya. He thought everything could be resolved through
political negotiations. Time has shown that he was badly mistaken.“
The policy of spreading the war to the rest of the North Caucasus was dramatized
by last October’s attack on Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria,
in which dozens of people died.
In January, Basayev gave an interview, published on separatist websites, in
which he said that Sadulayev planned to hold a big ”majlis“ or assembly in
spring 2006 to unify the Chechen fighters. Basayev also said he ”intends to
cross the river Volga“ in summer.
”Shamil Basayev’s threats to ’cross the Volga’ can be interpreted with some
irony — but they cannot be ignored, as there are effectively no reliable data on
the number of guns held by him and other field commanders,“ commented Anatoly
Petrov, who works with the Military Commandant’s Office for Chechnya. ”Most of
the gunmen usually sit quietly at home, waiting for orders. They aren’t running
around in the mountains, as people generally believe.
“It is quite likely that the leaders of the bandit groups want to carry out a
few large diversionary and terrorist attacks this summer in order to make
themselves heard again. The situation in Chechnya itself is under control.
Therefore, in my opinion, the gunmen will try to do something in one of the
North Caucasus republics, say Karachai-Cherkessia or Adygeia.”
Petrov said that the insurgents still enjoy support amongst the Chechen
population “not only amongst young people who basically have nothing to do in a
republic destroyed by war, but even among religious figures, and quite possibly
among officials too”.
He cited an instance in which a Muslim cleric in the south-eastern Vedeno region
who nominally supported the pro-Moscow government in Grozny was accused of
aiding the rebels. In another case, a deputy to the mufti, or chief Muslim
cleric, in Chechnya was dismissed after attending the funeral of rebel fighter
Hussein Chersiev, killed in Ingushetia.
There are varying figures for the number of active fighters still operating in
Chechnya. In January, Russian general Oleg Khotin put the number at 750, while
pro-Moscow Chechen prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov said there were just 250.
Despite a reduced level of violence, and assertions by Moscow that it has the
situation “fully under control”, there is still fighting going on in Chechnya —
with some indications that it may flare up again with the start of spring. On
March 3, a battle took place near the village of Serzhen-Yurt and locals
reported seeing at least four military helicopters firing rockets into the
forest. Residents of mountain villages say there has been an increase in
artillery fire in their regions.
The young fighter Islam speaks with confidence about the future. “We are fated
to victory,” he said with a confident stare from unblinking eyes. “Because we
have the two best choices — victory or paradise. Both are good for us. We will
either eject the Russian aggressors from Chechnya and the entire Caucasus, or we
will become shahids on the path of Allah and go to paradise. There is no third
option.”