Appeal by the President of the ChRI, Aslan Maskhadov, to the Chechen people
in connection with the explosion of the building of the occupation government
in Johar City
(Grozny)
Respected compatriots, brothers and sisters!
For the last three-and-a-half years, the occasions of my appeals to you have
been exclusively tragic events. You will understand me - this isn't
an easy task. The mass death of people, a majority of them Chechens, which
happened today as the result of the building of the occupation regime being
blown up, is a tragedy on a national scale. Every day some of our relatives
die - someone's father, brother, mother or sister. Dala g'azot k'obal
doila tseran!
Though the leadership of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria doesn't approve
of collaboration with the occupiers, it is infinitely painful for us to hear
about the death of one or the other who serves in the puppet administration
or the so-called Chechen militia. For us, these losses are victims of the
Russian aggression, without which the
Chechens won't have any reason to be divided into these or those. As the
president, I understand that the majority of those who let themselves get
hired to work in the occupation structures, simply pursue the target to survive.
Unfortunately this doesn't happen.
Our enemies do everything in order to kill Chechens by the hands of Chechens.
For this they are working day and night. Remember the blowing-up of the buses
with the so-called Chechen OMON in the capital
-
draftees - in the Shatoi district, etc. For the Russian leadership, which
is striving for a Chechnya without Chechens, a good Chechen is a dead Chechen.
All these labels, like Maskhadovites, Wahhabis, Kadyrovites, Zavgayevites,
have a value only inasmuch as it is possible with their aid to split us,
to set people against each other and to make them kill each other.
Dear compatriots!
I call on you to take care of yourself and your surroundings. On the territory
of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria we are dealing with aggressors who came
in order to destroy us as a nation. Nobody must trust them. Avoid them, don't
look at them, despise them. In this way the liberation will arrive more quickly.
But it will arrive under all circumstances. The Chechen troops won't stop
fighting until the last occupier has left our long-suffering native land.
I appeal to those who in view of the heaviest trials and losses have decided
to embark on the path of self-sacrifice. I understand you, but I can't
support it. Neither your death nor the death of hundreds of thousands of
others will stop our enemies. We shall strive for the triumph of justice
only by our endurance and dignity. The Kremlin uses every occasion in order
to connect the Chechens with international terrorism, its own creation. It
is our task not to give them any occasion.
I express my sincere condolences to all the relatives of the killed, as well
as to the entire Chechen people, in connection with all our heavy losses.
May the Supreme not deprive us of his mercy!
President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, A. Maskhadov, 27.12.02