In Chechnya, the killers of the head of Council of Elders of the settlement of Bugaroy have been shot dead.

In Chechnya, a part of the band which was participating in the murder of the head of Council of Elders of the settlement of Bugaroy of the Itum-Kale district Khumid Visaitov has been liquidated. 

As reported to Interfax a source in the power structures of republic, as a result of special operation 12 to 4 fighters who participated in this atrocity on the 82-yrs old man have been destroyed.

Khumid Visaitov was shot on the night of 8 October in the courtard of his own house. Burst into the house Visaitova some armed people borke in and shot the elder from their automatic weapons and fastened to his chest a cardboard with this inscription "this going to happen to any enemy of the people".

According to the official representative of the regional operational staff Ilya Shabalkin, the fighters killed the elder as their vengeance for the successfully carried out elections in Chechnya.

WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 199, October 9, 2003.

CAUCASUS NEWS UPDATE OCTOBER 9

Kabardino-Balkaria cracks down on Islamists

Mosques are closed and worshippers arrested in the North Caucasian republic.

By Valery Khatazhukov in Nalchik

The authorities in Kabardino-Balkaria have cracked down on young Muslims in the autonomous republic, following allegations that Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev had spent time in the region fomenting trouble.

But worshippers and ordinary people say the police have behaved brutally, punishing innocent people and alienating the population at large.

Throughout September, the police closed down several mosques in the capital Nalchik and rural areas of the North Caucasian republic, and have arrested dozens of young people on suspicion of being radical Islamists.

According to the official religious institution in the republic, the Muslim Authority, around 100 people were detained, but Eldar Astemirov of the Institute of Islamic Studies puts the figure at more than 150.

On October 3, this reporter met a group of worshippers, who had been released from the local remand prison the day before, at a mosque in Nalchik.

Valery Gutov, 38, assistant to the mosque's imam, or prayer leader, told IWPR: "Armed police came for us after evening prayers on September 14. At the police station, they lined us up facing against a wall and told us to put our hands behind our heads. Then some people wearing masks started beating us with truncheons and the butts of their AK-47s."

"Then they made us sign a piece of paper saying we had resisted arrest. They proceeded to take us, in small groups, to the magistrates' court at Nogmova Street. We were hoping to complain to the judge, but we never got to meet him. They just handed his decision, sentencing each of us to 10 days in jail for resisting the police."

Three of the group, Anatoly Tukov, Anatoly Apikov and Anzor Getajeev, who worked as night watchmen and a carpenter, were fired from their jobs.

Oleg Kardanov, 19, an unemployed man said, "They beat me badly. My kidneys are still hurting. I met this guy from Baksan at the remand prison - they had cut his hair to form a cross on his head. His name is Islam. I couldn't understand why they'd done this. My parents aren't letting me attend the mosque anymore."

About 10 people are still in prison in Nalchik. The rest have been released.

When Kabardino-Balkaria's interior minister, Khachim Shogenov, met the republic's Muslim leaders on October 2, he justified the arrests by referring to a shootout with suspected Islamic militants in the village of Baksan in August.

"We have grounds to believe that some of the detainees could have played a part in the events that happened at Baksan at the end of August," he said, although he failed to provide any more detail about the alleged connection.

The episode occurred on August 24, when police besieged a group of armed people in a private house at Baksan. Following several hours of shooting, one of the people inside the house was killed and four others escaped.

Rumours quickly spread that one of the men in the house had been the famous Chechen warlord Basayev. Many observers dismissed the rumours. Police would neither confirm or deny it and a source at the interior ministry, who asked not to be named, told IWPR, "A certain Tamerlan Shogenov, held on suspicion of terrorist links, has testified that Basaev was in fact in Baksan. We have reason to believe he had spent a month and a half there."

All subsequent attempts to track down the mysterious participants in the Baksan shootout have failed, although the entire republican police force was involved, assisted by a few military units.

Then, at the beginning of September, the authorities shut down several mosques in the Chegem district and the village of Dugulubgei in Baksan district. Some mosques have been ordered not to admit worshippers at any time except Friday prayers.

At an interior ministry briefing on September 5, the head of the unit that combats organised crime, Fuad Shurdumov, said, "Don't get us wrong. We don't want to interfere with the rights of worshippers, but we have grounds to believe some of the people coming to the mosques could be a real threat to the Muslims themselves.

Shurdumov warned of the spread of radical Islam, commonly called Wahhabism, "It's our duty to protect people. Wahhabism has put down deep roots in this republic. It pains me to admit that we have lost the propaganda war for the hearts and minds of our young people."

This was not enough for the mufti of Kabardino-Balkaria, Anas Pshikhachev, who told the Cherkess-language service of Radio Liberty, "We are outraged by the actions of the police who - in a blatant violation of the law - have closed down several mosques. It is not impossible that the police may have something on some of our parishioners - in most cases, former parishioners - but what do the mosques have to do with any of this?"

The crackdown has angered a lot of ordinary people, who say the police have over-reacted.

"My 20-year-old son was detained a week ago," said Aminat Kardanova. "I've heard he's been brutally beaten. He's only a student. He prays and only goes to the mosque occasionally. If he can't practice Islam, what is there for him to do - walk the streets or take drugs?"

Musa Mukozhev, a popular Islamic youth leader in the republic who also serves as an imam, warned that his supporters would not let the matter rest.

"We are going to defend ourselves, but only by any lawful means available to us," he said. "Following medical examinations, all the victims are going to file complaints with the prosecutor's office. I truly hope that the president of our republic, as guarantor of our constitution, will not leave this situation unattended, and will take all the steps necessary to protect us from unchecked police brutality."

Kabardino-Balkaria is a small republic where news travels fast. Most of the closed mosques have now reopened. But the arrests have stirred up public opinion, and the tension has been heightened by a lack of credible information about what actually happened. Meanwhile, the republic's president, Valery Kokov, has said nothing to make the situation clearer.

Valery Khatazhukov is the executive director of Kabardino-Balkaria's Republican Human Rights Centre in Nalchik.

11 October 2003

Chechen rebel web site says Russian troops capturing civilians

The press centre of the Chechen National Salvation Committee says that on 7 October 2003, Russian occupiers captured and took away four Chechen muhajirs [migrants] in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in Ingushetia's Sunzhenskiy District. Eyewitnesses say that the young people were kidnapped in Ulitsa Engelsa [Engels Street] by occupiers who arrived on a Ural truck. According to some information, two of the young people were wounded at the moment of capture. All four were shoved into the boot of the Ural vehicle and taken away. The surnames of the kidnapped people are being clarified. There is information that the young people lived in a private flat in Ulitsa Engelsa. According to local residents, Russian occupiers and representatives of puppet structures carried out a "clearance operation" in the village of Sernovodsk in Chechnya's Sunzhenskiy District on 2 October 2003. As a result, they detained and took a resident of Sernovodsk, Bakhayev, to an unknown location. It is unknown why he was detained. According to unconfirmed information, Bakhayev was released the next day after being tortured. An extremely tense and explosive situation has developed lately in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. The republic's population expects large-scale punitive operations. Rumours about this recently started to spread like wildfire on Chechen territory. According to the republic's population, [Chechen pro-Moscow leader Akhmat] Kadyrov's latest appearance on local television added fuel to the fire. He said it was necessary to carry out large-scale "clearance operations" throughout Chechnya with the aim of neutralizing resistance from mojahedin and their assistants. Now Chechnya's civilian population is waiting with fear for Kadyrov to start "his special measures to introduce order", being totally aware of, and apprehensive about, what it might cause.

[AIW [Asia Africa Intelligence Wire]]

Chechen Foreign Minister’s Urgent statement on reportedly planned extradition of a Chechen journalist

October 12, 2003

Chechen and foreign media reported yesterday that deputy–editor of the Chechen Times and human rights activist Mr. Said-Magomed Khachukaev, who had asked for a political asylum in Belgium, is currently held in Belgian custody and expected to be deported to Russia at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.

As the Russian state continues to target Chechen independent journalists and human rights activists on the territory of Chechnya and Russia, subjecting them to illegal imprisonment, torture and extra-judicial executions, we strongly believe that the reportedly planned deportation of Mr. Said-Magomed Khachukaev to Russia should not take place. We believe that, if deported to Russia, Mr. Said-Magomed Khachukaev, as any other outspoken Chechen critic of the Russian genocidal policy in Chechnya, will inevitably face torture and violent death at the hands of the Russian state.

We therefore urge relevant Belgian authorities to grant a temporary protection to Mr. Said-Magomed Khachukaev and to all other Chechens whom Russian genocidal policies have forced to seek refuge and shelter in Belgium.

We also urge all foreign governments and human rights organizations around the world to devote time and effort to prevent and stop any extradition of ethnic Chechens to Russia. In the face of the continuing Russian state-sponsored deliberate and collective war crimes and crimes against humanity in Chechnya, granting a temporary protection to ethnic Chechens that, unlike the quarter of million Chechen civilians that have been brutally murdered by the Russian authorities in Chechnya since 1994, managed to escape Russian terror, death squads and concentration camps, is the least the international community can and must do.

Signed:

Ilyas AkhmadovForeign Minister

ministry@chechnya-mfa.infowww.chechnya-mfa.info