Grozny Market Battle

VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia (AP) -- A shootout with rebels at a market in Grozny killed two police and a female bystander in a day of continuing violence in Chechnya that claimed 15 lives and injured 20, an official said Tuesday.

Two military convoys were attacked in the past day, killing five soldiers and four policeman and wounding 12, an official in the pro-Kremlin Chechen administration said on condition of anonymity. Five soldiers were killed and seven wounded as federal outposts came under fire 19 times, the official said.

December 23rd 2003 · Prague Watchdog

Rally against unification of Chechnya and Ingushetia thwarted in Nazran

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – A protest rally against the unificationof Ingushetia and Chechnya, which was scheduled for December 21 inNazran, eventually did not take place.

From early in the morning all access routes to Soglasiya Square inNazran were blocked by police units that let no cars through. In 1993thousands of people attended rallies there because of the Ingush-NorthOssetian disputes over the Prigorodny district and the republic'sseparation from Chechnya. This year, clearly as a result of thepreemptive measures, no more than ten people gathered in the square.

On the same day at 11 AM the central market in the city was evacuated.At first the staff of the Ingush Interior Ministry explained the actionby claiming a bomb had been planted in the market. According to theministry’s information, the bomb was supposed to go off at 11:30 AM.Later it was announced the bomb scare was just for practice.

Commenting on the events, Astamir Kartoyev – one of the citizens ofNazran who came to Soglasiya Square – explained: “This was a cheapattempt by the authorities not to let the rally take place. In the endthey were successful – the rally was thwarted.”

In recent years the theme of reuniting the two North Caucasus republicshas been reappearing regularly – about once every half year.Nonetheless, this issue has become particularly serious after theelection of Akhmad Kadyrov as president of the Chechen Republic. At apress conference in Moscow following his election, Kadyrov stated thatthe unification of Chechnya and Ingushetia was possible in principle inthe future.

Responding to Kadyrov's announcement, national writer ofChecheno-Ingushetia Said Chakhkiyev says: “Among both the Ingush and theChechen populations there is a simmering unrest artificially kindled bythose so-called politicians who are still not capable of coming to termswith the fact that the Republic of Ingushetia and Republic of Chechnyacame into existence.”

Chakhkiyev explains that “the idea of merging Chechnya and Ingushetiawas brought forward personally by Stalin. As a dictatorial, insidious,and cruel person he artificially brought to life the ‘divide and rule’policy.”

“The separation of the two republics was historically substantiated. Itwas an expression of the free will of the two nations. To start talkingabout their possible new reunification now, more than ten years later,is clearly another game of politicians who have absolutely no regard for the aspirations and wishes of their people,” says Chakhkiyev.