MOSCOW -- The police came for Akhmed Arsanakov within hours of the deadly explosion in Moscow's subway.

Never mind that the 52-year-old refugee from Chechnya, a former boss in the Soviet Construction Ministry, had already answered their queries many times before. Never mind that they had already hauled him down to the station four times in the past to take his fingerprints.

"We have to do it," he said they told him when he demanded to know why a fifth set of his fingerprints was necessary. "To show we are working after the terrorist attack."

In hiding now, he refuses to answer the door or the telephone; three times since he went to the police station last Sunday they have come back for him. "Why would they think I had anything to do with this terrorist act? I'm a refugee, but for them it's not important. They just need to find a Chechen."

For Arsanakov and other Chechens living in Moscow, the Feb. 6 rush- hour blast attributed to Chechen rebels quickly reverberated on them, a backlash they say has become a drearily familiar ritual after nearly a decade of on-again, off-again war in the southern republic and a series of Chechen-linked attacks here in the capital. "It's a new wave, a new campaign that's been started," said Yelena Burtina of Civic Assistance, a human rights group that aids refugees.

But this time the backlash has been accompanied not only by alleged police harassment of ordinary Chechens, widespread document checks and racist taunts but also by unusually harsh rhetoric from several politicians suggesting that Chechens as a group should be punished.

Dmitri Rogozin, a leader of the new, nationalist Motherland bloc in parliament, demanded a state of emergency be implemented in Moscow hours after the explosion that killed at least 41 commuters and wounded more than 200 others. Chechens, he said, are the "enemy" within, "an ethnic criminal community that evidently supports the terrorists coming to Moscow, owns property in Moscow and imposes its will on the authorities."

Although he was not so blunt, Moscow's mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, quickly announced a new, punitive policy designed to crack down on "illegal migrants" living in Moscow without registration documents -- a Soviet holdover that is technically unconstitutional but is still enforced by the city authorities. Such residency permits remain extremely difficult to obtain for many Chechens and other ethnic minorities from the Northern Caucasus.

"It's obvious that there is a tendency of Chechenophobia now that is developing very rapidly among Muscovites," said Shamil Beno, a Chechen political activist here. "People are very worried that pogroms, massacres are possible now, much more so than before."

Every day since the attack on the subway, Beno has fielded reports of backlash -- a friend who witnessed a young Chechen man being beaten on the outskirts of Moscow by a group that included two uniformed police officers, his own son stopped hours after the explosion by the police and forced to take off his shoes and stand barefoot in the snow.

He blames statements by politicians such as Rogozin for inflaming the situation. "Such politicians are committing a crime and that's a crime against the Russian public -- they are creating a situation of intolerance," said Beno, who runs a Chechen aid foundation.

No matter how old they are, how prominent their work or how long they have lived in Moscow, several Chechens said in interviews this week that they knew that the fallout from the terrorist attack would somehow reach them.

After the explosion the police even knocked on the door of Abdullah Khamzayev, a 66-year-old lawyer who is one of Russia's best-known Chechen figures. Khamzayev was hospitalized for pneumonia when it occurred. He obtained permission to go home the next day for a brief visit with his wife and found a police officer at his door soon after.

The officer, Khamzayev said by telephone this week from the hospital, produced a detailed questionnaire that he asked Khamzayev to fill out. "He said he felt really confused and embarrassed but there was an order to visit all Chechens living in Moscow," Khamzayev recalled the officer telling him. The questionnaire demanded extensive information about all members of Khamzayev's family, in Moscow and in Chechnya -- everything from where they lived and worked to how often they visited him.

Outraged, Khamzayev proceeded to cite chapter and verse on the illegalities of such a questionnaire under Russian law. He refused to cooperate.

"I am a famous and respected person and they even came to me," he said, "so you can imagine what's going on with just ordinary people. They catch us in accordance with our nationality."

Other ethnic groups also complain that they are subject to retribution from Russians who do not distinguish among darker-skinned people from the Caucasus and Central Asia. In St. Petersburg, a 9- year-old Tajik girl was murdered Monday by a gang of teenagers who stabbed her 11 times in the courtyard of an apartment building. The attack had no known link to the Moscow explosion but came just days later and fueled fears of ethnic hate crimes.

"This hatred is felt everywhere in Moscow," said an Armenian resident of the city, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The man said he was chased and beaten by four young men as he switched subway lines last weekend -- an attack he said he immediately linked to the subway explosion of the day before.

"Right after the Metro explosion, the police said to everyone they were looking for a person of Caucasian nationality. That was like a sign, a signal to everyone. To them, it doesn't matter that I'm not Chechen, that I'm not Muslim," he said. It was the third time in recent years he has been assaulted, including once when he and his 10- year-old daughter were set upon in a suburban train by a group of young men.

Ever since the war in Chechnya broke out in 1994, human rights groups have documented allegations of police misconduct and a rising tide of street violence targeted at Moscow's large population of ethnic Chechens and other Caucasians. The October 2002 theater siege in Moscow, which resulted in the deaths of 129 hostages, set off an especially "intense police crackdown and widespread discrimination," according to Human Rights Watch. Hundreds were subjected to arbitrary detention in mass roundups, the group found, and many Chechens living here complained of police efforts to plant drugs or other incriminating evidence on them. Others found it impossible to renew their Moscow registration permits or had their jobs threatened.

"This has become the standard now that most people from the North Caucasus have to go through after every terrorist act in Moscow," said Burtina of Civic Assistance.

She saw it happen herself with Arsanakov, the Chechen refugee taken in for his fifth fingerprinting after the subway attack. He is a friend, and she allowed him to register in her apartment so he could live and work legally in the city. Over the weekend, she was there when the police came for him.

But a spokesman for the Moscow office of the pro-Russian administration in Chechnya said that widespread police abuses did not occur after last week's subway attack, unlike the mass roundups and deportations following the theater siege.

"This time, the terrorist act did not cause condemning of the entire Chechen people in Moscow," said the spokesman, Eddy Isayev. "The militia handled the situation much better than certain politicians like Rogozin, for example. . . . It's high time they understand you cannot blame Chechen people for all terrorist acts."

February 15th 2004 · Prague Watchdog

Nearly 400 homeless children in Grozny

Timur Aliyev, North Caucasus – About 400 children were officiallyregistered as homeless in the Chechen capital of Grozny last year,according to information presented on February 13 at a meeting of theMunicipal Youth Commission.

“Although more than 300 were placed with foster families, sixty fiveorphans are still homeless,” said Musa Dukayev, head of the MunicipalDepartment for Social Policy. He added that this situation is caused bythe lack of special facilities for homeless children in the city.

“This number may seem low compared to the Russian average, but takinginto account our mentality, it’s very high. In earlier times, childrenwho lost their parents used to be looked after by their relatives; butnow this is not always possible,” said Grozny’s Deputy Mayor Akhmed Ustayev.

Based on the results of its work, the Commission will present a paper toMovsar Temirbayev, Mayor of Grozny.

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 16/2/2004

Chechen teenager detained by servicemen dies from wounds

Rustam Djakalayev, 1989, a resident of the village of Assinovskaya, was shot down by Russian servicemen in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, Ingushetia, on February 3. As reported by eye-witnesses, Niva and UAZ cars stopped in the center of the village, near a bridge across the Sunzha River. 5 gunmen in masks and camouflage jumped out of them.

They seized Djakalayev and tried to force him in one of the cars. He broke loose from the attackers grip and jumped off the bridge, escaping from the scene of his abduction. The servicemen opened fire on him from submachine guns. Djakalayev was badly wounded. The servicemen took him away in an unknown direction. In two days, Djakalayev's mother was informed that her son had died from wounds. But his body was not given to her.

Understanding that the authorities were not going to give the abducted man's dead body, residents of Assinovskaya staged a meeting demanding that Djakalayev's body be given to his relatives. The protesters blocked the Kavkaz federal route. A vice premier of the Chechen Government came to the place of the meeting in three hours. People stated the fact of the matter to him and made their demands. The vice premier promised to examine the situation and went away. Nevertheless the dead body of abducted Djakalayev has not been give to his relatives.

Source: Public organization "Chechen National Rescue Committee"

Kadyrov Talks About The Missing

The Associated Press Feb.16, 2033

GROZNY -- Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov said Monday that tracing the fate of hundreds of people who have disappeared during the war was a top concern, but skirted allegations that a militia under his son's command is behind many of the disappearances.

Speaking to foreign journalists in Grozny, Kadyrov said the disappearances "are the most painful question, and have been the most painful question since my appointment."

Before his election in October, he had been Chechnya's Moscow- appointed leader.

"I will fight today and tomorrow" to clear up the disappearances, he said.

But he said that questions about Ramzan Kadyrov's force must be directed to his son.

Fears of the younger Kadyrov's militia are cited by many of the more than 4,000 Chechen refugees living in camps in Ingushetia.

Akhmad Kadyrov dismissed those fears, saying, "In the camps they can say what they want."

Kavkaz-Center

Putin congratulates F.S.B. chief on assassination

Russian sources reported that last Saturday Putin conducted a session with the participation of Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, head of presidential administration Dmitry Medvedev, Secretary of Security Council Vladimir Rushailo, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev and acting police chief, Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliyev. Press Secretary of Russian President Alexei Gromov reported that various issues of domestic and foreign policy of the Russian state were on the agenda.

At the same time confidential sources in the Kremlin reported that Putin congratulated Patrushev on the successful terrorist operation on assassination of Ex-President of CRI Z. Yandarbiyev. The source reported that Patrushev recommended a group of terrorists who carried out the terrorist act, to Putin for awarding the medals. The group also consists of diplomatic workers of the embassy in Qatar. At least two from the group of FSB terrorists have been recommended for the highest medal of 'Hero of Russia'.

Chechen intelligence services that forwarded this information to Kavkaz Center reported that the information on Patrushev's congratulations and awarding the terrorists came from the verified channel inside the Kremlin. The channel was put into operation back during the first Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev and is still properly functioning to this day.

Zhirinovsky admits Moscow is behind terrorist act

Leader of Russian nationalists Zhirinovsky has actually admitted that the terrorist act against Ex-President of CRI Yandarbiyev was masterminded by Moscow. He said it was a 'warning for all militants'. «They're gonna keep getting shot all over the planet».

Earlier spokesman of North Caucasus Military District of the Russian Federation denied the accusations that Russian secret services are behind the terrorist act in Qatar. The Chechen side earlier stated that the assassination of Ex-President of CRI was perpetrated by the Kremlin regime.

Kavkaz-Center News

2004-02-14

2004-02-17 11:19    

FSB says suicide bomber caused explosion in Moscow metro

MOSCOW, February 17th, 2004 (RIA Novosti correspondent) -- The Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced that the explosion that killed 40 people in the Moscow metro on February 6 was caused by a suicide bomber.

"The epicenter of the explosion was located in the second carriage of the train one meter from the floor," the public relations department of the FSB told RIA Novosti.

The expert report states that an explosive device with the approximate power of 4-5 kg of TNT was detonated in the train. It is identical to the explosive used by terrorists in the 2003 explosion on a train in Yessentuki (North Caucasus).

In the past week, the FSB and the Interior Ministry have received more than 5,000 reports from citizens, 80 of which required special attention, the FSB noted.