| The Jamestown Foundation
Friday, October 22 -- Volume 1, Issue 111 EURASIA DAILY MONITOR Karachaevo-Cherkessia hit by criminal violence The North Caucasus republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia has been buffeted by instability this week. Over three successive days, a group of several hundred distraught relatives and friends of seven people who disappeared earlier this month and are believed to have been murdered held demonstrations in Cherkessk, the republic's capital. The protests culminated yesterday (October 21) with the demonstrators storming the republic's government headquarters and bursting into the office of Karachaevo-Cherkessia's president, Mustafa Batdyev. The president, depending on the report, either was not in his office at the time or escaped through a back door (Grani.ru, Newsru.com, October 21). The seven people who disappeared on the night of October 10-11 were shareholders in the Kavkaztsement cement factory, one of the republic's most profitable enterprises, and include a deputy in the republic's legislature, Rasul Bogatyrev. According to their relatives, they disappeared near a dacha owned by the factory's director, Ali Kaitov, who is a son-in-law of President Batdyev, and that automatic gunfire was heard in the area immediately after their disappearance. Police who subsequently searched the area found a Saiga semi-automatic combat shotgun, shell casings from an automatic weapon, and a cassette with footage from a surveillance camera. No bodies, however, were found (Moscow Times, October 22; Newsru.com, October 21). Interfax reported on October 21 that three off-duty police officers working as security guards and two employees of a private security firm had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the crime. According to the news agency, the authorities are searching for another six suspects, including three active-duty republican Interior Ministry employees and Ali Kaitov. Nikolai Shepel, deputy prosecutor general for the Southern Federal District, said that investigators are now working on the assumption that the murders were the result of a "property conflict" among Kavkaztsement's shareholders. President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, arrived in Cherkessk late yesterday (October 21) and together with Batdyev met with the relatives of the missing Kavkaztsement shareholders. Kozak promised a "full-scale and comprehensive" investigation and asked them not to interfere with the probe or continue to hold demonstrations. "We all understand your grief; accept my sympathy," Kozak said. "I promise that we will do everything to find the missing lads. I only fear that it will be their bodies" (Lenta.ru, October 22). The relatives of the missing Kavkaztsement shareholders, meanwhile, wrote a letter to President Putin stating that considering the dacha near which their sons disappeared belonged to the son-in-law of the republic's president, they were compelled to express "categorical distrust in both the law-enforcement organs and the organs of state power of Karachaevo-Cherkessia" in investigating this case. The relatives asked the Russian president to dispatch a team made up of investigators from the federal Prosecutor General's Office, Federal Security Service, and Interior Ministry. "Otherwise we will be forced to appeal directly to the people and our relatives for help," they wrote (Newsru.com, October 21). Kozak, it should be noted, told the relatives when he met with them that the Prosecutor General's Office had taken over the investigation and that investigators from Moscow were already on the ground in the republic (Lenta.ru, October 22). On October 18, with tensions already rising because of the disappearances, Karachaevo-Cherkessia's deputy prime minister, Ansar Tebuyev, was murdered in a drive-by shooting in the republic's capital. President Batdyev addressed the republic's citizens about the murder, noting that Tebuyev had come under pressure from organized crime groups. The president also said that more than 200 people had been murdered and 500 had gone missing in the republic over the past few years. Some local officials believe Tebuyev may have been killed as a result of the ongoing turf wars between local crime groups, while others believe that local Islamic militants angered by Tebuyev's calls to crack down on them may have been behind his murder (ISN Security Watch, October 18). In August, Russia's Interior Ministry brought additional troops from other parts of southern Russia into Karachaevo-Cherkessia as part of an effort to prevent terrorism in the republic. The previous month, President Batdyev had issued a decree establishing a "Frontier Zone" that includes Karachayevsk, a mountainous region mostly populated by the Karachai ethnic minority and known to be a stronghold of Islamic and separatist groups (see EDM, August 9). In June, insurgents connected to Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basaev conducted a large- scale armed raid nearby in Ingushetia. Meanwhile, Boris Karnaukhov, the deputy chief of the Prosecutor General's Office department for the North Caucasus, said that investigators are not linking the disappearance of the seven Kavkaztsement shareholders and the murder of Ansar Tebuyev. "The two criminal cases are being investigated separately," Karnaukhov said (Itar-Tass, October 21). --Charles Gurin http://lenta.ru/vojna/2004/10/21/cherkessk/ (my quick tr) Son-in-law of Karachayevo-Cherkessia president is a suspect in the disapperance of seven people. Son-in law of president Karachayevo-Cherkessia Ali Kaitov and five more suspects have been put on the wanted list in the case of disappearance of seven people, including deputy of the republic's Parliament - Rusul Bogatyrev. In the course of the investigation of this case, five suspects - policemen and workers of a certain security guard company were detained on Thursday, - reports Prime- Tass with reference to the Deputy Department Chief of Attorney General's Office RF in North Caucasus Boris Karkaukhov. On the official site of Karachayevo-Cherkessia a communique of the press-service of the President of republic Mustafa Batdyev was published, in which the arrest of six of those suspects has been reported. According to the press- service, a warrant for the arrest of one more person was issued. Criminal case on the fact of disappearance of seven Cherkessk inhabitants has been opened. In the Attorney General's Office they reported to the Intefax agency that the main version of crime deals with conflict of the division of property among the shareholders of joint stock company [OAO] "Kavkazcement". Ali Kaitov is the head of this company. Seven inhabitants of Cherkessk have vanished on the night of 11 October near buldings of the cement plant. Their relatives reported that those disappeared were next to Kaitov's dacha [villa] where submachine gun fire was heard at that time for half-hour. The Attorney General's Office confirmed that Kaitov was put on the wanted list, when people disappeared directly near his dacha. In connection with this disappearance of seven people, a special session of Karachayevo-Cherkessia's parliament has been opened. Deputies already created their own commission for for investigating this case. Meanwhile, several hundred people broke in into the parliament building - reports agency REGNUM. At the information-analytical department of president Karachayevo- Cherkessia they reported that the relatives of those disappeared people demand resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs of republic Aleksandr Obukhov. According to other reports , they want dismissal of president Batdyev. On Monday morning, in the center of Cherkessk vice-premier of the republic - Ansar Tebuyev was killed. They fired at his vehicle, from close distance, from submachine guns. In the Attorney General's Office they reported that the case about disappearance of seven inhabitants of Cherkessk is investigated separately from the case of *Tebuyev's murder. According to Novaya Gazeta possibly there's some link between these two cases. M.L. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, October 22, 2004. Page 2. Government Building Seized in Cherkessk The Moscow Times Relatives and friends of seven people who went missing earlier this month in Karachayevo-Cherkessia stormed the republic's government building on Thursday and said they would not leave until authorities provide some indication about the whereabouts of the seven. Several hundred angry people overwhelmed the guards and seized the building in central Cherkessk, the republic's capital, on Thursday afternoon, news agencies and television reported. They said the missing seven had been kidnapped and accused local authorities of assisting in a cover-up. Some called on acting Karachayevo-Cherkes President Mustafa Badtyev to resign. The seven, who disappeared Oct. 10, are all shareholders of a local chemical plant and include a deputy in the republic's legislature, Rasul Bogatyrev. Deputy Prosecutor Nikolai Shepel said in Rostov-on-Don on Thursday that he believed the case was connected to a property dispute and that three suspects have been detained, Interfax reported. He sent a team to Karachayevo-Cherkessia to investigate. Local police said the suspects were guards at the dacha of Badtyev's son-in-law Ali Kaitov and that they are looking for Kaitov, Interfax reported. Earlier Thursday, relatives broke into Kaitov's dacha and said they found traces of blood and spent gun cartridges. Suspected Caucasus murders spark new Kremlin alarm 22 Oct 2004 13:50:35 GMT Source: Reuters By Tom Miles CHERKESSK, Russia, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The disappearance and probable murder of seven businessmen in a tale of high-level corruption and big money has raised Kremlin fears of spreading turmoil across Russia's seething Caucasus. The seven locals were presumed dead after a business meeting at the country house of magnate Ali Kaitov, son-in-law of the leader of Karachayevo-Cherkessia region, ended in what residents said was a shootout. Karachayevo-Cherkessia is Muslim region west of rebel Chechnya and North Ossetia, where more than 330 people were killed last month after gunmen demanding Chechen independence seized a school. Putin has said the rebels' aim was to sow discord in an area with longstanding ethnic grievances. Dmitry Kozak, Putin's troubleshooter in southern Russia, who rushed to the region, vowed to get to the bottom of the affair. "This case will be fully pursued. Anyone who organised this crime ... those guilty directly or indirectly in a political or legal sense will be punished," he told a public meeting. "You have my complete guarantee on this," he said in remarks broadcast on television. Property disputes have abounded since the 1990s sell-offs of Russian industry, and raids by bailiffs and armed occupation of industrial sites are common. But the Karachayevo-Cherkessia incident was unusually brutal even by post-Soviet standards. Television showed men's relatives, mostly middle-aged women in head scarves, seizing government headquarters in the capital Cherkessk this week to demand action on the case. DACHA MEETING News reports said the seven went to Kaitov's "dacha" country house late on Oct. 10 to challenge his control over a chemical plant, secured in a series of share transactions. Residents said shooting erupted behind a high fence and the men, including a member of the local assembly, were never seen again. A search of the grounds several days later turned up ammunition cartridges, traces of blood and bullet holes. Investigators said the seven were almost certainly dead. Seven suspects, police and private security guards, had been detained. The region's deputy prime minister was killed this week in what some reports said might have been a reprisal for the suspected killings. Regional president Mustafa Batdiyev, absent from view for several days, met protesters on Thursday in his office. The local assembly appealed to Putin to help deal with the case. Putin has seized on the Beslan bloodbath to call for sweeping changes to local government, including proposals to end elections for regional governors and appoint them instead. Kozak was named last month to oversee efforts against Chechen separatists and keep violence out of other areas. People in the region had feared the Beslan killings could rekindle clashes between rival communities. Karachayevo-Cherkessia has largely been spared the violence which has gripped regions further east, though tensions between its two main ethnic groups have boiled over in local elections 21.10.2004 Beslan terrorist mother evicted from her home UKRAINE, Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region. (Own corr.) Members of the human rights organisation Alternativa have described the decision of village elders in the North Ossetian village of Elkhotovo to evict the mother of a terrorist as “inquisitorial and pro-Kremlin”. The mother’s son had been involved in the hostage drama at the school in Beslan at the beginning of September this year. Alexandra Samoshkina lived for many years in the Ukraine. In the 1980’s she moved to North Ossetia, working in a hospital. Later she took Russian citizenship. Her son Vladimir Khodov, on the other hand, stayed in the Ukrainian village of Berdyansk, only moving to the North Caucasus in 2000. Taking on the pseudonym Abdullah, he joined the rebels who took over the school, hoping this would bring “freedom and independence” to Chechnya. Now Samoshkina has been compulsorily forced from her home. The members of Alternativa expressed the opinion that the mother should not have to answer for the deeds of her grown-up son. Translated by Michael Garrood PRIMA News Agency [2004-10-20-Rus-37] October 21st 2004 · Prague Watchdog Mop-up in refugee camp Rassvyet Ruslan Isayev, North Caucasus – A mopping-up operation was carried out on Wednesday in the Chechen refugee camp Rassvyet, located in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya in the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia. According to camp residents, security forces arrested two refugees: a resident from Urus-Martan and another from the village of Sernovodsk. In addition, at least three refugees who tried to stop the chaos created by the soldiers and the police were beaten up, including a one-legged disabled man. His sister was also beaten when she pleaded for her brother. Claiming to search for weapons and ammunition, soldiers forced local residents to demolish the adobe wall of an outhouse and remove everything from inside. Nothing was found, however. When the soldiers left the camp, they promised to return in the evening. Instead, a representative of the Ingush Migration Service arrived. He ordered the camp's electricity supply to be cut off and notified the refugees that the gas was also to be disconnected. One hundred and 84 people kidnapped in Chechnya this year 22.10.2004, 18.14 GROZNY, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - Chechen law enforcers have registered 184 cases of kidnappings in the republic since January 1, 2004. This information was voiced at the session of the Chechen Interior Ministry Board devoted to summing up the results of the ministry's work in the first nine months of this year. Chechen police registered 362 cases of abduction during the same period of time last year. No cases of kidnapping have been registered in the republic's Shadow (?), Shali, Itum-Kale and Nozhay-Yurt districts since the beginning of this year. However, Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said at the Ministry Board session on Friday, "We are as much concerned as before over the abductions of people and the facts of violation of civil rights and freedoms in the republic; we are obliged to exert maximum efforts to root out this shameful phenomenon." He said, "Common Chechen citizens' sentiments are the main index of the work done by the Interior Ministry and other ministries and departments." "We have all we need to achieve stabilization in the republic, and we shall exert every effort to attain the objective," the president said. Over 500 Russian Interior Ministry workers killed and wounded in Chechnya in 2004 GROZNY. Oct 22 (Interfax) - A total of 532 Russian Interior Ministry personnel have been killed and wounded in Chechnya since the start of the year, Oleg Khotin, head of the provisional group of the ministry's division in Chechnya, told a meeting of senior Chechen Interior Ministry officials in Grozny on Friday. Akhmed Dakayev, head of the Chechen ministry's headquarters, said at the same meeting that 117 members of the ministry's personnel had been killed in 2004. Of that number, 104 died in the line of duty and 13 in skirmishes, bombings and other criminal attacks, he said. Over that period, 190 employees of the ministry have been wounded, Dakayev said. Fifty-two terror attacks have been solved in that period. Officers of the economic crime fighting unit have solved 1,197 economic crimes, nearly 10% more than last year, Dakayev said. The number of cases sent to courts is 20.1% more than in the same period last year, he said. Over 24 kilograms of narcotic drugs have been seized, Dakayev said. Patrol and checkpoint service officers have solved 157 crimes and detained 17 individuals on the wanted list and thwarted 23,600 administrative offenses, he said. Oct 22 2004 4:55PM Over 500 soldiers missing in Chechnya MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) - An estimated 549 soldiers and Interior Ministry officials are still missing in Chechnya, Mariya Fedulova, a member of the presidential commission on the search for and exchange of missing soldiers, told Interfax on Friday. "In the course of six years, a group of officers from the Defense Ministry and other law enforcement agencies worked with the commission on searching for people missing in Chechnya. The fate of over 300 dead soldiers has been determined over that period of time," she said. "This group has now been dissolved as part of the administrative reform. Officers who worked on that commission will return to their permanent service locations," Fedulova said. The remains of another 300 soldiers are currently undergoing identification, Fedulova said. "There is a large amount of work: last year, the bodies of only 17 people were exhumed, and this year only six bodies have been exhumed," she said. |