THE NIS OBSERVED: AN ANALYTICAL
REVIEW
(Volume VIII, No. 11, 10 July 2003)
CHECHNYA
Situation deteriorating
Two events this weekend demonstrate that security in Russia is deteriorating.
Two suicide bombers in Moscow claimed at least 13 lives when they detonated explosives
outside a rock festival on 5 July. On the same day an AFP reporter was kidnapped
in Ingushetia.
These events show that the war has failed to attain the two goals it was launched
ostensibly to accomplish: to stop terrorism and to put an end to the hostage trade.
Four years into the war, terrorists and kidnappers have only expanded their theater
of operations.
On 12 August 2002 Arjan Erkel, an MSF volunteer was abducted in Makhachkala and
remains missing. In March 2003 Ibrahim Zayzikov, a humanitarian relief
worker with the Czech foundation, People in Need, was abducted in Ingushetia.
In May, Russian authorities assured MSF that Arjan Erkel is alive, but "where
he is being held, who abducted him and for what reason remains a mystery."
According to MSF, the unwillingness of the Russian government to tackle the case
amounts to
"the obstruction of Arjan's release." (MSF press releases 07 Mar and 12 May 03).
At present, there are no foreign humanitarian aid workers in Chechnya and increasingly
Ingushetia too is becoming off-limits to foreign staff. Speaking to RFE/RL
on June 20, Gabriel Trujillo, head of the MSF mission to Chechnya and Ingushetia
and Patrice Page, the MSF liaison to the United Nations, recounted how the federal
and Ingush authorities
obstruct their efforts, making it impossible for international staff to conduct
visits to Chechnya and forcing the MSF to relocate its mission from Nazran to
Nalchik. ("MSF: No Right to Refuge for Chechens," RFE/RL 25 Jun 03) The
"remote control" from Nalchik indicates that the Chechen war is particularly dangerous
for foreigners even in comparison with Africa, where recent wars have claimed
millions of lives. "I've worked in Sudan and Liberia, our experts were there;
why in this war zone are we not able to work? We know how to work in a war
zone," said Page.