Chechens fearful of Kremlin's men

By Dmitry Sourtsev

AFP - 16 September 2003

GROZNY: The upcoming elections in Chechnya have brought a new fear into the lives of civilians in the Russian republic battered by four years of war - "Kadyrov's men."

They are the armed supporters of Akhmad Kadyrov, whom the Kremlin appointed as head of Chechnya's administration nearly three years ago and who this week became the only candidate with a realistic chance of winning an October 7 presidential poll.

Residents in Chechnya say the "Kadyrovtsy" have been riding around the republic and terrorizing the population into voting for their boss, a mufti and former rebel leader.

If before locals blamed Russian troops, the "federals" for most of the disappearances and killings among civilians in Chechnya, today they say: "either the federals or Kadyrovtsy."

"People disappear at three, four o'clock in the morning," said 38-year-old Rizvan, who has lived through both wars in Grozny. "No one knows where they go. No one knows who has taken them."

Clad in camouflage fatigues and armed with Kalashnikovs, "Kadyrov's men" move around freely in checkpost-filled Chechnya.

When the campaign for the presidential election officially kicked off more than a week ago, Kadyrov posters suddenly appeared on nearly all buses inside the republic.

"People armed to the teeth offered for me to put up the poster - if you want to ride in peace, put up the poster, they said," a bus driver on the outskirts of Grozny said. "Of course I can take it down, but why risk it."

Said another bus driver: "They asked nicely. If you want, you can refuse, they said. But you know, I have no great desire to explain to armed men why I don't support him (Kadyrov), so I just put it up."

Kadyrov's bearded square visage dominates not only bus windows in Chechnya - he gazes out from posters in markets, from the walls of the bullet-pocked apartment blocks in Grozny and from nearly all of the republic's newspapers.

His media dominance was sealed in the beginning of September, after the head of Chechnya's press ministry was effectively fired after he said he would not support Kadyrov in the election. And his chance of winning the election shot up this week, after the last two serious contenders either dropped out of or were removed from the race, leaving in tatters the
already-tenuous legitimacy of the poll.

AFP