Residents of town bordering Chechnya protest police sweep by Chechen
security forces
By ARSEN MOLLAYEV
.c The Associated Press
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) – Residents in the troubled southern Russian
region of Dagestan protested for a third day Monday, outraged after a
recent sweep by security forces who crossed over the border from
neighboring Chechnya.
Officials with the Federal Security Service said up to 200 residents
of Toturbi-Kala, a town 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the regional
capital Makhachkala, have been demonstrating against last week’s
operation conducted in the nearby border town of Khasavyurt.
More than 100 people briefly blocked a road in Toturbi-Kala on Monday,
transport police spokesman Magomed Getinomagomedov said.
The Chechen presidential security force – a paramilitary group
controlled by Chechnya’s first deputy premier, Ramzan Kadyrov – was
the primary group conducting the operation, in which at least two
Chechen security agents died. Dagestani law enforcement said the
operation was intended to arrest two alleged criminals.
The incident outraged border-town residents, many of whom fear Kadyrov
and fear more violence from war-wracked Chechnya spilling over and
destabilizing their own, often-lawless region.
Kadyrov issued a statement Sunday saying Dagestani law enforcement
allowed his forces to enter Dagestan, and that Dagestani police also
participated. He also blamed local residents in Khasavyurt for firing
on his troops.
Dagestan’s top law enforcement official, Interior Minister Adilgerei
Magomedtagirov, met with his Chechen counterpart, Ruslan Alkhanov, on
Monday to try and defuse the situation.
Speaking at a news conference in Khasavyurt, both ministers
acknowledged “shortcomings” in last week’s police operation, and
agreed to get their respective security forces to cooperate better.
In recent weeks, the Caspian Sea territory, located about 1,600
kilometers (1,000 miles) south of Moscow, has been rocked by a series
of bombings and attacks on law enforcement authorities.
04/25/05 12:51 EDT