from the September 14, 2007 edition –

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Rising violence in Russia’s Ingushetia

Faced with insurgency, federal forces are cracking down in the
northern Caucasus republic.

By Fred Weir | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Moscow

Violence is spiking in Russia’s southern republic of Ingushetia, as
almost daily attacks against police, officials, and ethnically
non-Ingush residents have some experts fearful that the tiny region
could quickly destabilize.

Through two post-Soviet wars between Russian forces and separatists in
neighboring Chechnya, Ingushetia has remained loyal to Moscow. But
now, assaults against federal forces in the republic are on the rise.

A month ago Moscow tripled its security forces in Ingushetia in
response to a wave of attacks by insurgents that hit the motorcade of
President Murat Zyazikov, a local headquarters of Russia’s FSB
security service, and a column of Russian troops. Mr. Zyazikov, a
former FSB general, escaped unharmed, but a top aide and several
soldiers were killed. In response, federal forces have launched a
security crackdown that some experts warn could precipitate mass
rebellion.

"What makes this situation so dangerous is that the federal forces
… are killing randomly and calling the victims terrorists," says
Yulia Latynina, one of the few investigative journalists still
reporting on the northern Caucasus. "An uprising is drawing near."

The Moscow-based international human rights group Memorial, nominated
for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, says at least 400 people
disappeared without a trace in Ingushetia between 2002 and 2006, and
the pace of repression has since accelerated. "How can we talk about
human rights if security forces can burst into private houses at night
and seize peaceful people, and can stop a person at night on a street
to beat or even to kill without ever presenting any identification
document or without presenting any charges?" says Memorial activist
Usam Baisayev, reached by phone in Nazran, Ingushetia.

One eyewitness account in an August report by Memorial detailed such
treatment after the FSB office was attacked. Evloev Yakhya, a resident
of Ali-Yurt, said men in camouflage broke into his house at dawn,
dragged his wife from the bathroom at gunpoint, and forced him to the
floor, kicking him. "They shouted, ‘You killed our guys … shooting
came from your village … you will pay for it," he recounted. "They
did not even look into my passport. They threw it on the ground."

When asked about human rights abuses in Ingushetia, Alexei Volkov, a
deputy in the State Duma and a member of the Security Committee, told
the Monitor, "I know nothing about that…. Nobody has complained to
the Duma."

Anonymous gunmen have carried out at least four attacks against
non-Ingush families and shepherds in the past two months, which
Russian media blame on Arab jihadists trying to trigger an even
tougher security response from Moscow. The Moscow daily Vremya
Novostei, quoting intelligence sources, reported this week that Al
Qaeda emissaries are active in Ingushetia, training insurgents and
paying up to $5,000 per attack. Other experts say it’s likely that
international jihadists are exploiting the situation, but that they
are not driving it.

"Our special services like to make declarations about ties between the
organizers of some of these actions and global terrorism," says Andrei
Soldatov, editor of the online journal Agentura.ru, which monitors the
secret services. "But the real roots of the problems in Ingushetia are
local."

Russian authorities blame the republic’s destabilization on "outside
forces," including an armed incursion led by Chechen rebel warlord
Doku Umarov. "I believe these provocative actions constitute an
attempt by certain forces in Russia and abroad to turn Ingushetia into
a scene for reaching some of their narrow objectives," Ingush
president Zyazikov told the independent Interfax agency last
week. "Someone is very unhappy that Ingushetia is on the road to
development."

But others blame Moscow for replacing Ingushetia’s popular leader,
Ruslan Aushev, with Zyazikov in dubious 2002 elections. "Zyazikov,
compared to Ingushetia’s previous leader, is rooted in Moscow, not
Ingushetia," says Alexander Iskanderyan, director of the independent
Center for Caucasian Studies in Yerevan, Armenia. "He has no local
authority."

Chechnya appears to have been pacified under Kremlin-appointed
president Ramzan Kadyrov, whom experts say has imposed a harsh but
predictable order. Last week Mr. Kadyrov offered to help Ingushetia
restore peace.

"Kadyrov is running Chechnya better than the federal forces are
running Ingushetia," says Ms. Latynina. "At least he kills with
purpose, not randomly." She adds that Moscow, increasingly fearful of
Kadyrov’s growing power in Chechnya, is unlikely to give him a free
hand to intervene in Ingushetia.

But the crisis in Ingushetia is growing fast, and the Kremlin’s
dilemma along with it.

"The difference between Chechnya and Ingushetia is that Chechnya
wanted to separate from Russian while Ingushetia was an absolutely
pro-Russian republic," says Mr. Baisayev. "But [today] the very same
people who were loyal to Russia under Aushev’ s rule are now ready to
take to arms and struggle against Russia.

Copyright © 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.