World

No hiding place for Moscow’s Chechen traitors

Crescent International

Jumada' al-Akhirah 28, 14222001-09-16

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Ahmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-appointed head of Chechnya’s puppet administration, members of his cabinet and local government chiefs gathered on September 3 for an official meeting at the government’s headquarters in Johar-Gala (Grozny), where they were protected by Russian troops and Chechen policemen. But any illusions of safety that they entertained were shattered when a bomb exploded one floor below the room where they were meeting; one woman was killed and five people were wounded, according to initial reports. The number of casualties could actually be much higher, as reports on attacks by Chechen fighters are routinely underplayed both by Moscow and by its puppet-regime in Johar-Gala. But the mere fact that Chechen mujahideen have penetrated the closely-guarded government headquarters is sufficient both to serve notice on Kadyrov and his colleagues that there can be no hiding-place for traitors, and to invalidate Russia’s claims that Johar-Gala, indeed the whole of Chechnya, is under full government control.

The explosion was so strong that the whole building shook. It sprayed shards of glass from windows of the four-storey building, and blew out doors. Major General Sergei Kizyun, the commandant of Chechnya, was quoted by Interfax newsagency as saying that the force of the blast was equivalent to up to 1 kilogram (2.2 lb imperial) of TNT. The explosion was too loud to be ignored, and the authorities were forced to issue a statement.

But this statement said merely that the bomb had been planted in a toilet on the second floor and that it had killed a cleaning-woman. The news that five people, including cabinet ministers, had been injured was given in an Associated Press report on September 4, quoting a government official “who spoke on condition of anonymity”. Another report on the same day, quoting sources in Johar-Gala, said that the woman who died in the explosion was in fact a 27-year-old government secretary who is suspected of having planted the bomb herself. The pro-Russia Chechen authorities denied that any minister had been injured in the incident, and the Russian information ministry issued a statement in partial support of this, saying that, although a number of people had been killed, senior Chechen officials were not among them.

How tightly officials had tried to control information about the blast became clear when civil servants and ministers were told not to leave the building before the completion of the enquiry, ordered immediately to ascertain how the “rebels” could have infiltrated the closely-guarded headquarters in the capital city. The explosion occurred three days before the tenth anniversary of Chechnya’s initial declaration of independence in 1991, a date that the Chechen mujahideen had vowed to mark with operations and with military parades in areas where they maintain a high profile despite the presence of Russian troops.

But the Chechen fighters, who also vowed to step up their operations against Chechen traitors, had already carried out punishing raids against the Russian military and against government officials. The dramatic bomb-explosion shows that they have succeeded in taking their attacks to the very centre of government. Only the day before the explosion, Russian newsagencies reported the murder of two local Chechen officials: the latest victims of the resistance’s campaign against the collaborators. Itar-Tass newsagency said that the raiders opened fire on the deputy head of the Shali district and a senior military official on September 1, killing both and seizing their weapons in Germenchuk, a village southeast of Johar-Gala.

When the number of government and local officials killed in Chechnya this year reached 40, Kadyrov was forced to demand from the Russian army greater ‘security’ for his officials, and additional weapons for their guards. He also criticised the military on August 30 for abusing civilians’ rights during security sweeps, while failing to reach resistance leaders. “They encircle a village, and they may take away things they like from the people and hit those who look askance,” he was quoted as saying in an AP report. His criticism gives substance to accusations by human-rights groups that the Russian army commits routine abuses against Chechen civilians. But Kadyrov is not exercised about the fate of his people; his concern is to try to lessen the massive popular support that the mujahideen enjoy.

Kadyrov was appointed by Moscow as head of the civilian administration last year, following the return of the Russian military to Chechnya in 1999 (Russian forces had been forced to withdraw as a result of the humiliating 1994-96 war with the mujahideen). Moscow chose Kadyrov to head the government because of his close links with the resistance, hoping that his defection would cause dissension among his followers. But Russian leaders now believe that he is a liability, and the only thing preventing them from dismissing him is their failure to agree about who should replace him.

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