| Relatives of militants in Kabardino-Balkaria are ready to follow the path of the Beslan mothers Having repelled a militant attack on security facilities in the Kabardino-Balkarian capital of Nalchik on October 13-14, law enforcement agencies and the civil administration of this republic were faced with the need to once again take up defensive positions. Relatives of the dead militants gather daily in the city center and demand that the bodies of their loved ones be returned to them. In addition, among those killed, who are officially considered militants, there may be civilians.
According to local human rights activist Luiza Orazaeva, one such mistake has already come to light. The investigation admitted that Kabardian Vadim Zhekamukhov, who was initially attributed to the attackers, had nothing to do with the attack. But experts suggest that there may eventually be more such cases.
According to investigators, 84 militants were killed. In turn, the underground command of the militants represented by Shamil Basayev last week named half the number of losses among the “Mujahideen” who attacked Nalchik. Even if the militant statistics are not trustworthy and the number of fake militants does not increase, the situation still threatens to turn into serious public problems for the authorities. The relatives of the killed militants are quite capable of turning into the second “Beslan Mothers Committee”.
An amendment to the law “On the Fight against Terrorism,” which the authorities refer to when refusing to hand over bodies, was adopted in November 2002 in the wake of the hostage-taking at the Moscow Theater Center on Dubrovka. During that operation to free the hostages, more than 40 terrorists were killed, and not a single body was released to relatives. The bodies of militants killed last year in Beslan were also not released. And one of the loudest episodes of the controversy about the extradition of bodies was the liquidation in March 2005 of the leader of the Chechen separatists Aslan Maskhadov. His body was also not given to his relatives for burial.
“We always look at events through the eyes of the victims and victims of the attack,” says one of the leading Russian experts on the Caucasus, deputy chairman of the academic council of the Carnegie Moscow Center, Alexey Malashenko. “But this does not mean that the families of killed militants do not require careful and thoughtful work with them. Several dozen people were killed. To understand the scale of the problem, you need to multiply the number of those killed by the number of their relatives, friends, and close acquaintances. Each case requires the most accurate clarification of all the circumstances - who is exactly to blame for what. Not forgetting the presumption of innocence. About 200 people attacked Nalchik. Many walked deliberately, but many, as they say, were simply carried away by the wave. Perhaps, not releasing the body to relatives is justified if a major militant, on the scale of, say, Salman Raduev, is killed. But it’s a completely different matter if an ordinary member of illegal armed groups died. Now it is very important to bring down this growing wave of discontent. We must not forget that Kabardino-Balkaria is still a Muslim republic.”
Last week, relatives of the militants contacted the republican prosecutor's office and the President of Kabardino-Balkaria, Arsen Kanokov. The president seemed to reassure his fellow citizens by promising that the issue of each murdered person would be considered separately and with the utmost care. And in those cases in which it is not proven that the killed person is a terrorist, the bodies will be handed over. However, on the same day, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Nikolai Shepel announced that there would be no extradition. And at the end of the week, the Security Council of Kabardino-Balkaria decided to strictly adhere to the letter of the law and refuse to release the bodies. Despite rumors that several families managed to buy back the bodies of their relatives, according to official data, not a single body has been released to date. Daily pickets in Nalchik continue and each time threaten to result in a confrontation with riot police, who are deployed to the square at the rate of one fighter per dissatisfied person.
“Taking into account the fact that the motivation for the attack, which specifically targeted law enforcement and security forces, is already more or less clear, this position looks short-sighted,” says Alexey Malashenko. “We need to work with families, and not squeeze them out by riot police.” In Nalchik, where the Vremya Novostei correspondent visited immediately after the events, there is indeed a very strong dissatisfaction with law enforcement agencies: almost everyone with whom we were able to talk refused to justify the methods of the militants, but admitted that the cause of the tragic events of October 13-14 was the activities of law enforcement structures, in particular the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the KBR. Most of the newspaper's interlocutors believe that the Kabardino-Balkarian police are corrupt, ineffective and excessively cruel towards believers. This statement in itself does not mean that the population sympathizes with the militants. But such assessments should clearly give the authorities food for management decisions.
Some observers, however, believe that the time for such decisions has already been lost. For example, instead of achieving the appointment of a new Minister of Internal Affairs (this is the prerogative of the federal center), the new President Kanokov retained the position of the previous one - Khachim Shogenov. And this hardly suggests that the quality of law enforcement work in Kabardino-Balkaria will increase and make residents sympathize with the police rather than the militants. In any case, by entering into conflict with the relatives of the murdered, the authorities hardly add to their authority and stability.
According to Alexey Malashenko, the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria could find a compromise way out of the current situation: “Yes, according to the law, the bodies of terrorists are not handed over. But nevertheless, after the attack on Ingushetia on June 22, 2004, some of the bodies, as far as I know, were handed over. In Dagestan, the bodies of killed militants are also, as a rule, handed over. In each case, it is necessary to clarify the charge. If a person is killed in the process of carrying out terrorist activities, that is one thing. But what happened in Nalchik does not quite fit into the concept of a terrorist attack - it is more of a military operation.” This opinion is shared by Kabardino-Balkarian lawyer Larisa Dorogova, who provides legal assistance to the relatives of the murdered. Other Vremya Novostei interlocutors in Nalchik also believe that handing over the bodies would help defuse the tense situation. Which is very important in conditions when, as Mr. Malashenko puts it, “next time he can break through anywhere.” Ivan SUKHOV |
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