IWPR'S Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 40: Minority groups in Dagestan resort to desperate measures
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Subject: IWPR'S Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 40: Minority groups in Dagestan resort to desperate measures
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IWPR'S Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 40: Minority groups in
Dagestan resort to desperate measures
WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 40, July 14, 2000
IS PUTIN FIGHTING WARS ON TOO MANY FRONTS? Whilst waging a bitter
campaign in Chechnya, President Vladimir Putin is fighting rearguard
actions against the Russian oligarchs and the regional governors.
Perhaps he has bitten off more than he can chew. Mikhail Ivanov
comments from Moscow
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE Russian troops on the Georgian border
are caught between embattled Chechen fighters desperate to break out
and fresh reinforcements eager to break in. Pavel Yanov reports from
Chechnya
POOR JOB PROSPECTS DRIVE ARMENIANS ABROAD Yerevan sociologists say
government unemployment figures are concealing the true scale of a
problem which is showing little sign of improving. Artem Yerkanian
reports from Yerevan
REBELLION SIMMERS IN DAGESTAN Political apartheid in Dagestan has
forced minority groups to resort to desperate measures. Yuri Akbashev
reports from Dagestan
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................
REBELLION SIMMERS IN DAGESTAN
Political apartheid in Dagestan has forced minority groups to resort
to desperate measures
By Yuri Akbashev, in Dagestan
The "Chechen invasion" of Dagestan last August provided fine grist for
Russia's propaganda mill. The state television channels regaled their
audiences with images of indignant Dagestanis cursing their Chechen
cousins for this act of treachery. And they washed this down with
tales of Russian military triumphs and the total annihilation of the
rebel forces. But the first casualty of federal intervention was, as
usual, the truth.
In fact, the Chechen fighters led by Shamil Basaev and the
Jordanian-born Khattab arrived in Dagestan at the invitation of the
local population. They didn't "seize" the villages of Karamakhi or
Chabanmakhi, as the Russian media would have it - they were welcomed
with open arms by their spiritual brothers, the Laks, many of whom had
also embraced the extremist Wahhabi doctrine. The "invasion" was, in
reality, part of a simmering rebellion in Dagestan which has been
gathering momentum for the past decade.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the mountain republic has been
suffering from the same malaise which has crept across the entire
North Caucasus - political and social apartheid.
In Dagestan, the reins of power lie firmly in the hands of the Avars,
the majority ethnic group. Over the last 10 years, the Avars have been
able to usurp all the top positions in political, cultural, economic
and academic circles. Minority clans, such as the Laks, the Dargains
and the Kumyks, have effectively been dispossessed.
Today, the capital Makhachkala is the fiefdom of the Magomedov
"princes" with influential government jobs and choice commercial
contracts awarded exclusively to members of the dynasty.
Naturally, it wasn't long before the downtrodden minorities found
themselves a leader - Nadirshakh Khachilaev, an ethnic Lak and a
deputy for the Russian State Duma. Soon Khachilaev was waging a
far-ranging political campaign across the North Caucasus, calling on
neighbouring peoples to support his cause.
But things reached a head in 1994 when the Lak leader infuriated Boris
Yeltsin's government by condemning the Russian campaign in Chechnya.
Moscow wasted no time in branding Khachilaev an enemy of the state and
dispatching secret service agents to engineer his downfall. But
support for Khachilaev and his brother, Magomed, never wavered and, in
May 1998, a police raid on Nadirshakh's home brought thousands of Lak
protestors on to the streets of Makhachkala.
The brothers were suspected of taking five policemen hostage after a
brief gun-battle on the border with Chechnya - but the circumstances
of the subsequent raid were almost irrelevant. On reaching the main
square, the protestors took the opportunity to seize government
buildings and threaten a coup d'etat.
On this occasion, the situation was defused by the intervention of
interior minister Sergei Stepashin but both brothers are currently
standing trial for their part in the uprising. The authorities remain
acutely aware that the court case, conducted against a backdrop of
high security, could spark fresh violence at any time.
However, despite the danger signals, the Magomedov regime continues to
demonstrate a lack of sensitivity to key ethnic and religious issues.
Recently, Surakat Asiyatilov, chairman of the religious affairs
committee for the Dagestan State Assembly, told the Severny Kavkaz
newspaper, "Taking Islam out of the mosques and into the streets is
harmful both to the believers and to Islam as a whole."
Asiyatilov and the entire bureaucratic cabal clearly believe they are
capable of defining the framework for religious worship in Dagestan.
They have completely ignored the fact that Islam is a genuine
political force in the republic - and that extremist tendencies, such
as Wahhabism, owe their momentum to external influences.
One can sense shades of the Communist Party line and the Stalinist
approach in Asiyatilov's pronouncements - but it is unlikely that he
would have the courage to face an armed rebellion with such
equanimity.
It is clear that the failure of the May 1998 coup prompted the Lak
leaders to throw in their hand with the rebelling Chechens. Prior to
the arrival of Basaev and Khattab, they stockpiled weapons and build
defences around key villages.
Their fate is already well-documented. The Russian army flattened
their fortresses, drove the Chechens back across the border and
rounded up the Lak "mutineers". The Dagestanis who appeared on Russian
television to express their relief at this dramatic "liberation" were
almost all ethnic Avars who supported the federal cause.
Once again, the Russians deliberately chose to ignore the root cause
of the troubles - and their greater implications. We have seen the
growth of apartheid across the North Caucasus - in Kabardino-Balkaria
where the Kabardinian majority under Valery Kokov has seized power and
in Karachaevo-Cherkessia where Karachai president Vladimir Semenov has
excluded Cherkess and Abazin leaders from government posts.
The North Caucasus can only be saved by democracy in its widest form.
Democratic principles must be applied to every aspect of political
power, ethnic disputes and commercial dealings. The North Caucasus is
inhabited by tough and uncompromising peoples - but, at heart, they
are lovers of freedom and democracy.
More and more people are asking themselves the same question: is
Russia capable of bringing this democracy to the North Caucasus?
Recent history shows increasingly that she is not. Russia has brought
us nothing but suffering and poverty. And there is no reason to hope
that this will change.
Yuri Akbashev is a regular IWPR contributor
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IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and
international community with unique insiders' perspective on the
Caucasus. Using our network of local journalists, the service
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The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus Project based in Tbilisi and
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Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
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The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
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Copyright (c) IWPR 2000
IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 40
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