MINELRES: IWPR Caucasus Reporting Service No.218: Caucasians targeted in wake of
Moscow blast
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Fri Feb 20 18:23:34 2004
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WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 218,
February 12, 2004.
CAUCASUS NEWS UPDATE FEBRUARY 12
GEORGIA: CONSTITUTION CHANGES CAUSE UPROAR Former allies speak out as
new president moves to consolidate his power. By Mikhail Vignansky in
Tbilisi
CAUCASIANS TARGETED IN WAKE OF MOSCOW BLAST The attack on the Moscow
metro spreads anxiety, xenophobia and uncertainty on the eve of the
presidential elections. By Sanobar Shermatova in Moscow
BUILDING COLLAPSE SHAKES AZERBAIJAN Azerbaijanis are worried about the
safety of thousands of Soviet-era buildings. By Zulfugar Agayev in Baku
ARMENIA: CHURCH ATTACKS "PSEUDO-RELIGIOUS" FESTIVALS Young Armenians
are mixing up pagan, Christian and Western love festivals - and the
church is not impressed. By Karine Ter-Saakian in Yerevan
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CAUCASIANS TARGETED IN WAKE OF MOSCOW BLAST
The attack on the Moscow metro spreads anxiety, xenophobia and
uncertainty on the eve of the presidential elections.
By Sanobar Shermatova in Moscow
The deadliest act of terror yet perpetrated in Moscow appears to have
toughened the Kremlin's policy on Chechnya - even though no one has yet
claimed responsibility for the slaughter.
The bombers picked their target to cause the maximum amount of terror,
as nine million people ride the Moscow metro every day to get to their
places of work or study.
The bomb, which exploded on February 6 on a train between Avtozavodskaya
and Paveletskaya stations, killed at least 39 people and wounded more
than a hundred. The death toll is expected to rise, with Moscow's mayor
Yury Luzhkov saying it is expected to reach around 50.
Since the blast, Caucasus-phobia has gained strength in the capital.
Demands to forbid people from the region to enter the capital now fill
the airwaves and newspapers. This is the case even though most
Caucasians in Moscow are Russian citizens and protected by the
constitution - and indeed three of the passengers killed were from
Armenia and Georgia
This did not stop prominent Communist politician Nikolai Kharitonov
declaring it was time to "clear up" Moscow, as happened before the 1980
Olympic Games, while the well-known nationalist journalist and
parliamentary deputy Alexander Nevzorov posed a straightforward question
live on the NTV channel, "Where have you ever seen ordinary Chechens?"
Although he did not directly call the people of Chechnya bandits - as
Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky occasionally does -
the thrust of Nevzorov's comment was clear to all.
President Vladimir Putin himself was quick to blame Chechen
pro-independence leader Aslan Maskhadov for the attack. "We don't need
any indirect proof, we know for sure that Maskhadov and his bandits are
linked to this terror," Putin said angrily.
He also lashed out at "calls from abroad" for negotiations with
Maskhadov - a clear reference to the recent letter signed by 145 members
of the European parliament backing the idea of a United Nations
administration for Chechnya.
"It's not the first time that we encounter a synchronization of crimes
committed on the territory of Russia and calls for negotiations," Putin
said.
However, Maskhadov's envoy in London, Akhmed Zakayev, condemned the
attack and said that his leader had nothing to do with it.
There is speculation that the radical Chechen warrior Shamil Basayev may
claim responsibility for the blast - as he has done with a series of
other attacks in Moscow and the North Caucasus, including the Nord-Ost
hostage-taking incident in October 2002.
Nothing has been heard from Basayev as IWPR went to press, although an
article on the extreme Islamist website www.kavkazcenter.com - written
by someone under the name of Boris Stomakhin - suggested that it was
"very likely" Basayev may claim responsibility.
If Basayev did indeed order the attack, it marks a change of tactics for
him. Usually suicide bombers record themselves on video so as to prove
that they were responsible and pass it to an organisation such as
Al-Jazeera television. This did not happen after the Moscow attack,
although such a tape may yet turn up.
For most Russian citizens these finer points are irrelevant, and they
have no qualms about blaming Chechens for the attack.
The growing Caucasus-phobia is also accompanied by a total silence on
the part of Chechens themselves. No Chechen took part in the many
televised live debates and other programmes on television. It is true,
Chechnya President Akhmad Kadyrov pleaded publicly for people not to
blame the whole Chechen nation for the acts of terrorism in Moscow, but
it was the only such declaration.
"We will avenge you!" wrote desperate relatives of those who died after
the theatre centre outrage in Moscow in 2002. The same inscription has
now appeared at metro stations.
An influential representative of Chechen intelligentsia who lives in
Moscow said he believed Russia was "moving towards fascism" - a
dangerous development for a country with 200 nationalities.
Some Muslim spokespersons believe that the ultimate aim of the bombers
and their masters is to start a civil conflict within Russia, and
suggest that the organisers are more likely to be Putin's opponents or
exiled oligarchs than Chechen extremists.
Sergey Glazyev, State Duma deputy of the Rodina bloc and a candidate in
the upcoming presidential elections, supports this particular theory,
calling these groups a "third force".
Speaking live on television, the deputy claimed, "A third force is
trying in such a way to become an intermediary between the Chechen
fighters and Russian authorities." However, Glazyev would not give any
names when asked who he was referring to.
An even more extraordinary version emerged in Georgia this week, which
few people have taken at face value.
Georgian security minister Valery Khaburdzania claimed that his agency
had detained a man from the North Caucausian republic of
Karachai-Cherkessia named Nazir Naidaborov in Tbilisi.
Khaburdzania claimed that Naidaborov had been recruited by the
authorities in the breakaway republic of Abkhazia to go to Georgia and
visit the Pankisi Gorge, home to thousands of Chechen refugees. He was
then supposed to visit the Russian embassy on February 5 and warn them
about a threatened extremist attack in Moscow - which he had supposedly
learned about from Chechens in the Pankisi - and also about another
planned assault on the Lyudmila market in Stavropol in the North
Caucasus.
Khaburdzania thus indirectly linked the Abkhaz authorities to the bomb
blast in Moscow - an allegation that was angrily denied in Abkhazia. So
far there has been almost no reaction in either Georgia or Russia to
these extraordinary claims.
As a result of the bombing, Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov has called for a
series of changes in the city's security provisions.
He said it was necessary to tighten registration regulations - even
though it is well known that these can be easily bought - and instructed
the Moscow police to step up its patrols of the metro. A more senseless
order is hard to imagine, given that any criminal suspect can avoid an
unpleasant trip to the police station by giving the guards from as
little as 50 rubles - a significant contribution to the modest wage of a
policeman.
With no clear culprit identified and the presidential election only a
month away, Russians are now fearful that the metro attack will not be
the last.
Sanobar Shermatova is a reporter with Moscow News.
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ISSN: 1477-7959 Copyright (c) 2004 The Institute for War & Peace
Reporting
CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE No. 218