DATE=8/30/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIAN / DAGESTAN
NUMBER=5-44161
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian forces last week declared victory over
Muslim insurgents who captured several villages in the
remote mountains of the southern Dagestan region. But
that declaration may have been premature. Just a few
days later, Russian helicopter gunships and artillery
are back in action against the insurgents at another
village not far from the scene of the earlier
fighting. Moscow Correspondent Peter Heinlein
examines the roots of the Dagestani uprising.
TEXT: President Boris Yeltsin paid solemn tribute
(Monday) to Russian troops killed battling Islamic
rebels in the mountainous Botlikh district of
Dagestan. He told relatives of the dead soldiers
there would be no letup in the campaign to crush the
insurgency.
///YELTSIN ACT IN RUSSIAN, THEN FADE
TO...///
He says -- Dagestan will be cleansed. Dagestan will
be free, and the time will come when you will smile
again.
As Mr. Yeltsin spoke, Russian helicopters and
artillery had switched their focus to the village of
Karamakhi, about 80-kilometers from Botlikh, where
many of the insurgents are believed to have fled.
Dagestani journalist Nabi Abdullaev says federal
forces are targeting members of the militant Wahhabi
sect that imposed Islamic Sharia law in the Karamakhi
region last year.
/// ABDULLAEV ACT ///
Saturday, Russian helicopters dropped leaflets
calling for the peaceful population to leave
Karamakhi by midnight. By that time, Karamakhi
was surrounded and blocked by internal forces of
the Russian ministry of defense and Dagestani
interior. After midday Sunday, Russian
helicopters started to launch rockets at the
Wahhabi positions around the village.
/// END ACT ///
Experts say the Wahhabi sect has experienced sharp
growth in Dagestan, which is among the poorest regions
in Russia. They estimate 80-thousand Dagestanis, or
four-percent of the total population, are members of
the puritanical Islamic sect.
Russian analysts say the reason the Dagestani uprising
has failed to engender widespread support, while the
one in Chechnya succeeded, is that the ethnic makeups
of the neighboring regions are fundamentally
different. While both populations are overwhelmingly
Muslim, Chechnya is a homogeneous republic. Dagestan
is a mix of more than 30-different ethnic communities
that often disagree among themselves.
But reporter Abdullaev says Russian and Dagestani
government forces, flushed with their success in
Botlikh district, may be making a strategic mistake by
changing their focus from fighting separatism to
battling Islamic fundamentalism.
/// ABDULLAEV ACT ///
There was a kind of euphoria after the victory
in the Botlikh region, and having gained public
support for their action, the Dagestani
government is trying to solve quickly another
problem that was pending for years. And I think
this was a mistake.
/// END ACT ///
Federal forces seem determined to rout the Islamic
fighters at Karamakhi, just as they did in Botlikh
last week. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may have
best articulated the rationale for the campaign during
a visit last week to the troops in Dagestan.
Mr. Putin, who played an important role as senior
intelligence officer during the failed Chechnya
campaign, was shown on television addressing soldiers
gathered around him in a tent. He said -- we cannot
show weakness for even one second. If we do, those who
were killed will have died in vain. (SIGNED)
NEB/PFH/GE/RAE
30-Aug-1999 13:26 PM LOC (30-Aug-1999 1726 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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