1.2.The President and Opposition in January Stand-off
The background report issued by RIA Novosti after Maskhadov's second year in office (January 27, 1999) indicates that by 1998 the Chechen Commanders' Council (Shamil Basayev, Salman Raduyev and Hunkar Israpilov) demanded to impeach the Chechen president. Field commanders accused Maskhadov of usurping power by 'appropriating' the judiciary authorities and depriving the parliament of the right to appoint them. The opposition further alleged that the president indulged in nepotism and favouritism.
In December 1998, the Supreme Shari'ah Court of the Chechen Republic considered these charges and did not find sufficient evidence to impeach Maskhadov, although it found him guilty of appointing people who had been 'collaborating with the occupation regime' to key positions and of revoking one of Jokhar Dudayev's decrees.
On January 9, 1999, Maskhadov attempted to take the initiative from the opposition, which campaigned for turning Chechnya into an Islamic state. He announced the creation of the Islamic Council composed of the learned 'alims and theologists. According to Maskhadov's supporters, that body would resolve all disputes exclusively on the basis of Shari'ah. The Islamic Council proposed by Maskhadov was designed to supersede not the Supreme Shari'ah Court but the so-called shura, devised by Vice-President Vakha Arsanov in December 1998.
In January 1999, relations between Maskhadov and the armed opposition aggravated yet one other time. The aggravation went as far as an armed skirmish on January 22 in the town of Urus-Martan where Turpan Atgeriev, who coordinated security ministries in the Maskhadov government, came to investigate the abduction and murder of hostages (three Englishmen and a New Zealander) Officers of the ministry of the Shari'ah security and Basayev's and Israpilov's troops engaged in a shoot-out which, was later qualified by Atgeriev as staging of a coup d'etat.
The Kommersant-Daily reported on January 23, 1999 that Urus-Martan situated in the Western part of Chechnya had long become a bulwark of the opposition. The town is home to the camps of field commanders Shamil Basayev, Hunkar Israpilov, Arbi Barayev and Ramzan Akhmadov, who seek to unseat president Maskhadov. Urus-Martan is totally independent from Grozny, lives by its own laws, and Chechen authorities are cautiously reluctant to conduct any forceful operations there, even though as many as 50 or more hostages were held there at various times, including Valentin Vlasov and several foreign nationals. The Jordanian terrorist Khattab established a subversion training school in Urus-Martan.
On January 22, the Ministry of the Shari'ah security sent a company of servicemen to Urus-Martan. Guerrilla troops stopped the servicemen at the outskirts of the city and attempted to disarm them. An argument that sparked off eventually led to a shoot-out killing one and injuring several men.
In connection with this incident, Maskhadov had to admit that the opposition to the government ensconced in Urus-Martan was well structured and had its own system of courts and enforcement units. According to the president, Urus-Martan offered sanctuary to various criminals from all over the CIS and neighbouring regions who "terrorise local people, attempt to prevent the establishment of law enforcement authorities subordinate to the ministry of Shari'ah security, general prosecutor's office and other central authorities". Despite this, however, the president spoke in favour of a peaceful solution. (Trud, January 26, 1999)
Speaking on the local television channel, Kavkaz (Caucasus), opposition leader Shamil Basayev accused the Maskhadov government of fanning tension in Urus-Martan and adjacent areas and seeks a military confrontation by provoking various groups of people to attack one another.
In the evening of January 26, military and political opposition leaders of Chechnya convened for an emergency meeting in the village of Starye Atagi 15 kilometres south of Grozny. Yevgeni Krutikov of the Segodnya daily reported on January 27, 1999 that almost all influential figures of Chechnya turned up among the opposition leaders, including ex-president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, vice president Vakha Arsanov, generals Shamil Basayev and Hunkar-pasha Israpilov, the previously neutral general Ruslan Gelayev and former active supporters of the president vice-premiers Akhmed Zakayev and Kazbek Makhashev, together with a large group of influential field commanders. The convention also included the leader of Jama'at force located in Urus-Martan - the confirmed kidnapper and cutthroat Arbi Barayev.
According to one other attendant of that meeting, ex-foreign minister Movladi Udugov, "the meeting was caused by the tense and aggravating situation in Chechnya. An attempt to initiate an internal conflict using a common squabble was made in Urus-Martan". By interpreting the developments in that manner, parties to the meeting made several peaceful statements. Udugov, for one, claimed that "one can't seek to change the president by forceful methods".
Nonetheless, in the morning on the same day, unidentified people using grenade launchers shelled the Grozny office of the KAVKAZ TV controlled by Udugov.
On January 28, Aslan Maskhadov gave a telephone interview to the Trud daily:
Q: What do you think of the standoff in Urus-Martan?
A: "Every beginning should have an end, but those people who created all this mess haven't sorted anything out yet. Blinded, they can't find a way out. I warned them that the people would not follow them again. [The people] know only too well what it can lead to....
Some time ago, Dudayev's closest allies - Gantamirov, Mamadayev, Marayev - the people most favoured by Dudayev were the first to abandon him. They drove Labazanov off his rollers by closing their eyes to his every antic. They discredited the power system created by Jokhar by flirting with Moscow every other day. They claimed that Jokhar wouldn't be able to create an independent state. In the long run, they brought Khadjiev to power claiming that he was a professor and thus capable of creating a state. What do we have now? The people are getting poorer, and all pacts and agreements with Moscow are roadblocked.
The same happened with me. Everyone who was around, closest to me, are betraying me. Dudayev had his Labazanov, and I have Barayev playing this role today.
Moscow is looking for my replacement once again. They appeared to have selected Deniyev who wanted to rise higher than Allah. I called Moscow right away and said it wasn't a good choice. Now, they are placing the emphasis on business people, people of money. They say that guerrilla leaders won't build any state, and they need other kind of people.
People see everything. People don't have their eyes closed. People realise what is going to happen in that situation. So, people are saying hands off the institutional system and the president. They give their powerful support to the president. The personnel of the ministry of the Shari'ah security are on my side. The Chechen militia today is a far cry from what it used to be before. They are dedicated and seasoned young fighters. They won't let anyone kick authorities around.
There are no forces in Chechnya capable of accomplishing a coup d'etat in the republic. Even if the outside enemy wants to help them. If someone wants to try it, he will be disgraced. Everything that foreign secret services are doing, they do at the wrong time, like before 1994. They just don't know what they are doing. Not a single state or secret service has understood what Chechens are. They have failed to understand the national character of the Chechen people. There is no basis for a coup d'etat here. None whatsoever.
Urus-Martan today is very different from the Urus-Martan of 1993-1994. We need to shore up the institutional system and enforcement authorities there now. I am convinced that they will restore order there. There will be no place for bandits either in Urus-Martan or in the entire Chechnya".
Q: You mentioned ploys of foreign secret services. What specifically did you mean by that?
A: "Constant blackmailing and producing all sorts of "puppet" heroes are among the better known methods of special services. Take Raduyev, for instance (who is currently staying in Turkey). He is not a military authority or leader in the least. Who will follow him? Who respects him? In the meantime, Berezovsky and other people are using that person. They give him money, and he keeps his gangs. People who give him money know it well that he has no force to back him. He is needed to discredit the Chechen authority and our policies.
This is why I don't think that anything serious will happen here. I am sorry for the people who are constantly kept on the edge by the secret services. They predict either a war or bloodshed. They don't know the 'hero' of Pervomaiskoye, Raduyev, as I know him, and they can't know him that well.
There are fighters who just won't be duped. For example, Magomet Khambiyev. He has never risen against authorities since 1991. In any situation, even the most difficult one, he would go up to the ninth floor of the presidential palace and say, "Jokhar, I'm here". He did that for his people, not for glory. He never studied at any academy, but the barracks of the president's guards are always impeccably in order. And they used to say that Chechens wouldn't ever live in barracks.
There are fighters like Apti Batalov and Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev. The labourers of war.
I have powerful support from the fighters and all people. Jokhar had it rougher. The president feels more confident these days.
As for all our Chechen leaders, I offer them my conditions:
First, to pledge allegiance to the president that they will cleanse their conscience and be faithful comrades of the legitimate president, loyal to him.
Second, they will stop abductions and won't allow others to do so.
Third, we shall eliminate any opportunities to steal oil together.
Then, I will make my stance to Russia one hundred times tougher.
I have more concerns than I would like to have. Not everyone can carry a burden so heavy. I know well what should be done and where, and what should be said. I have never sought to resolve all issues in Chechnya only by force. Still, power should be strong. I will do everything possible to maintain equally strong power in Urus-Martan. Envoys of the mufti, representatives of the Shari'ah court, the district department of the ministry of the Shari'ah security, district office of the national security service and prefect will be working there, and not in the manner prompted by strangers but based on the laws of our state.
By appointing our people to those bodies in Urus-Martan earlier, we asked them to be ready to a compromise and look for allies even among those who hold dissenting positions. There should be no place for bandits there".
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