1.5. Maskhadov Makes Another Attempt to Control Situation
While preparing for negotiations with Moscow, Maskhadov had a very keen interest in attaining successes in the effort to combat crime in the republic. But making a breakthrough in this direction proved to be far from easy.
To start with, the criminal business of abducting people had turned to be a highly profitable enterprise in the post-war Chechnya. Secondly, the money of foreign sponsors who financed the 'export of Islamic revolution' from Chechnya had been used to reinforce and train armed formations which official Grozny could not control. The two factors combined to make Maskhadov's effort to take the situation in the republic under control effectively ethereal.
Maskhadov found it difficult to demand Moscow's recognition of Chechnya's independence and agree to make, jointly with the federal authorities, steps to set things in order in the republic. This is why Aslan Maskhadov announced again his intention to stop banditry shortly before his meeting with Sergei Stepashin, slated for June 11. Stepashin had by that time become the Premier.
The Moscow News wrote on June 8, 1999, that starting in the wee hours of Friday June 4, the Chechen TV started uninterrupted broadcasts, in both Russian and Chechen, of Maskhadov's address to the people and resistance fighters. "Stand side by side with me. Support me like you have done in the war years and in the presidential election. Help me cleanse Chechnya of the scaled disgraceful phenomenon of kidnapping", Maskhadov said.
Sanobar Shermatova, author of the MN article, described this address of Maskhadov's as extraordinary. As she saw it, the tone and content of the call indicated that Maskhadov was "burning bridges" and ready for a decisive battle. And while in the previous addresses the president had highlighted the need to preserve Chechen unity and warned against a split, he was now ready to do what he had been doing everything to escape all these years - take responsibility for the first blood spilt.
Maskhadov had made more than one attempt to become allies with Shari'ah courts. The idea had flopped. The president had finally accused the Shari'ah courts of doing nothing and stated that they were dealing with domestic crimes only, while never paying attention to kidnapping cases.
Meanwhile, the situation in the republic had approached a critical point, the author of the article noted. A public committee coordinating the search for kidnapped persons reported that the list of hostages kept in Chechnya in June 1999 was over 600 names long. There were quite a few Chechens on it. The situation was so serious that, in Maskhadov's opinion, the republic stood "on the brink of a feudal war between teips (clans - Ed.)".
Ms. Shermatova deemed it necessary to explain the latter point. The teips have been growing stronger in the post-war years. Since there are effectively no legal businesses in the republic, they started making money on robbery, misappropriation of petroleum products, car theft and kidnapping. It is only natural that they started feuding for spheres of influence. Criminal groupings have staged several shootouts in downtown Grozny.
The Chechen president's opponents insist that Maskhadov's lieutenants are patrons of criminal teips of their blood relatives. This is probably what the Chechen president had in mind when he promised he would not spare terrorists, whatever their war record, awards, social status, relations and teip connections.
"I know you have claims to make of me, and they are well grounded. But in the name of the Chechen people, I am asking you to announce jihad (holy war - Ed.) against the evil and banditry", Maskhadov states.
Announcing jihad to criminals means placing them outside teip and family connections. This is no nonsense. But Islam says that rulers cannot announce jihad, and Maskhadov addressed those who can, i.e. the people.
Oil produces the largest criminal revenue. Up to 80% of the net pay is stolen. The local refinery idled for nearly six months due to the lack of crude, which was stolen to the last drop while flowing along. In the past few days, illegal gasoline tankers have been either confiscated or riddled with bullets by checkpoints stationed at the largest thoroughfares.
Maskhadov suggests that the only realistically working sector in the economy should be placed under public scrutiny. He calls on militants to delegate their representatives to a state commission tasked to control oil sales and investigate the expenditure of the resultant revenues. The president promises that the "people will have an opportunity to be in the know, on a monthly basis, of the budgetary revenues and their expenditure".
"But all these measures seem to have come too late", the MN author writes. The post-war Chechnya has come to be known as a criminal republic where the authorities and the laws are powerless.
On the night of June 12, 200 militants tried to storm the office of the Chechen National Security Service. They wanted to release their accomplices arrested on charges of banditry and kidnapping of hostages. Kommersant-Daily (June 15, 1999) wrote in this connection that the incident happened a day after a meeting between Sergei Stepashin and Maskhadov, in the course of which they discussed the effort to combat organised crime in Chechnya.
The militants, armed with assault rifles and grenade-launchers, surrounded the building and demanded the release of several inmates of the local preliminary detention cells. Having been refused, they showered the building's windows with bullets. Six NSS officers were wounded in a shootout, which lasted nearly three hours. The attackers lost, according to different estimates, from 10 to 15 dead. As Ibragim Khultygov, chief of the National Security Service, put it, the "bandits received a worthy rebuff which will make them wary of approaching the NSS building closer than several miles for a long time to come".
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