Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [67]
Although the Kadyrovites claim to be sweeping Chechnya clear of Islamic extremist Wahhabis, they are in practice clearing the Republic of anybody they want to get rid of. At present that means Akhmat-hadji Kadyrov’s political enemies.
Another recent example: Movladi Baisarov’s detachment is based in the village of Youth Soviet Farm No. 15, near Grozny. The detachment was previously commanded by Maskhadov’s deputy, Vakha Arsanov, and has moved directly from the ranks of the separatists into the Kadyrovite organization.
Baisarov’s men recently abducted three FSB officers and attempted to ransom them in exchange for one of their criminal comrades who had been arrested for his involvement in another kidnapping. The Baisarovites got away with it because now they count as Kadyrovites.
In the Urus Martan District Militia Station it was precisely one such turncoat that Ibrahim Garsiev found himself facing, namely a participant in several sensational kidnappings back in Maskhadov’s time, a man with a federal warrant out for his arrest but who is now the Deputy Head of the District Militia Station in Urus Martan.
It was this criminal who organised Garsiev’s kidnapping, knowing that he worked in Saidulayev’s security detail, and called upon the services of “unidentified masked Chechens wearing combat fatigues.” Ibrahim was driven off and soon found himself before Ramzan Kadyrov in the courtyard of his fortress home in Tsentoroy.
Were you interrogated by Ramzan personally?
Yes. He asked me what kind of vehicle Saidulayev used and how many bodyguards he had. I didn’t reply. I was beaten all over my body with a spade handle; Ramzan beat me himself. They strung me up by the arms from a tree and beat me. Ramzan was not the only person directing this, there was a second person who later told me he had been Basayev’s Chief of Staff but was now Ramzan’s Head of Reconnaissance. Ramzan said he would give his gold watch to whoever thought up the cruellest death for me.
How many of them were there?
Sixty or seventy.
Who won?
It was Basayev’s ex-Chief of Staff. He said I should be hung up by the arms and have a thousand cuts made on my skin. They went away and conferred. I thought they were deciding how to kill me but when they came back they started beating me again, intermittently. They would beat me and then ask, “Are you going to do it then?” The third time I said I couldn’t take any more and would do what they wanted.
So what was it they wanted?
They wanted me to take a landmine into Rustam’s house and blow up Malik Saidulayev when he arrived. I agreed. Ramzan shouted, “Do you think I’m going to let you have the presidency? Even if Malik gets elected I will shoot every last one of you.”
He was talking about organising the assassination of Malik Saidulayev? Ramzan was commissioning it and you were to carry it out? They were to give you a landmine?
Yes.
What if you had not agreed?
They would have killed me.
After you agreed, what happened?
They stopped beating me and dragged other people from the cells. There are cells for prisoners which open directly into Ramzan’s courtyard. I saw three prisoners myself. I don’t know what they had done. They shot two of them in the legs in front of me. The third, who had already been shot in the legs, was put in a car and taken away. Then they gave me tea, as if now I was one of them. They gave me something to eat. They brought some girls who sang and danced. They let me go the next day. I am supposed to tell them when Malik is coming to see his brother, and then they will immediately give me the landmine. I have gone into hiding. I have taken my family away. Ramzan warned that if I did not do what I promised he would massacre me and my family. I sent a statement to the Prosecutor-General. If Kadyrov Senior becomes President, my only option will be to join a group to fight him. What can I do? We just have to survive. I won’t let them take me alive a second time.