Is Journalism Worth Dying For__ Final Dispatches - Anna Politkovskaya [78]
What is needed for the amnesty to be real and genuine? That is a question I put to everybody. To resistance fighters who have not the slightest intention of “going legal,” as well as to those who are asking their relatives to help them make contact with the law enforcement agencies while the opportunity is there. Also to commanders of pro-Moscow Chechen security agencies, many of whom are themselves former resistance fighters amnestied under guarantees from Kadyrov Senior. These are precisely the men who for a long time were considered to be the bulwark of Kadyrov Junior’s power.
Their answers are extraordinarily consistent. “It is unlikely anybody will surrender to Kadyrov.”
There you have it, and this in a republic which is claimed to be infatuated with Ramzan, which is inundated with outward signs of deference. There are posters everywhere: Ramzan with Daddy, Ramzan with Putin, Ramzan on his own with a furrowed brow, and “You Are Our Hero,” and “We Are Proud Of You.” They are plastered along all the roads, at the entrance to even the smallest villages, in all schools and state institutions, on fences, doors and lamp posts, on the concrete blocks of disused checkpoints … Everyone in Chechnya just loves him so.
So why would people not be prepared to lay down their arms to him? This is where we can no longer name names. All my conversations on this subject took place on condition of complete anonymity.
“Why do you believe Ramzan has to be removed before people will come out of the forests?” I ask an influential commander of the pro-Moscow Chechen security forces whom I have known for a long time. He trusts me and I trust him. We have had good reason for that in worse times.
“They will not come out to be slaves, and for us Ramzan is a continuation of the enslavement. They will come out when the rule of law is established, and not before. A second condition is that they should be guaranteed a job which doesn’t involve a rifle, not armed detachments they will be drafted into in place of the forest.”
“What do you mean? They want jobs waiting for them? That’s impossible. Unemployment here is the same problem for everyone.”
“No, I mean something else. Nobody in Chechnya today, including those who never fought anywhere and have nothing to be amnestied for, can be sure they will have a job tomorrow if Ramzan for any reason takes a dislike to them. They can’t even be sure that they will be alive if Ramzan takes a dislike to them.”
After that we talk about Eshiev. My informant has not the slightest sympathy for him, but what happened has to be discussed. Maierbek Eshiev, a well-known field commander from the mountainous Vedeno District whose radio code name was Mullah, surrendered along with his detachment under Ramzan’s guarantees after Maskhadov was killed. Let us have no illusions, Eshiev is a religious fanatic.
Kadyrov promptly appointed him Commander of the Anti-Terrorist Center for Vedeno District. Each anti-terrorist center has divisions in the towns and villages of Chechnya and its officers are drawn from the old A. Kadyrov Regiment in which former fighters could enlist. They were all directly subordinate to Ramzan Kadyrov. For a long time the ATC was his power base, but in spring this year it was disbanded. This was seen as a first move by Moscow to cool Ramzan’s ardour. Most members of the Anti-Terrorist Center were drafted into the North and South Battalions under the umbrella of the Interior Ministry Troops of the Russian Federation. On June 1 they swore the oath of allegiance to Russia.
Incidentally, this federal plan for taming Kadyrov Junior did enjoy some success. Many ex-resistance fighters who had become Kadyrovites took this opportunity to distance themselves from him. Kadyrov reacted by becoming hyperactive and tried to ensure the next batch of amnestied fighters came his way. The idea for the present amnesty, which