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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| A theocracy in the shadow of Mount Elbrus |
| 2005-10-28 |
| The town of Elbrus in the Caucasus is home to a five-star hotel housing tourists eager to climb to the highest point in Europe. Elbrus also hosts rampant corruption, radicalism, and a fundamentalist training camp. It is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Nalchik to Mt. Elbrus. At about the half-way point, at the turn-off to Kendelen -- where eight members of Yarmuk have been buried in the cemetery in this year alone -- an invisible line intersects with the road. The line represents the border between the regions settled by the Kabardinos and the Balkars, and it's where the military and the police usually set up road blocks to close the road into the mountains during purges. The Kabardinos, together with Georgia's Abkhazians, make up the group known as the Circassians, the oldest ethnic group in the Caucasus region. They boast that they held out against Russian invaders until 1860, longer than any other group. The Balkars, who make their homes in remote mountainous areas, were, for the most part, deported to central Asia by Stalin in 1944, and have allied themselves with the neighboring Karachay people since returning to the region. The myriad ethnic fault lines in the regions have tended to fuel conflict since the collapse of the Soviet Union. "Kabardino-Balkariya is a wonderful country, all it needs is to be awakened," rebel Chechen leader Shamil Basayev once said. "And when it wakes up, the entire Caucasus will burn." This goal has since become more tangible, partially because Basayev -- Russia's most-wanted terrorist on whose head authorities have placed a $10 million bounty -- is still at large and active in the conflict. In 2003, he spent a vacation near Nalchik, under the eyes of the authorities, but ultimately escaped a raid unharmed. At the time, the Emir Mukoshev publicly accused the Russian interior minister of having allowed Basayev to buy his freedom. This is just one of the countless stories on record that have raised suspicions in the region that the government is, in fact, not interested in controlling violence and religious fanaticism. On the contrary, it is widely believed that the Russian authorities' true objective is to make work for themselves. After all, the more terrorism there is, the more jobs are created in government counterterrorism agencies. Indeed, the number of these positions has increased six-fold in Kabardino-Balkariya since 1991. Along the road that leads to the base of 5,642 meter (18,510 feet) Mr. Elbrus, the unabated decline of the republic is in full evidence. Although Kabardino-Balkariya, with its rolling hills, majestic peaks and rich soil, is often called "Little Switzerland," its unemployment rate is officially estimated at 30 percent and it would be bankrupt without assistance from Moscow. Abandoned mines line the road, beneath which lie significant deposits of tungsten and molybdenum. The mines have been idle since foreign investors left the valley, unwilling to pay the bribes demanded by local officials. Nowadays, workers with nothing to do stand guard -- beer bottles in hand -- beneath old Soviet stars and walls bearing the faded motto "slava trudu," or Glory of Work. Not until the town of Elbrus, high up on the mountain, is there any evidence of a recovery. The Oson hotel chain advertises its five-star mountain resort in Elbrus, a place where tourists can enjoy fine dining and helicopter skiing at altitudes of up to 5,300 meters (17,400 feet) at discount prices. The hotel's owner, Chissa Bekayev, is respected in the town as the "locomotive of Elbrus tourism." In return, the townsfolk leave his guests along. After all, they don't want to scare off jet set vacationers, who come to Mt. Elbrus as part of a "Seven Summits Club" package that also includes Mt. Everest and Mt. Kilimanjaro. What the tourists don't know is that the radical wing of Jamaat, which is fighting to achieve its goal of installing a caliphate, or Islamic theocracy, throughout the Caucasus region, came into being nearby in the Chegem-2 training camp. The group's original leaders were Ruslan Bekayev, the former mayor of Elbrus, and Aslan Bekayev. Arrest warrants have been issued for the two brothers of hotel owner Chissa Bekayev, and both have vanished without a trace. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 The town of Elbrus in the Caucasus is home to a five-star hotel housing tourists eager to climb to the highest point in Europe. Elbrus also hosts rampant corruption, radicalism, and a fundamentalist training camp. Sounds like a fine new home for the UN. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-10-28 11:48 |