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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Human rights activists name possible motives for the detentions in Kadi-Yurt
2023-11-11
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[KavkazUzel] The reason for the arrests in Kadi-Yurt
... a Chechen village near the border with Dagestan ...
could be a reaction to the Palestinian events, but there is no reliable information about the reasons for the raid by security forces, noted human rights activists interviewed by the Caucasian Knot. They were divided over whether Chechen security forces were ready to carry out Kadyrov's order to "shoot in the forehead" in the event of unrest.

As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, in the village of Kadi-Yurt, Gudermes district, security forces carried out a raid on November 8, during which the settlement was completely cordoned off and blocked. Sources reported the detention of several dozen local residents; according to them, one of them spoke out in support of Palestine.

On October 31, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, ordered security forces  to shoot to kill  those participants in unauthorized rallies who refuse to obey them. He said that first it is necessary to fire several warning shots in the air, and if the protesters do not respond to the demands of the security forces, then shoot “at them in the forehead.”

Mass protests in the current situation in Chechnya are impossible, said the President of the Assembly of the Peoples of the Caucasus Ruslan Kutaev, commenting on the information about the detentions in Kadi-Yurt.

“There may be some local discontent. For example, when too many young people from one village were mobilized for a military operation in Ukraine. And now, probably, this could be connected with the events in Palestine. But if the protests were massive, then about such phenomena it would have been audible," he said.

At the same time, according to Kutaev, even some activity on the part of young people shows that the situation can change. “Despite all the threats, criminal penalties, incitement of independent-minded people to emigrate, children grow up and have their own convictions. They have their own sense of justice, a sense of who is right and wrong. The events in Palestine can be a detonator for a surge of feelings. Others I don’t see any reason now,” says Kutaev.

In his opinion, Kadyrov’s statement about a “shot in the forehead” is a threat that not everyone is ready to implement. “Among the Chechen security forces there are a few who are ready to kill Chechens without right. Everyone knows them, they have everything in common. But this does not mean that everyone who serves is ready to carry out these instructions,” Kutaev explained.

In principle, the youth of Kadi-Yurt could speak out, believes Chechen human rights activist Oyub Titiev. “But there is no accurate information, except that the village was really blocked. Local residents are afraid to tell how many people were taken,” Titiev said.

In his opinion, the operation of the security forces was targeted. “Most likely, there were addresses of individual people. Perhaps someone was detained earlier, and then their acquaintances were detained through telephones and connections. And the village was blocked so that those who came to detain would not run away. According to one version, young people could have been detained who were planning to go to Palestine. But whether this is true or not is impossible to say,” Titiev said.

He doubts that all security forces will shoot in the event of protests. “In previous cases of protests, no one shot in the head. Yes, they can take them away and then even kill them, but not so openly,” Titiev believes.

During the Russian-Chechen wars, residents of Chechnya were very active in protests, despite the dangers, but now they are hardly ready for mass protests, says Svetlana Gannushkina, chairman of the Civic Assistance Committee.

“Then, apparently, it was easier to resist against “outsiders” than it could be against conditionally “our own” in small Chechnya. It is difficult to expect mass protests against the regime of Ramzan Kadyrov now. Everyone is too interconnected,” says Gannushkina.

In her opinion, the Chechen security forces are ready to carry out any order from Ramzan Kadyrov. “Kadyrov’s words are not just a threat, but, as Kadyrov’s people themselves say, “Ramzan’s order,” which cannot be ignored,” noted Gannushkina.

The "Caucasian Knot" also wrote that on January 18, the Memorial Human Rights Center reported that after an inspection, information from telegram channels opposition to the Chechen authorities about the abduction of at least 25 residents of the village of Alkhan-Kala by Chechen security forces was confirmed.

On April 24, human rights activists reported that a group of residents of the village of Alkhan-Kala, whose whereabouts were unknown after their abduction by security forces in January, was in one of the detention centers in Chechnya  on charges of involvement in militants. Human rights activists interviewed by the Caucasian Knot noted that residents of Chechnya, whose relatives are being held by security forces, do not turn to human rights organizations for help, as they are afraid that this will worsen the situation of their relatives and the family itself.

Mass abductions in Alkhan-Kala began on the evening of January 7, a Memorial Center for Human Rights volunteer found out. According to him, the security forces took the abducted people away from the village in an unknown direction, but they did not introduce themselves or say which units they belonged to.

Human rights activists confirmed that among those abducted were 14 people, whose names were named in publications on telegram channels: Said-Magomed Ayubov, Turpal Batsaraev, Magomed Vatsiev, Ramzan Vatsiev, Samad Gerikhanov, Muslim Gerikhanov, Adlan Isaev, Usman Musaev, Khamzat Solsayev, Khalim Solsaev, Adam Solsaev (director of school No. 3), Usman Khatuev, Akhyad Khatuev and Bekhan Khatuev. Among the abducted  there are close relatives  (the Khatuev and Solsaev brothers), Memorial reported.
Open Caucasus Media, a client of the EU, Soros’ Open Society Foundations and a bunch of others, adds:
Heavily armed security forces are reported to have raided Kadi-Yurt, a Chechen village near the border with Daghestan, detaining ’at least 50’ individuals.

Chechen opposition Telegram channels 1ADAT and Niysoo on Wednesday announced that a raid had taken place in the village, with 1ADAT claiming that 50—60 people were detained in what they termed ’mopping-up operations’.

Footage published online appeared to show armoured vehicles entering the village and blocking the road entering it, with others showing security forces entering houses.

Ibragim Yangulbayev, head of the Chechen public movement 1ADAT and the corresponding Telegram channel, told OC Media that the raid began at around 17:00.

’Residents and their friends contacted us and said that raids with military equipment were currently taking place in the village of Kadi-Yurt’, said Yangulbayev. He stated that the reason for the raid was ’religious ideology’, as Sufism is considered the only permissible form of Islam in Chechnya.
Related:
Kadi-Yurt: 2006-04-16 Budyonnovsk alumni killed in Chechnya
Kadi-Yurt: 2004-12-16 Maskhadov warlord detained
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