Man of the People
Man of the People
By Sarah Karush
Former police general Aslambek Aslakhanov formalized his status as a Chechen community leader in Moscow when he was elected to the State Duma from Chechnya in August. The Moscow Times met up with him to discuss why he ran and what he hopes to accomplish in his post.
Q:
Why did you decide to run for the Duma? If I remember correctly you were against holding elections while Chechnya remains in a state of emergency?
A:
I was categorically against these elections. Twice I wrote to the Central Election Commission and asked them to cancel or postpone them. I would never have agreed to run. But I was down there [in Chechnya] bringing humanitarian aid, which we have been doing since the beginning of the war, and people — especially elderly people — gathered around and said, "Whether you like it or not, they are going to hold elections. … And someone will be elected to represent the Chechen republic. We want that person representing us to be you. You tell the truth about what’s happening here, and that’s all we ask."
In answer to these requests, I said okay. And on the last day they were accepting documents [to register as a candidate], half an hour before they finished, I gave in my documents. …
But when they say over 60 percent voted, I don’t believe that. Out of the number eligible to vote, maybe a maximum of 50 percent voted.
Q:
From your new vantage point in the Duma, does it seem that other deputies and politicians in Moscow understand the problems in Chechnya?
A:
When the so-called democratic countries pretend that they feel so sorry for the Chechens and start to dictate all sorts of conditions to Russia, it’s all a game. Not one country cares about us. They don’t want us anywhere. They never meet with us anywhere. They never want to give us political asylum. We can’t get visas anywhere, because Chechens are bandits and terrorists. This is a game, using the Chechen card against Russia. And when these masks of compassion fade, they say, "This is Russia’s internal problem; let them figure it out themselves."
And when you talk to the [Duma] deputies, it would seem that they are ready to help stop what is happening in our homeland. But these intentions are never realized.
For example, the Defense Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the FSB — all these agencies agree that a law enforcement system must be immediately created in the republic. But beyond these good intentions, nothing happens. It’s the same "temporaries" from all these agencies who keep going there, and I don’t see them doing any positive work down there. As soon as night falls, they lock themselves inside and the fighters have free rein all night. And the federal servicemen often plant mines so that they can show how brilliantly they found them. …
It’s all a game. They pump up the situation, saying, "Oh, if we leave, it will be so awful here." Why? Because their daily wages [in Chechnya] are more than a Chechen policeman gets for a month and a half.
Q:
You’re saying the continuation of the war is in their interest?
A:
Yes, it’s in their interest. They earn 900 rubles a day there. Of course, there are also those who just want to go home and didn’t want to be there in the first place, but they have no choice.
Q:
Is it also in the interest of the military chiefs?
A:
The military chiefs sit in Khankala and think they are in command, but they aren’t. The people in charge there are captains, majors, lieutenant colonels. The companies, battalions and regiments are in their hands. They don’t give a damn about the government because they’re there and we’re here.
Contract soldiers and others often lay mines themselves, and then they have reason to conduct a "mop-up." And a mop-up means looting and marauding. It means mass arrests of people who must then be bought out.
Q:
Besides bringing attention to the problems in Chechnya, what do you want to accomplish as a Duma deputy?
A:
I’m going to lobby for bills on law enforcement. If we want to create a law-based democratic state, the law enforcement agencies and secret services must follow the Constitution and the law — and not the orders of the big bosses.
You probably remember when President Putin declared that the country must have a dictatorship of law. Whether a law is bad or good, it’s the law, and it has to be followed. In both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation we have gotten used to living not according to the law and the Constitution, but according to revolutionary necessity.
Q:
But how did the law enforcement agencies lose the trust of the people and become as corrupt as they are today?
A:
Many of us who resigned from the force could have worked for decades more, but we resigned because it was impossible to work. And today we continue to see a mass exodus — people do their 20 years of service [the amount required to receive a pension] and they leave. The ones who stay are the ones with dirty hands. Not all of them, of course, but some of them.
There are some people whom I call "werewolves in uniform." But you have to understand that the current Russian realities turned them into what they are. On the paltry salary of a policeman today, you can’t support yourself, let alone your family. In the FSB, the situation’s the same, just as it is in the prosecutor’s office. There are no lawyers, they all leave. Third and fourth-year students are serving as investigators, when they don’t know even the most elementary things.
Q:
Has the situation gotten any better for Chechens in Moscow?
A:
The mass round-ups have stopped. But there is not one day in the big city of Moscow when they [the police] don’t plant drugs or ammunition on a Chechen and arrest him.
No Chechen in Moscow or anywhere in Russia is going to carry with him cartridges for a low-caliber machine gun or an automatic rifle. And he’s not going to carry around half a gram of drugs. And he’s not going to carry around explosives. Only an idiot would do this. Yet everyday, they arrest these people, and the prosecutors sanction the arrests with pleasure.
These idiotic articles appear in the newspapers. Look at this one. This paper is called Novorossisky Rabochy. Sept. 22, 2000. You remember when the terrorists took the tourists hostage in Lazarevskoye and demanded $30 million and the release of all Chechen [prisoners]. Not one Chechen was anywhere near there. The one guy with a Caucasian last name was Ossetian. But the Novorossisky Rabochy writes: "Basayev’s men storm Sochi. … According to Gazeta.ru, as of 12 p.m., the Krasnodar FSB was not able to establish the identity [of the hostage takers]. However, their ethnicity is not in doubt: They are all Chechens."
Some moron wrote this, and nobody apologized. In Russia not one person who has stirred up ethnic conflict [by insulting Chechens] has been brought to justice. Our complaints are not taken into account. These people are outside the law.
Q:
Since you were elected, have your constituents contacted you?
A:
Here is today’s mail. Over 100 letters. Everyday, there are over 100 letters.
Ninety percent are complaints about the lawlessness in Chechnya and in Russia as a whole. Out of that 90 percent, 70 percent are from Chechnya about the behavior of the representatives of federal authorities. Another 15 percent are people who are simply dying of hunger and asking for help. Chechens have never been accustomed to asking for help. If they are asking, that means they’ve crossed a threshold and they have nowhere to go.
Q:
If people want to help, are there particular organizations they can turn to?
A:
I head the Union for Peace and Harmony in Chechnya. We collect humanitarian aid and bring it to Chechnya. Our principle is to deliver it directly.
The military and the local administrations really like to hand out humanitarian aid. But as soon as you give it to them it will all be sold at the market. When we send big caravans [of aid] down there, I have to accompany them. At one time, we gave medications to a hospital, but the patients then were forced to buy the medicine from the doctors. And then I decided that the doctors should tell us what medicine the patient needs, and we will give it directly to the patient.
To find out where you can bring food, clothes and medicine for those in need in Chechnya, contact the Union for Peace and Harmony in the Chechen Republic, tel. 911-7618.
The following is account information for a fund the union set up to send children who have suffered from the conflict to a sanitorium.
Chitai charitable fund
R/C 407038104001700000
K/C 30101810500000000219
BIK 044525219
MMB - Bank Moskvy, g. Moskva
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