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Ulman case continues to alarm Chechen public opinion

By Ruslan Isayev

CHECHNYA – The recent statement by Duma deputy Dmitry Rogozin and the subsequent announcement by the Rostov-on-Don district prosecutor’s office that it intends to conduct searches at the homes of the relatives of the people who were murdered by the Ulman group have seriously disturbed public opinion in Chechnya. The official authorities have so far been sparing with their comments, but their attitude is clear, as both the Public Chamber and the Chechen Human Rights Ombudsman have made sharp rebuttals to Rogozin and the prosecutor’s office.

The notion put about by these latter sources that Russian spetsnaz officers Ulman, Kalagansky and Voyevodin, who have deliberately evaded justice, could have been kidnapped by human rights defenders or by relatives of the six people killed by the officers in Chechnya, no longer even provokes a bitter smile. By issuing such statements, deputy Rogozin is merely opening the eyes of many Chechens who were previously keen to call themselves Russian patriots. Rogozin is making it perfectly clear who is who in today’s Russia.

Unfortunately, attempts to play the “Chechen card” are still ongoing. The elections to the State Duma will soon be taking place, and it is the general view of independent Chechen analysts that Rogozin is probably trying to drum up votes for himself.  However, on closer analysis it is hard to guess, from his behaviour and his attitude to Chechens, what this politician is trying to achieve.  After all, it was precisely thanks to the Chechens that he was able to secure the release of one his relatives from captivity in the republic.

This is recalled by the human rights defender Imran Ezhiyev, who was himself at the centre of that story, as he told PW:

"In 2000 two Russian women came to see me. One of them was Maria Chernikova, Dmitry Rogozin’s sister-in-law. These women’s sons had been doing military service in Chechnya, but had gone missing, and with the assistance of the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee the women came to Chechnya and asked me for help.  At the time I knew nothing of the case, but after lengthy inquiries (which lasted more than three months) I managed to find out what had happened. Both soldiers were sold to Chechen commanders for 4 thousand US dollars. The Chechens bought them in order to exchange them for their adolescent sons who had been arbitrarily detained by the Russian military. The story would have remained unpublicized, but for some reason one of the officers blabbed about it to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers. Our inquiries produced nothing, and I had to resort to ‘popular diplomacy’: on Fridays, when a large number of residents gather for noon prayers at mosques, I used to make appeals for the soldiers’ release in the Shali district. I probably succeeded in persuading these people to release the young men, though other factors may also have been influential. But the fact is that the two soldiers were freed. "

"During all this time the two women were there, either in my house or with my relatives. When they got their sons back, they returned home with them. After they left, I immediately began to have problems with the special services. The special forces had formed the impression that I knew the people who had detained the soldiers. By making these statements about the Ulman group, Rogozin is apparently ‘thanking’  the Chechens, and Ezhiyev in particular, the very people who helped to secure his relative’s release. There’s truth in the Chechen saying:  ‘If you don’t do a man a good turn, he won’t do you a bad one.’

No one in Chechnya is in any doubt that the spetsnaz officers, who shot six unarmed civilians, leaving 21 children orphaned, have managed to escape with the help of senior military officers. And the theory that they are being held by relatives of the people they killed, and also by human rights defenders, is simply absurd.

On the contrary - as Vadim Rechkalov wrote in a recent article for Moskovsky Komsomolets: “If the Ulman group is brought to trial, we shall lose the spetsnaz altogether.”

(D/T)

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 · Chechen activists rally in Grozny to seek retrial in Ulman case (PW, 7.7.2005)