Bulletin of the Memorial Human Rights Center Situation in the North Caucasus conflict zone: analysis from the human rights perspective Autumn 2008

 Headquarters Under Fire

On the night to September 7 the house of the Deputy Chairwoman of the People’s Assembly of Ingushetia Tamara Khautieva came under gunfire opened by unidentified persons from machine-guns and small arms, - no-one was hurt, the roof was damaged, the glass in the windows was broken. Earlier, on August 19, the house belonging to the brother of Tamara Khautieva, Zelimkhan Khautiev, situated next to his sister’s house, came under gunfire opened by unidentified persons. Zelimkhan Khautiev was head of the department of citizens’ submissions at the President’s Administration, before that he was the head of the supervision and Auditing Bureau of the Republic of Ingushetia. According to the official version, the arrest of Magomed Yevloev during which he was killed, was made as part of the criminal case opened pursuant to the fact of gunfire attack on the house of Zelimkhan Khautiev. Yevloev was seen by prosecution as a witness in that case (www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2008/09/m146749.htm).

On September 10, in Nazran unidentified persons shot dead the head of the motor transport sector of Ingushetia Bekkhan Uruskhanovich Zyazikov, cousin of the President of the Republic. The father of Bekkhan, Uruskhan Zyazikov, was abducted in the spring 2007, was held hostage for several months and was only released in October 2007 (www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2008/09/m146752.htm).

On September 19, in the village of Ekazhevo, in the Sunzhensky district of Ingushetia a Mercedes-Brabus vehicle belonging to the deputy head of a branch of the Republican Radio and Television Transmission Centre, a distant relative of the President Tugan (Tukhan) Zyazikov, was blown up – he himself and his passenger received injuries of their lower limbs (www.memo.ru/hr/hotpoints/caucas1/msg/2008/09/m146761.htm).

On September 30, in Nazran a car was blown up on the route along which the escort of Ingushetia’s Minister of Interior Musa Medov was traveling. The bomber driving the car was killed, and there were wounded among local residents. Several house properties around the place of the incident were seriously damaged. The force of the explosion was sufficient to make it heard within the radius of several kilometers. Nobody of the minister’s escort sustained any injuries (www.memo.ru/2008/09/30/3009081.htm).

On October 6 in Nazran the car belonging to the legal adviser of the antenna and mast constructions factory Anzor Zyazikov, a distant relative of the President Zyazikov came under fire. Zyaikov escaped the attack unscathed, his passenger was killed.

On October 8 in Nazran the car belonging to the deputy head of the motor transportation unit of the Ingushetia Ministry of Interior Daud Medov, a nephew of the Minister of Interior Musa Medov. The explosive device was attached to the bottom of the Lada-Priora vehicle. At the time of the blast, the car was parked at the gate of his house. No-one was hurt and no damage was done, the car burnt out (ИА REGNUM, 8.10.2008)

On October 26 in Nazran a car carrying the Deputy of Ingushetia’s Minister of Economy Arsamak Zyazikov, a relation of the President’s, and the President’s aide, Said Kotiev, got blasted. Both got off with light injuries (Narodnoye Sobraniye Respubiki Ingushetia website, 27.10.2008).

On October 27 officer of the traffic police Zakre Zyazikov (who, according to the Ingushetia.Org website, is a relation of Murat Zyazikov) became target of a gunfire attack. Zakre Zyazikov received grave wounds and was taken to hospital (Kavkazsky uzel, 27.10.2008).

Quite naturally, blood feud against the Zyazikov family has never been officially declared (if one can generally speak of the possibility of its official declaration in the XXI century). Similarly, Zyazikov himself always flatly denied any connection between the attacks on his relatives and the murder of Yevloyev and his own person (in an interview given to the REN-TV television channel http://ingushetia.org/news/15711.html). It is quite obvious that the situation created around the President of Ingushetia by the late October was perfectly intolerable to him and he was compelled to spend more time taking care of his own safety than of the problems of the republic under his leadership. It is highly probable that the hunt against the President and members of his family had its part in prompting the Kremlin to finally make the clearly belated decision on a drastic change of its policy in Ingushetia – the decision that was made amidst the practically raging civil war in the republic.