Ingushetia 2007: what is coming next?

4. Summer-Autumn 2007

In the summer demonstrative brutal murders of representatives of non-Vainakh population again began to happen: from June to mid-November, twenty-four people belonging to the minority nationalities in Ingushetia had become victims of terrorists.

Counter-terrorism operations continue to be accompanied with grave violations of the rights of the local residents. During this period, incidents of human rights abuses in the Republic became even more flagrant and massive.

Since the second half of the summer a trend for greater participation of the local "siloviks" in counter-terrorism operations has emerged. This may be due to the appointment of Musa Medov as Minister of the Interior. Following numerous protest actions of Ingush citizens against the abductions by the security services arriving to Ingushetia from North Ossetia, Medov promised: the detaineesd would no longer be brought to Vladikavkaz. During the summer and autumn of 2007 special operations increasingly involved Ingush servicemen, and among places where the detaineesd were exposed to "illegal methods of interrogation" names of the law enforcement agencies of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Ingushetia have been increasingly appearing. Such "Ingushatization" of the conflict can have very dangerous and long-lasting consequences.

As a result of the events happening in the Republic of Ingushetia, the protest potential of the population has increased sharply. During the summer and autumn more and more massive protests of local residents have been occurring - a new reality for Ingushetia. Twice Ingushetia has seen massive riots.

4.1. Escalation of the militants’ activity

Only in the course of the first two summer months about two dozen attacks on the military and the Ministry of Interior personnel were committed, resulting in the death of eight people, among them, four civilians killed by random bullets and shell splinters. More than fifteen people were injured.

Some crimes were committed on the grounds of religious intolerance. It is known that the Muslim community in the republic is divided into the followers of the "traditional" Islam (supported by the majority of believers), and the followers of the branch of Islam, which is non-traditional for Ingushetia. The State supports the so-called “tariqa” which has been established in Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan over the last century - the Sufi branch of Islam. The vast majority of believers in the country are traditionally adherents of this teaching. Since the late XX century preachers of a different teaching - the Salafism Islam - calling for a "return to the original Islam” appeared in the North Caucasus. Supporters of this teaching, which Russia not quite accurately labels as Wahhabism, are under close surveillance of the special security services.

The militants professing radical Islamism have been committing attacks against the clergy, who, in their view, are collaborating with the authorities and with the special security services. When the ”siloviks” have to investigate crimes, they, in the first place, "work through" the lists of "non-traditional" Muslims who are perceived as suspicious by definition. Representatives of this group primarily become victims of illegal actions on the part of the special security services, law enforcement agencies and the military.

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Here is a list of attacks carried out by the militants during the summer.

Interfax news agency, Itar-Tass news agency, newspaper «Vremya Novostei», newspaper «Kommersant», IA Kavkaz-Uzel, gazeta.ru, IA Regnum, Ingushetia.RU, NEWSru.com, polit.ru, Ekho Moskvy radio station , REGIONS.RU, RIA Novosti, the official web-site of the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation.

In the morning of June 3 a bomb exploded at the gate of a private house belonging to the Rector of the Islamic Institute Magomed-Bashir Aushev located in the city of Nazran on Tolstogo st.

On June, 7 in Nazran a police patrol stopped a passenger car for checking documents and came under open fire.

On the night of June 10 in Nazran a hand grenade exploded in the yard of the house belonging to Magomed Kartoyev, head of the management department of FMS RI. Nobody was injured.

Late in the evening of June 16, unidentified people opened fire at a group of young people who had stopped for some rest near the waterway in the vicinity of the village of Ekazhevo. Three people were killed, two were wounded. One of the killed three was a police officer, one of those wounded - an OMON officer.

On June 21, in Nazran the car of Yuri Ivashov, the Senior Prosecutor of the Head Department of the Prosecutor' General’s office for the Southern Federal District of Russia came under fire, Ivashov received an non-severe gutter wound as a result.

In the morning of June 26 in the city of Nazran militants opened fire near the place of deployment of the Nazran frontier guards detachment. Random bullets flew into the window of a house on Moscovskaya street, opposite the frontier detachment base, killing a sixteen-year girl - Makka Ismailova.

On the night of July 30 in Karabulak a hand grenade was thrown into the courtyard of a house belonging to a police officer, no-one was injured. On the same night in the town of Malgobek a police officer was wounded with shrapnel from a grenade thrown into the courtyard of the house,.

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By the summer of 2007, the following troops were permanently deployed in Ingushetia: in Nazran - the 126^thth regiment of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Interior and in stanitsa Troitskaya - the 503^th motorized infantry regiment of the 9^th motorized infantry division of the 58^th Army of the Ministry of Defense. On August 8 and 9 additional military units of the Russian Ministry of Defense were introduced, numbering about 2,500 soldiers of whom 1,500 were stationed in the Sunzhensky district (the camp was set up next to village of Alkhasty), while the remaining 1,000 were stationed in the Malgobeksky district (the camp was set up next to the village of Achaluki). A significant number of armored personnel carriers and other military equipment were brought in.

Paradoxically, the intensification of the ”anti-terrorism activities” of the state security services was followed by an even greater escalation of the militants’ activity. The peak of aggravation of the situation happened at the end of August when a day would not pass without some news of blasts, and attacks by terrorists coming in. Militants were attacking soldiers in broad daylight in busy settlements, often - in crowded places, and almost always had no difficulty in escaping from the scene of action. Despite the significant presence of ”siloviks” in the republic and a dense network of checkpoints and outposts, only in few cases the assailants were detained within a short while.

The victims of the attacks were primarily soldiers and local policemen. The bloodiest attack can by right be considered the August 30 attack that happened in the centre of Nazran, when the explosion of a mined car killed four policemen. According to the Prosecutor of the Republic of Ingushetia Yu. N. Turygin, soldiers often became targeted as a result of their own lack of discipline since they failed to follow the established routes and neglected the security measures. Negligence led to traffic accidents. Thus, on August 29 on the “Kavkaz” motorway near the bridge over the Sunzha river in the Barsukinsky district of Nazran a military armoured personnel carrier collided with an UAZ armored vehicle which was carrying soldiers. As a result of the collision, "UAZ" caught fire, the three soldiers inside the vehicle were killed.

However, the majority of soldiers and policemen perished at the hands of the militants.

On August 6 in Malgobek a driver of the Malgobeksky district department of internal affairs Alikhan Albakov was shot dead.

On August 11, in stanitsa Troitskaya unidentified people opened fire at the Acting Chief of the Sunzhensky district department of internal affairs Issa Merzhoyev from a car driving past at full speed. The policeman was taken to the hospital in a critical state.

On August 13 at about 12 p.m. in the village of Ekazhevo a traffic police patrol car came under fire, two policemen were wounded.

On the same day, during a special operation in the forest area near the village of Yandare the soldiers of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Interior came under open fire. Three soldiers were wounded.

On the night from 16 to 17 August in stanitsa six shots from a hand grenade launcher Troitskaya came from a car driving up to the location of the 503^th motorized infantry regiment. No-one was injured.

On August 17 an explosive device was discovered in the territory of the Karabulaksky refinery.

On August 19, in the town of Karabulak unidentified people driving a Zhiguli car wounded two local residents sitting on a bench by opening fire at them from a Makarov pistol.

On August 20, in the forest area near the village of Ghalashki the insurgents opened fire against soldiers of the Interior troops, who were conducting search activities in this area. No-one was injured.

In the morning of August 21, in the village of Barsuki a car carrying the Ingush Ministry of Interior special battalion personnel was exposed to open fire. Pugoyev Salman, the driver, was wounded as a result.

On the same day, at about 2 pm, in Nazran, at the entrance to the Frontier Service Department for the Republic of Ingushetia a soldier of the border troops was wounded from automatic weapons. The republican law enforcement services denied this, saying that the soldier suffered as a result of careless handling of weapons.

On the same day, a unit of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Interior was ambushed and came under fire in the forest area near the village of Dattykh. One soldier enlisted under contract was injured. This was reported by the temporary headquarters of the united forces in the North Caucasus, but the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Interior of RI denied that the shooting had taken place.

On August 22 in stanitsa Troitskaya the insurgents opened fire at a police car from automatic weapons, two policemen were wounded.

In the evening of August 22 on the road between the villages of Yandare and Surkhakhi a convoy of policemen and soldiers of the Ministry of Interior Internal Troops came under attack. An armored personnel carrier was blown up on a mine and after that the convoy was exposed to open fire. An OMON officer from the Rostov region serving on a mission in Ingushetia, died as a result, a platoon commander and four conscripts were wounded.

On the night of August 24 in the town of Karabulak two shepherds from Dagestan were shot dead by unidentified people. Later, the following message appeared on a web site belonging to the militant group: this was the revenge on those who had cooperated with the law enforcement services.

On the same day in the village of Ekazhevo unidentified people in two cars, opened fire at the car carrying two young men; both were wounded of different degrees of severity.

In the evening of August 31 in Nazran, unidentified people wearing masks, armed with automatic rifles, stopped, beat and robbed three traffic police officers. The policemen had their government-issued weapons, permits, money and mobile phones taken away. The victims were taken to hospital.