The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue 3 28.06.02 Chechnya speaking Government head of the District of Shali Mr Sherip Alikhodjayev speaks about local clean-ups in the wake of the floods. (in Russian) (more... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ram/466ch.asx) Chechen deputy government head Mr Nasruddin Magomedov: "All people who suffered in the latest floods will receive government help." (in Russian) (more... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/ram/465ch.asx) Famous Chechens Pro-democracy activist and later staunch Bolshevik Osman Akhtakhanov (1881 - 1932) Following the recapture of the North Caucasus from anti-Bolshevik forces in the spring of 1920, the Bolsheviks of the Terek Region, which included what is now Chechnya and Ingushetia, elected him to their five-member politburo. As leading Bolsheviks, he and Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Chechnya Tashtemir Eldarkhanov represented the Chechens at the Constituent Assembly of the Terek Region's Peoples in November 1920. The Assembly declared what is known as the Highland Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and elected Akhtakhanov to sit on the Republic's Central Executive Committee. In 1923, days after the Highland Republic spawned the Chechen Autonomous Region as a separate entity, he was elected to the Revolutionary Council of that Region and appointed to head the Region's office in Moscow, at the All-Union Central Executive Committee of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. After returning to Grozny in 28, Akhtakhanov headed the city's labour exchange until this closed in the summer of 29. His last post was at the head of Chechnya's Regional Children's Affairs Commission. In an emotional reaction to the autocratic methods of Joseph Stalin, with whom he got personally acquainted during his time as an underground revolutionary activist, Akhtakhanov put a call to the Kremlin dictator and challenged him to imagine a face-to-face meeting between them. Then he fired all seven bullets in his revolver into the microphone. Local doctors tried to save Akhtakhanov by declaring him insane. Officials in Moscow disputed the diagnosis, transferred Akhtakhanov to a Moscow prison hospital and did away with him within days. His grave is in the Tatar Cemetery in the Russian capital. (more from site... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=societyeng&row=4) Chechen ethnos The Tatar-Mongo invasion During the Tatar invasion the Alania kingdom in the western part of Chechnya was devastated completely by hordes of two Genghiz Khans warlords Dzhebe and Subedei, who had moved into the territory from Derbent, and the population of Chechnyas plains found themselves vulnerable to the nomads. Tatars spared no one. The civilian population was either killed or made into slaves. Livestock and property were plundered. Hundreds of villages and settlements were reduced to ashes. Another blow against the foothills of the Caucasus came from Batys hordes in 1238-1240. In those years Tatar hordes rolled through the countries of Eastern Europe causing widespread destruction. Chechnya too had its share of the lot. Economically, politically, sociallly and spiritually the people of Chechnya were thrown centuries back. The Chechens of the plains managed to escape to the mountains. Fully aware of the fact that a Tatar invasion of the mountains would mean complete annihilation or assimilation, Vainakhs put up fierce and heroic resistance. Due to the fact that the part of Nakhs retreated high into the mountains, the people managed to preserve their language, customs and culture and evade the otherwise inevitable assimilation by numerous steppe tribes. The legend of how their ancestors fought unequal battle to preserve the nations independence and culture has been passed on from generation to generation of Chechens. (more about ethnos... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=etneng&row=7) Chechen diary 28 June 2002 Chechnya speedily clears arrears in pensions, allowances and public sector pay According to Chechnya's Finance Minister Sergei Abramov, all 20 thousand of the region's education staff are now paid on time. To keep them paid, the republic disbursed 480 roubles in 2001. December that year saw an end to wage arrears in schools. This year, the teachers received summer leave allowances on top of regular wages for the first time in a decade. The federal Social Affairs Ministry has allocated 550 million roubles for hiking from 150 to 400 roubles the monthly benefits to Chechnya's 100 thousand registered unemployed. Problems with child benefits, if any, arise from the return of refugees and internally displaced people to their home towns and villages in Chechnya. Children in their ranks have significantly swelled the republic's underage population, and the latest official estimate of 400 thousand has to be revised. One fifth of Chechnya's people receive pensions. The minimum monthly pension has climbed to 702 roubles, and the average, to 1380 roubles. Five of Chechnya's nineteen administrative districts already run modern computer databases for allocating and paying pensions. The republic's handicapped include some 12 hundred children. The Chechen Labour and Social Affairs Ministry is opening a regional re-habilitation centre for them in Argun this year. Labour and Social Affairs Minister Magomed Vakhayev sets his region's poverty line at 1874 roubles a month. This is significantly more than elsewhere in Russia, because many essential items are not available locally and have to be imported. (more from site http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=diaryeng&row=1) 27 June 2002 Chechnya prepares to welcome forced migrants from Ingushetia and Pankisi The number of residents of the Southern Federal District who, due to regional conflicts and for other reasons left their homes totals about 600,000. Some 32,000 of them stay in tent camps in Ingushetia, and there were 7,000 refugees registered in Pankisi gorge in Georgia last year. Most peaceful residents intend to return home, as has been acknowledged by the delegation of the European Union, who visited Chechnya in mid-May. The delegation was led by the Director of the European Refugees Bureau under the Authority of the Supreme Commissar for the Affairs of Refugees Raymond Hool.The government of the Chechen Republic is prepared to help refugees staying in tent camps in Ingushetia to return home before the end of summer. All the prerequisites for that are in place, said Chairman of the Chechen Government Stanislav Ilyasov, who on May 15 met with a UN delegation. Russias Minister for the Affairs of Chechnya Vladimir Elagin made the following statement concerning the refugees settled in the Pankisi gorge: We are able to ensure both the social and economic aspect of the return process for refugees from Pankisi. The plan for assistance to Chechnyas residents returning home, which provides for the creation of every condition necessary for their life there, was scrutinised at a session of the Commission for the Restoration of Social Sphere and Economy of Chechnya. Taking part in the session were Vladimir Elagin, Russias Minister for the Affairs of Chechnya, Viktor Kazantsev, Presidential Representative in the Southern Federal District, Aakhmad Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Administration, Murat Ziazikov, President of Ingushetia and other officials. Issues of stay certification and registration, occupation, allowance provision and housing restoration for the returnees to Chechnya were on the agenda. (more from Chechen diary http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=diaryeng&row=2) 25 June 2002 A mission of Islamic Relief will be opened in Chechnya Under an agreement reached with the Deputy Chechen Prime Minister Musa Doschukaev and the head of the organization of Islamic Relief Hani al Banna its mission will be opened in Grozny in July. According to Musa Doschukaev, this was a result of long negotiations on shifting of the humanitarian agencys activity to the Chechen Republic. This will help to expand its activity designed to assist Chechen refugees who return home. The Deputy Prime Minister said that the Chechen authorities are keenly interested in expansion of the activity of humanitarian agencies in Chechnya. He emphasized that many refugees in Ingushetia had no desire to return home since they fear that they lose help from humanitarian agencies. The Islamic Relief that has head offices in Britain and the United States is functioning in more than 20 countries, including the former Soviet Republics. Earlier, Islamic Relief was accused of having links with special services international extremist groups of several countries. Speaking to journalists Chechen Prime Minister Stanislav Ilyasov has admitted that the government had fears concerning such reports. He said that the government was aware that the organization gives humanitarian aid. Islamic Relief plans to help in the construction of prefabricated buildings for schools and hospitals. (more from Chechen diary http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=diaryeng&row=1) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chechen history The nature and evolution of the modern chechen crisis Nature of the Chechen crisis The Chechen crisis is a very complex phenomenon whose many elements are still hard to assess. Events like this defy simple categorization because each side has its own justification. And still, the overall situation has already been studied enough for us to draw certain conclusions. We see the Chechen crisis as one of the so-called controlled conflicts. The August 1991 events in Moscow and the Soviet breakup that followed gave the multiethnic population of the then Chechen-Ingush Republic a unique chance to constitutionally replace the Communist bureaucracy with a democratic system, determine the republics status in a referendum and work out an acceptable relationship with the Russian Federation with an eye to gradually obtaining true economic and political independence as part of a reformed federation. This scenario of resolving the mounting problems of power and sovereignty offered by the more democratically minded Chechens did not sit well with certain political forces in Moscow and Chechnya though. As a result, Dudayev and the political forces behind him openly staked on criminal money and, radicalizing the idea of Chechen sovereignty, won the support of the local radicals and seized power. To many people in the Chechen-Ingush Republic it was already clear Dudayev and his peoples desire to break the republic away from Russia without a referendum, the wholesale use of force, the lack of political culture among local and federal elites, the criminal nature of the existing regimes, general uncertainty about the extent of sovereignty the republic needed and the concerted effort bent by anti-Chechen forces would inevitably lead to another major tragedy for the Chechen people. Unfortunately, thats exactly what happened fully in line with the goals set by anti-Russian and anti-Chechen forces both in Russia and abroad. The idea of full independence for Chechnya is a lie only a naive person can buy. Moreover, political, legal, economic and cultural ties with Russia are the very livelihood of the Chechen people. Unlike many, Dzhokhar Dudayev was fully aware of this and used his show radicalism on the sovereignty issue as a smokescreen to disguise his main goal the legitimization of his power. (in detail... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=historyeng&row=3) Copyright CHECHNYA FREE.RU http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=news.media.chechnyafree http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com