Actual News from Chechnya

News update

The families of those who were killed in the terrorist attacks in the villages of Znamenskoye in the Nadterechoye district and Belorechye in the Gudermes district will be granted 100,000 rubles for each family member killed in the attacks. The Russian government made this decision at a meeting on May 29. On May 12, a suicide bomber driving a truck stuffed with explosives set them off, killing 60 people, mainly civilians, in Znamenskoye. On May 14, a female suicide bomber activated an explosive device strapped to her body. The resutling explosion claimed the lives of 16 people. The tragedy occurred during a religious ceremony between the villages of Belorechye and Iliskhan-Yurt. The government information department told Interfax that 14,200 rubles will also be provided for the burial of each victim of the recent bombings in Chechnya. In addition, those who were lightly wounded in the blasts will receive 15,000 rubles each, and those who suffered more serious wounds will be given 50,000 rubles. The government also decided to finance the rehabilitation of children affected by terrorist attacks in Chechnya and children whose parents were killed in such attacks.
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Personnel rotation began in the airborne operations force in the framework of the Combined Federal Force in the North Caucasus, a competent source in the Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency. The rotation started in line with a directive of Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin and Airborne Forces Commander Georgy Shpak, the source said. "The first train with a battalion-size task force made on the basis of the 51st paratrooper regiment of the 106th airborne division leaves Tula for the North Caucasus on Thursday. The train carries about 500 paratroopers with armament and military hardware," the source noted. The rotation will be completed before the end of June, he went on. A new shift of paratroopers will replace the personnel of the 119th paratrooper company of the 106th division. The division under command of Major General Yevgeny Savilov is headquartered in Tula, central European Russia. "The 51st regiment's paratroopers have taken a three-month training course at a proving range near Tula using a special program, and they are ready to accomplish combat missions in forest covered mountains of the North Caucasus," the source said. He stressed that all paratrooper task forces will be replaced with new ones during the current rotation. The Airborne Forces maintain a regiment-size task force, two battalion-size task forces, a composite reconnaissance detachment, and an artillery battalion in Chechnya. The total number of paratroopers exceeds 2,500. Paratroopers are stationed in basic areas in southern Chechnya.
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Chechen history

Chechnya | Questions and answers

This pamphlet is about Chechnya , a Russian territory which has witnessed the most tragic events over the past decade. The book is the latest update on the Chechen Republic . And this is very important, since a lack of fresh and accurate information about events in Chechnya generates many distorted conceptions and rumours - both within and outside Russia . For example, that Chechen society is allegedly inherently alien to Russia , that pro-Russian elements in the republic are marginalised; and lastly, that Russian power structures are fighting the Chechen people, rather than armed bandit groups. The reality, however, is that only with the return of the legitimate authorities are villages and towns being restored, children going to school for the first time in many years, and pensioners receiving long-forgotten pensions, i.e. a social rebirth is underway. Lying ahead are a referendum on a new Chechen constitution, and parliamentary and presidential elections. These votes will be held, despite continued attempts by bandit groups and their leaders to scupper the process of normalisation in the republic, the latest terrorist act being the bombing of the republican government building. The war being waged by Chechen separatists against federal forces and more often than not against their own co-citizens is by no means a "national liberation struggle of the Chechen people", but an episode in the overall offensive by international terrorism on the fundamental principles of modern civilisation. The facts show that being a part of the Russian Federation in no way threatens the Chechen Republic 's cultural identity, the free use of its own language, and preaching Islam. On the contrary, it was during de facto "independence" from Russia that the Chechen people suffered a humanitarian tragedy on an unprecedented scale. Hostage-taking, the slave trade and plundering came to form the economic basis of the new regime, while chaos and war became the form of its political existence. We want to emphasise once more: Chechnya is part of Russia , geographically, politically and civilisation-wise. So a hypothetical triumph of radical Islamism on its territory would be anti-historical. Such a development would signify the establishment in the midst of Europe of a Taliban-like regime, with all ensuing consequences for the international community. The corporate author - journalists of the Russian Information Agency Novosti - have attempted to be as brief as possible on providing answers to the most-often aked questions (above all posed by a foreign audience) about the Chechen issue. Hence the book's title: " Chechnya : Questions and Answers". It draws heavily on information provided by various Russian ministries and departments that in one or another way are involved in normalising life in the republic.
Russian Information Agency Novosti
(in detail ...)

Chechen economics

State-owned farm Chentiurtovsky stores up daily bread

The work of builders, doctors and teachers is honorable, but crop growers deserve particular merit, for it is they who provide us with our daily bread. Farmers at the state-owned farm Chentiurtovsky in the Grozny rural district work hard for that noble goal. The personnel are mostly young, with an average age of 25 years. They work along with experienced farmers. Fieldwork engages 80 people. These are 50 machine-operators and 30 workers. Now that harvesting is over, machine-operators began repair of combine harvesters. The farmers have something to be proud of. The state-owned farm Chentiurtovsky has all of its land sown, 80 hectares of oats, 40 hectares of pea, 100 hectares of corn and 100 hectares of Sudan grass. Almost all spring crops will be stored up for fodder. The state farms administration intends to promote cattle breeding. Dairy farm has recently received more than 100 cattle. Director of the farm Aziz Abdurzakov believes that it has good prospects. The farm will expand and the village will have new jobs.
(more...)

Issue 96
30.05.03

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

30 May 2003  The district music school in Shelkovskaya in Chechnya badly needs help
The school has issued graduation certificates to 5 hundred students in the period since it first opened in 1963. Many are now professional musicians. Seven teach at their old school, instructing over 130 new students there in piano, guitar and accordion. For Director Liubov Ivanova, it's her 32nd year at the Shelkovskaya music school. She says student diligence is at an all-time high, with not a single instance of truancy recorded this academic year. She also praises a 4th-grader named Eset Israpilova for being an outstanding prodigy. At exams, the girl performs at least eight pieces instead of the required four. The students give several concerts each year, usually in local schools and at the District Culture Centre when this hosts events on national public holidays. After losing its own building to fighting, the music school now rents a small studio at the Centre. It also operates branches in Sary-Su and Grebenskaya. Only piano classes are available there. Of the pre-war inventory of instruments, only six old pianos remain. A music school in the region of Krasnodar has donated an accordion. At least three more are badly needed, so that students could form an accordion ensemble. There is an acute need in guitars as well. Mrs Ivanova expects help from wealthy members of the Chechen diaspora with musical or pedagogical inclinations or family links to Shelkovskaya. She reckons there must be successful entrepreneurs among the graduates of her Shelkovskaya school. Each new instrument would be of great help. Gratitude will be in the form of excellent music-making, Mrs Ivanova says.
(more News from Chechnya)

29 May 2003  Personnel rotation begins in airborne force in Chechnya
Personnel rotation began in the airborne operations force in the framework of the Combined Federal Force in the North Caucasus, a competent source in the Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency. The rotation started in line with a directive of Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin and Airborne Forces Commander Georgy Shpak, the source said. "The first train with a battalion-size task force made on the basis of the 51st paratrooper regiment of the 106th airborne division leaves Tula for the North Caucasus on Thursday. The train carries about 500 paratroopers with armament and military hardware," the source noted. The rotation will be completed before the end of June, he went on. A new shift of paratroopers will replace the personnel of the 119th paratrooper company of the 106th division. The division under command of Major General Yevgeny Savilov is headquartered in Tula, central European Russia. "The 51st regiment's paratroopers have taken a three-month training course at a proving range near Tula using a special program, and they are ready to accomplish combat missions in forest covered mountains of the North Caucasus," the source said. He stressed that all paratrooper task forces will be replaced with new ones during the current rotation. The Airborne Forces maintain a regiment-size task force, two battalion-size task forces, a composite reconnaissance detachment, and an artillery battalion in Chechnya. The total number of paratroopers exceeds 2,500. Paratroopers are stationed in basic areas in southern Chechnya.
(more News from Chechnya...)

29 May 2003  State-owned farm Chentiurtovsky stores up daily bread
The work of builders, doctors and teachers is honorable, but crop growers deserve particular merit, for it is they who provide us with our daily bread. Farmers at the state-owned farm Chentiurtovsky in the Grozny rural district work hard for that noble goal. The personnel are mostly young, with an average age of 25 years. They work along with experienced farmers. Fieldwork engages 80 people. These are 50 machine-operators and 30 workers. Now that harvesting is over, machine-operators began repair of combine harvesters. The farmers have something to be proud of. The state-owned farm Chentiurtovsky has all of its land sown, 80 hectares of oats, 40 hectares of pea, 100 hectares of corn and 100 hectares of Sudan grass. Almost all spring crops will be stored up for fodder. The state farms administration intends to promote cattle breeding. Dairy farm has recently received more than 100 cattle. Director of the farm Aziz Abdurzakov believes that it has good prospects. The farm will expand and the village will have new jobs.
(more News from Chechnya)

Russia - Chechnya

Sports and tourism

It was not until the 18th century that the Chechen system of physical education started taking shape. Many sports were meant exclusively for boys. The boys were to be brought up agile, strong and hardy. They were taught to bear arms and ride on horseback. They were subjected to training that made them fit to endure the deprivations and physical strain of a warrior's life. Experienced grownups were entrusted with the upbringing of seven-year-old boys. One tutor took up to 14 boys on week-long hiking expeditions to the mountains, taught them to ride on horseback and bear arms. The children took no food to the mountains: they were supposed to be able to get it themselves. What might be described as physical fitness classes were often held at the bottom of a canyon: the boys practiced sabering, arrow-shooting, wrestling, tree and mountain climbing, swimming, fencing, stone-throwing, weight-lifting and camouflaging techniques. They were taught to ford rivers with heavy munition and all their clothes on. The training sessions were held far from the village: it was undignified for the villagers to watch the trainees. Competitions were then held for the people to see what the boys had learnt. One of the games that the boys were invited to play resembles today's rugby. It is called "cheese game." A head of cheese, put into a leather bag, served for a ball. The boys formed two teams each of which had a cheese bag. The eldest villager played the role of the referee. He gave a signal for the two teams to try to get hold of each other's cheese bag and to carry both its own and the other bag to an appointed place. The players were allowed to do anything in an effort to seize the bag. They were allowed to knock one another off their feet, pin down their adversaries' heads, pinion their arms and legs, lift up and carry away the bag-holder. A cheese ball match could take hours. The onlookers cheered up their favorites with shouts and regular battle cries. Cheese ball was also played on horseback.
(in detail ...)

Chechen tarditions

The word "Nokhchallah" does not lend itself to translation . But it may and must be explained. "Nokhcho" stands for Chechen."Nokhchallah" brings together all the specific properties of the Chechen character. It implies a whole gamut of moral and ethical norms. It may be described as the Chechen code of honor. Chivalry, gentility, diplomatic skills, manliness, generosity and reliability are the qualities which a child of a hardline Chechen family imbibes with, as they say, his mother's milk. And the Chechen code of honor is rooted in the remote days of Chechen history. In the severe conditions of bygone years a refusal to open the door to a stranger could lead to lethal frostbites. He could succumb to fatigue or famine, fall prey to a wild beast or highway robbers. The ancestral tradition which has been held sacred, demands that a stranger be welcomed in, seated by the fire, offered food and shelter for the night. Hospitality is, thus, "nokhchallah." The narrow roads and paths of Chechnya zigzag around mountain cliffs and on the brink of precipices. A fight or a heated argument may send one down into the abyss. Politeness and willingness to compromise are "nokhchallah." The strenuous conditions of their life taught the highlanders to help and support one another, which is also "nokhchallah." But "nokhchallah" has nothing to do with the Table of Ranks. There have been neither princes nor serfs among the Chechens. "Nokhchallah" is an ability to deal with people without showing your privileged position. The privileged should be extra polite and accommodating to avert hurting anyone's feelings. If two men meet and one of them is riding on horseback and the other walking, the one who is riding shall be the first to utter words of greeting. If the one who is walking is older that the one who is riding, the rider shall dismount to greet the older man. "Nokhchallah" is friendship that lasts all life: in joy and sorrow. Highlanders hold friendship sacred. Inattentiveness or impoliteness shall be forgiven if they are displayed to a brother, but to a friend - never! "Nokhchallah" is special respect for women. A man dismounts his horse before entering the village where the relatives of his mother or his wife live. And here is a story about a man who asked to spend a night in a house that stood on the outskirts of a Chechen village, without knowing that she was alone. The hostess could not reject his request. She gave him something to eat and made a bed for him. In the morning, the man realized that the woman was alone and that she had spent the night sitting by a lit lantern in the anteroom. As he was hurriedly washing up, he brushed the woman's hand with his small finger by accodent. The man cut the finger off with his knife before leaving that place. Only a man brought up in the spirit of "nokhchallah" will go to such pains to protect a woman's honor. "Nokhchallah" rules out all attempts at subjugation. Male Chechens have, since times immemorial, been brought up as protectors and trained to bear arms. "Come at liberty" is the oldest of the greetings in actual use in Chechnya. The freedom of spirit and readiness to fight to protect it is "nokhchallah." "Nokhchallah" demands that Chechens respect all other men, regardless of their social origins, family background and religious beliefs. The bigger the difference between a Chechen and someone else, the more respect the Chechen shall accord that someone. You have a chance to be forgiven for hurting a Moslem's feelings because, people say, you may meet the person whose feelings you have hurt on Judgement Day. But all is lost if you have hurt the feelings of a person of a different creed, because there is no chance of ever meeting him. The sin will stay with you forever. "Nokhchallah" is no book of do's and don't's. It is of their own free will that the Chechens obey its rules. It is a condensed formula of a Chechen way of life.
(more about chechen traditions...)

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