Actual News from Chechnya

News update

The Russian minister for national policy Vladimir Zorin backs the State Duma's (lower house) initiative to toughen punishment for terrorism. "The fight against terrorism requires stronger counteraction against this evil on all fronts, including tougher legislation," Zorin told RIA Novosti. "Terrorism is a danger number one, and both society and authorities agree with this," said the minister. "Hence, the problem of terrorism should be addressed with an entire complex of measures." At issue, Zorin continued, is not only the sentence but also such mechanisms as the thwarting of financial channels of terror and the upgrading of training methods to raise citizens' vigilance in regard to this problem.
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The Russian Interior Ministry said no reprisals will be initiated against the law-obedient Chechen citizens who are to be deported to Russia from the Netherlands. "The Netherlands made the decision to deport the Chechen asylum seekers to Russia, guided by their own laws. Russian law- enforcement agencies are acting on the basis of Russian law: if those who return to Russia do not have a criminal record, no legal action will be taken against them, and their rights will not be curbed," an Interior Ministry spokesman told Interfax. He said that according to international law, the deporting country must provide the country of destination a list of the deported asylum seekers. "If such lists arrive, the persons listed will definitely be checked with our data base and through other channels," he said. The Dutch authorities on Wednesday decided to deport 26 foreign asylum seekers, among them Afghans, Somalians and Chechens, to their home countries. The international organization Human Rights Watch urged Dutch authorities to reverse the decision fearing these people will face problems at home. Diderick Lochman, an expert of the Human Rights Watch's New York headquarters, told Interfax that reprisals may be taken against these people at home. He added that they must not be deported. (more...)

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
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Chechen economics

Russian scholars and college professors try to help Chechnya

The Institute of ethnology and anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Academy's Complex Research Center in Grozny , the Chechen Ministry of Industry, Transportation and Communications, and the Chechen Humanitarian Aid Foundation have held a nationwide conference in Moscow . They aimed to find out what scholars and college professors of the Russian Federation could do for the reconstruction and development of the Chechen economy. The International Foundation for the the revival and development of Chechen State University had done much in the effort to arrange this conference. The conference brought together policy-makers, scholars, and journalists of Russian and Chechen background. Dr.Dena Batayev addressed industrial recovery and prospects for housing construction in Chechnya . In Batayev's view, Chechnya was really doing something in this field, and, in terms of the immediate needs of the Chechen republic, it was necessary, to rebuild 25% to 30% of the plant that used to turn out housing construction materials: several steel concrete plants and the Argun plant for prefabbed housing construction. All the other plants must, in Dr.Batayev's view, be reoriented for solid housing construction which is best suited for seismic-sensitive Chechnya . Reconstruction and construction projects require a complex approach - such was the basic message of Dr.Batayev's speech. Construction projects require financial backing but Chechnya has enough material reserves and an adequate number of working men for a full-scale construction and reconstruction effort. It all boils down, as it always does, to the problem of cadre. Experts in housing construction are trained at the Construction Department of the Grozny Oil College named after Dr.Dmitry Millionschikov. Sergei Arutyunov, who heads the Caucasus Department of the Institute of Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also addressed the conference. He is confident that fundamental research in Chechnya will return to, if not surpass, its level of the 90's of the past century, thanks, in a great measure, to the relative stabilization of the situation. Arutyunov pins hope on the Chechen intellectuals who ought to safeguard and enrich the cultural potential of Chechnya.
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Issue 168
20.02.04

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

20 February 2004  Plans for a student labour exchange in Chechnya
Professor Zargan Urkhayeva of Grozny State University has used a grant from a Chechnya aid foundation of the Russian and the American national academies of sciences to draft proposals for a student labour exchange in the Chechen Republic. The planned exchange should provide Chechen students with opportunities to integrate into the labour force and hone skills as well as make an odd ruble doing part-time jobs. The annual cost of running the exchange is estimated at 250 thousand dollars. This isn't actually that much, given a student population of 25 thousand on Chechnya's 14 campuses of Grozny State University, the Grozny State Oil Institute, the Chechen State Pedagogical Institute and a private law college. The regional government says it can shoulder the project.
(more News from Chechnya...)

19 February 2004  Georgia and Russia to step up control cooperation in Chechen part of border
Georgias President Mikhail Saakashvili has said that his country will be stepping up cooperation with Russia to prevent any armed groups or individuals from crossing the border either way. Any person who tries to cross the border arms in hand will be detained and brought to justice, Saakashvili told Itar-Tass. When snow thawing begins in the mountains, there may emerge the risk of armed groups penetrating into Georgia from Chechnya, Saakashvili said. The militants are posing a threat to everybody, in the first place, to Georgia. Saakashvili said that according to his sources currently there were no armed groups of militants from Chechnya in Georgia. Should they appear, the groups will be detained and disarmed, Saakashvili said.
(more News from Chechnya...)

19 February 2004  Qatar tightens security after top Chechen killed
Qatar has tightened security after last week's assassination of a Chechen Islamist leader in the Gulf Arab state, a key U.S. ally in the region. A car blast killed Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, a separatist guerrilla leader linked by Moscow to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda group, as he left a mosque after prayers in the capital Doha last Friday. "We had never had an act of terrorism on our soil. This incident has deeply shocked us and forced us to rethink about our security strategy," a senior Qatari official said. Within three days of the incident Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani approved an "anti-terrorism" law which Qatar's consultative Shura Council had been already discussing. "We are investigating the incident from all angles, including the local angle, of which there is little possibility," an Interior Ministry official said. He said the possibility that foreign intelligence agencies had carried out the killing was also being investigated. Yandarbiyev, 51, had been living in exile in Doha for more than three years. He was the first Chechen separatist to be added at Russia's request last year to a U.N. list of groups and people with suspected ties to the al Qaeda network. Qatar has barred media access to Yandarbiyev's son, the prime witness, who is receiving treatment for extensive burns at a local hospital. Gazeta.ru informs.

Russia - Chechnya

The pre-islamic customs, manifest in farming festivals

The traditional way to celebrate New Year's eve goes way back. The kindling of a new flame was a matter of utmost importance. A new flame was to be burning in the fireplace when New Year's meal was cooked. A long log was put in the fire. Its length determined how long the family would be celebrating. As soon as the log allowed the door to close, a New Year's party, with many good things to eat and drink, with dancing and jesting, could begin. Sooner or later, all logs got shorter, so that every family would sooner or later start celebrating . New Year's logs were prepared in advance: a standing tree, most often an oak, was put to dry. It was a great sin to use fruit trees for this purpose. The ancestors of today's Chechens believed that the forces of evil stepped up action on New Year's eve. They would, for protection, scatter things made of steel in the cattle-sheds and their living quarters. A plentiful meal offered guarantees for the family's wellbeing in the year to come. All creatures, including mice, were to have their bellies full on New Year's eve. Wheat breads were baked. The head, ritual bread was shaped as a circle, with lines radiating from its center. Breads with all kinds of filling in them were baked in addition to the magic one. The eldest member of the family got a square-shaped one while the guests were treated to round breads. Coins, grains of wheat or a spool of yarn might be hidden, for fortune-telling purposes, inside fancy breads. Other fortune-telling methods were applied on New Year's eve. A man was, for example, chosen to spend the night in the sanctuary. He would lie face down and keep his ear pressed to the dirt floor and would, in the morning, try to interpret what he had heard. The same kind of fortune-telling is known in Russia. A Russian village-dweller would go to a crossroads, mark a circle and press his ear to the ground. If he heard a loaded sleigh swish heavily by, next year's harvest would be good. If the sleigh seemed to be empty, the harvest would be poor. Chechens knew a very special method of fortune-telling. They would hold to light a ram's shoulder blade. Spots on the shoulder blade predicted whether next year's harvest would be good, what kind of weather they were to expect and even family developments. A similar method of fortune-telling is known in China. Young girls took advantage of New Year's eve in an effort to find out something about their future husbands. A Chechen girl would bake three very salty little breads. She would put two of them under her pillow and eat the third. The person who gave her, in a dream, a drink of water, was to become her husband. Young people or teenagers would put on their sheepskin coats the wrong side up, and either wear felt hoods decorated with horns or paint their faces black with chimney soot. Such dress parades, as well as the custom of singing carols and begging for penny gifts, are, incidentally, known, till this day, in many countries of Europe and America. But horse races on the third day of a new year are held in Chechnya only. The three winners should be given a horse, a saddle, a bridle, a whip or a piece of clothing. Nowadays, New Year's eve has nothing to do with farming. Neither does it with Islam. People simply get together on New Year's eve to say good-bye to the outgoing year and to welcome in a new and, hopefully, much better year.
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Chechen tarditions

The book "Vainakh Ethics" by Edi Isaev is an utmost important work at a time when the life in Chechnya is returning to normal. Edi Isaev is a historian, Professor at the Chechen State University, writer and publicist directs his book to youth. In introduction he emphasizes: "The norm of Vainakh ethics is the code of wise truths of people that reflects their ideals." The book is educational. It contains the ideas on ethics by thinkers of various people and various times from Epicurus and Confucius A.S. Makarenko and L.N.Toltoi. The second chapter is devoted to ethic norms of Chechens. The third chapter considers in detail traditional family ethic code. The final chapter is devoted to Islamic ethic norms. Materials from the book Vainakh Ethics by Edi Isaev is devoted to customs and traditions of Chechens.
(more about chechen traditions...)

Chechen cuisine

"The Chechens, like the rest of the highlanders, avoid extremes in their eating and drinking habits. What they usually eat is chureks or corn bread with mutton lard spread on it, and wheat stew with lard in it; water is their basic refreshment." "...Unleavend wheat or barley bread baked on charcoal, milk and cheese constitute their daily menu; meat is eaten, very rarely, by the richest of the Chechens." That was written about the Chechen eating habits in the 19th century. And it was not until the late 19th century that many vegetables grown in Europe - tomatoes, cabbage, radish - had found their way to the kitchen gardens of mountainous Chechnya. Chechen farming units have, since times immemorial, been self-sufficient, with only spices and sweetmeats being bought at the market. And, although they have become familiar with the cuisines of many other ethnic communities, the Chechen women cherish the very special culinary traditions of their own.
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