The American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus

Chechnya: Zakayev’s announcement of cease-fire falls on deaf ears

Just hours after the August 1st unilateral ceasefire announced by Akhmed Zakayev, a representative of the unrecognized Republic of Ichkeria, went into effect, militants staged an ambush in southern Chechnya killing five policemen and injuring six others. A three vehicle convoy carrying both Chechen and Russian policemen was attacked using rocket propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons in a narrow gorge connecting the villages of Shatoi and Sharoi.

This attack not only underscores a schism between Zakayev and the increasingly radical rebel movement led by Doku Umarov, but also demonstrated the militants’ reluctance to negotiate with Chechen President RamzanKadyrov. Regional experts interpreted the deal with Zakayev, who has been living in exile in London for the past nine years, as a desperate measure by Kadyrov whose image as regional strongman and effective leader is increasingly undermined by deadly militant attacks. Last week a suicide bomber killed four high-ranking police officers outside a concert hall in downtown Grozny.

This week, the Russian authorities released the identity of the Grozny suicide bomber and stated that he had been trained and brainwashed by a militant named Said Abu Sa'ad, an ethnic Buryat from the south-central Siberian region of Buryatia. Days after the announcement, Chechen authorities accidentally killed two policemen on tour in Chechnya from Yakutiya, after mistaking one of them for Abu Sa'ad. Human rights workers blamed the deaths on the overly-aggressive tactics of the Chechen authorities' who have been instructed to kill any suspected militants.

Related articles:

Chechnya ambush leaves five dead
BBC News, August 3, 2009
Identity of suicide bomber established
Caucasian Knot, July 28, 2009 (in Russian)

Other: Continued regional violence worries Kremlin

Just days after authorities announced that eight militants had been killed during special operations in Dagestan, militants attacked a traffic police checkpoint station in Makhachkala killing two high ranking officers. Just hours after the Makhachkala incident, a powerful roadside bomb exploded in Khasav-Yurt as the vehicle of the Chief of the Regional Ministry of the Interior passed. The official escaped uninjured, but the attack underlines the precarious situation in North Caucasus's largest republic where almost daily attacks on authorities have claimed at least 30 lives in 2009 alone, according to Caucasian Knot. Earlier in the week, a former leader of Alpha, Russia's elite anti-terrorist commandos unit, warned that regional violence posed a serious threat to Russia adding that Dagestan faced the gravest danger.

Meanwhile in Ingushetia, as President Yevkurov is still recovering after a brazen assassination attack last month, an apparent assassination attempt targeted Aslambek Sagov, the mayor of the republic's capital Magas. A powerful explosive device planted in an automobile parked near the mayor's residence detonated while he was dining with his family. The explosion did not injure the mayor or his family, but inflicted significant damage to 18 surrounding buildings. According to a report released by the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's office, 25 members of security services and 12 civilians have been killed in Ingushetia in 2009 as a result of militant attacks. In an interview last week, a leader of the opposition movement in Ingushetia, Magomed Khazbiyev, claimed that officials in Ingushetia pay off rebels in order to avoid getting attacked.

Also in Ingushetia, authorities citied 'safety concerns’ and banned human rights workers from holding a rally commemorating the death of Natalya Estemirova whose bullet-ridden body was found in Ingushetia after being kidnapped in neighboring Chechnya on July 15.