The American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus

ACPC Weekly News UPDATE
December 14, 2009 – December 20, 2009

One family tragedy escalates the situation in Ingushetia
On December 16, a vehicle carrying Fatima Dzhaniyeva, the 27 year old pregnant widow of the late activist, Maksharip Aushev, who was assassinated in October, her 51 year old mother and two brothers, exploded near a police checkpoint in Nazran. The widow’s mother and two brothers died from the injuries suffered during the blast. Ms. Dzhaniyeva was hospitalized and remains in stable condition, and doctors are hopeful about the fate of her unborn child.

Immediately after the explosion, conflicting reports began to circulate surrounding the incident. According to witnesses and relatives of the victims, the vehicle had been stopped at a police checkpoint and thoroughly searched while the passengers were being questioned on the side by federal security servicemen. After getting the go-ahead, the vehicle left the checkpoint and exploded a few hundred feet away.

Initially, Ingush authorities, including president Yevkurov’s spokesman Kaloi Akhilgov, insisted that the vehicle had made a U-turn not far from the checkpoint and exploded after police first fired warning shots in the air and then at the vehicle after it refused to stop, claiming that either an explosive device planted in the vehicle or its gas tank had detonated. Later, the prosecutor general’s office issued an official statement which said that “law enforcement officials, prior to the blast, neither attempted to stop the vehicle, nor fired any shots.”

The next day, a suicide bomber drove his vehicle into a police checkpoint injuring 13 police officers and 10 civilians. Almost immediately, authorities established that the suicide bomber was 23 year old Batyr Dzhaniyev, brother of Fatima Dzhaniyeva who survived the car explosion the day before.

According to relatives, Batyr, who was studying at a university in the far northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk, must have returned to Ingushetia upon learning of the explosion that killed his mother and two brothers. It remains unclear how Mr. Dzhaniyev was able to obtain a vehicle and large amounts of explosives and plan an attack in such a short period of time. Local residents and observers were alarmed by the militants’ newly adapted tactic of recruiting emotionally distraught relatives to join their ranks or to become suicide bombers. This local tradition of blood feud, which historically was intended to resolve conflicts in the community in lieu of a functioning justice system, is still practiced throughout the North Caucasus and has become a significant factor behind the rising violence in Ingushetia today.

Despite the overall increase in such violent events since his appointment as president last year, president Yevkurov has been able to maintain the general support of the Ingush population, which generally blames the Kremlin and federal security services for much of the violence. Following the events that transpired last week, in an unprecedented act of support for president Yevkurov, a group of Ingush elders and spiritual leaders sent an open letter to President Medvedev asking him to “pay particular attention to the situation in the Republic of Ingushetia and to expand the powers of Y.B. Yevkurov in solving the problems of our society.”

The request for expanding the powers of president Yevkruov was made in reference to his limited mandate over the federal security structures operating in the republic. Many experts believe that despite many positive steps taken by the republic’s president since his appointment, such as last week’s historic agreement with the president of North Ossetia regarding the plight of Ingush refugees from the Prigorodny district, he has been unable to curb the violence in the republic primarily because of his inability to control the federal security services operating in Ingushetia.

For an in-depth analysis of Yevkurov’s presidency, read ACPC’s report “The Yevkurov Experiment.”