Rebels to be bought with Chechen cash
Òåêñò: Ksenia Solyanskaya, Artyom Vernidoub Archive photo
Senator for Chechnya Akhmar Zavgayev has devised a method to detain Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov. Zavgayev’s says they must be ransomed from the rebels for a high price. ''Rebels give teenagers $100 for [planting] a land mine, and we will offer $500 for information as to who ordered the terrorist act,'' Zavgayev explained.
The Federation Council member representing Chechnya in the upper house has suggested setting up a special fund under the council of veterans of the Chechen law enforcement organs. The fund will accumulate means that will then be used to finance special operations aimed at the detention and elimination of rebels, he reported on Tuesday. ''Work on the fund’s regulations is nearly completed, and a number of issues concerning its interaction with the Russian Interior Ministry is in the coordination phase,'' the senator explained.
According to Zavgayev, the fund will be sponsored by Chechen businessmen, who will have to donate rather considerable sums, since the apprehension of the Chechen resistance leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov will require more than just one hundred thousand dollars.
''The fund has not so far decided on the amounts of money it intends to pay for information on the bandits' whereabouts, but for information on bandits like Basayev or Maskhadov it intends to pay a significant sum. It is a question of hundreds of thousands of [US] dollars,'' Zavgayev said.
So far, no Chechen businessmen have publicly backed Zavgayev’s initiative. However, they have, somewhat reluctantly, been spending money on the restoration of their republic. At the same time, the FSB [domestic security service] has repeatedly hinted that Chechen businesses sponsor rebel units. However, those charges have never been backed up with sufficient evidence.
Gazeta.Ru contacted the author of the initiative, Akhmar Zavgayev, and asked how the informal mechanism of fighting the rebel leaders should function. It is known that he bears a personal grudge against the rebels. In September they killed his son Said Ali, a police officer, who may have tracked down the rebels who carried out a murder attempt on the head of the Nadterechnyi District of Chechnya, Akhmed Zavgayev, the brother of Akhmar and Doku Zavgayev. Last week Chechen policemen reportedly shot the alleged organizer of that attack as the suspect attempted to escape.
''If an award is being offered for data on crime, it is solved in 99 per cent of cases. That’s statistics,'' Akhmar Zavgayev recounted. ''Keeping that in mind, we have held discussions with [pro-Moscow Chechen administration chief] Akhmad Kadyrov, with the FSB and the Interior Minister. We have no doubts that over half of all the terrorist acts can be prevented. You may wonder how. Well, because most of the terrorist acts are perpetrated with the help of teenagers of 12-13 years old. The rebels offer teenagers $100 for [planting] a landmine, and we offer $500 for the information on who has ordered them to carry out the terrorist act. Thus, we will save thousands of human lives.''
The senator refused to say how high the price for Shamil Basayev would be. In June 2001 General Troshev had already suggested offering a $1 million bounty for the head of the infamous rebel. ''Whoever brings it will get the million. It is not important, whether it is Chechens or our special-purpose troops,'' the general said.
''Well, the rebels knew that Troshev does not have $1 million,'' senator Zavgayev said. ''But here, there will be a public fund, guarantees, and everything will be different. This is not about Troshev – I know Gennady Nikolayevich [Troshev] well, and respect him. But this must come not from the state, but from our businessmen.''
When asked by Gazeta.Ru whether anyone had already agreed to participate, he replied that many people want Chechnya to be a place free from any evil, and passed the receiver to his colleague, Isa Kostoyev, who represents Chechnya’s neighbouring province of Ingushetia in the upper house of the Russian parliament.
''From olden times in the Caucasus, when there was still no OMON [elite police], no prosecutors and no judges, a person who had suffered from a crime would go to a market place, rise on a cart, introduce himself and say: ‘My kin has been murdered…or my cow stolen, I believe myself insulted and guarantee that under no circumstances will I disclose my source of information if someone tells me who has committed the crime.’ And then he would fix a price he was ready to pay for the data,'' Kostoyev said. People donating money to the fund need guarantees of their personal safety, and our task is to ensure it, he added. 23 ÀÏÐÅËß 16:34
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