Jordanian Chechens distance themselves militants

ChrisD(RJ) chrisd at russiajournal.com
Tue Jan 28 06:03:12 PST 2003


Jordanian-Chechens do not back rebels in their native country Sun Jan 26, 1:02 PM ET By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer AMMAN, Jordan - Jordanian-Chechens have distanced themselves from political tensions in native Chechnya and do not finance separatists in the breakaway Russian province, a Jordanian Chechen leader said Sunday.

Sameeh Bino, who heads a committee representing Jordan's 80,000-strong Chechen community, said the message of Jordan's Caucasian Diaspora was relayed to the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, during a meeting late Saturday. "We don't have any contacts whether with Chechen rebels, or the Moscow-backed Chechen administration, because we are Jordanians," Bino told The Associated Press. "We have distanced ourselves from the source of the conflict and what we do is simply charity to our people." Kadyrov's administration claims that money raised by Chechens in the Diaspora under the pretext of charity is channeled to Chechen rebels. Kadyrov, accompanied by a senior delegation comprising Muslim leaders from the North Caucasus, arrived in Jordan Friday on the first leg of a tour that also takes him to Libya. He is trying to rally support for Russia's position in the Chechen conflict. Jordan has repeatedly urged Moscow to find a peaceful solution to the Chechen crisis and sharply criticized the Russian military crackdown in the rebel republic launched in October 1999. Jordan's Chechen community, which has preserved its traditions and language, is known for its loyalty to the ruling Hashemite dynasty. Many Chechens hold top government posts. On Sunday, Kadyrov discussed with Jordanian Religious Affairs Minister Ahmad Helayel closer religious cooperation, including ways to facilitate convoys of Chechens transiting through to neighboring Saudi Arabia to perform the Muslim pilgrimage, the official Petra news agency said. Before leaving Moscow, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Kadyrov as saying that "public and religious leaders of Jordan must know what the words 'Holy War' conceal." "They must realize that Russia is not fighting against Islam and Muslims. It is fighting against international terrorism, and terrorists are killing heads of district administration and villages, and imams," he reportedly said. Kadyrov's tour comes ahead of Russian plans to hold a March 23 constitutional referendum for the breakaway region, followed by presidential and legislative polls later in the year or early next as part of moves to stabilize the troubled region. Kadyrov, who fought against the Russians in the first 1994-96 Chechen war, is a contender in presidential elections. Russia has been at war in Chechnya since 1994, with just a three-year break following a troop pullout in late 1996 when the republic gained de facto independence. Moscow ordered its military back in October 1999 and retains a fragile hold over the republic despite the presence of some 80,000 soldiers in the region.



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