[Report by German Pronin: "'Go and Kill!': The Story of a Would-Be Suicide Bomber" -- Internet Version-WWW]
... It would be hard to call talking to this fragile little girl a conversation. I ask her questions in a room at one of the bases of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov's Security Service and we try to joke. Finding out that I am a journalist, my interlocutor initially wanted to run away but stayed -- her curiosity evidently outweighed her fear. She is poor at putting words together into sentences and pretends that the does not understand Russian although she is well acquainted with the words "TNT," "fougasse," "mine," and "shell." Security Service officials say one week ago the little girl was reminiscent of a little she-wolf -- she was shy of those around her and talked incoherently, mainly articulating her cover story.
Madina (her invented name) was born in 1989 to a poor family in a village in Chechnya's Kurchaloyevskiy Rayon. In 2003 she almost became an exchange pawn in someone else's game -- a few months ago, people began to groom the girl for the role of being a living bomb.
According to Madina, young people she knew were linked to her recruitment. They went through the "courses" on a fast-track program. The organizers of terrorist acts were pushed for time so they conducted the training in Chechnya. It is now clear that her "acquaintances" were not acting on their own initiative but were carrying out an order, looking for appropriate "human material" and getting money for it. According to some information, the order for suicide bombers came from Basayev's close entourage. Another few 14-15-year-old girls were being groomed for terrorist acts alongside Madina. First it was explained to them that they had to punish "the traitors -- Kadyrov's people and Yamadayev's people." Then they specified the task. They explained what Madina personally had to do simply: To take a package and to go up to a car of the Chechen president's Security Service at a filling station. The girl had to leave the package of explosives next to Ramzan Kadyrov's car and withdraw. They promised her 50,000 rubles for this simple operation. Madina's acquaintances were "having her on," of course -- it transpired that she would not have even been able to leave the filling station.
They told Madina that aside from the package she would also need another device "just in case." It is hard to say when the girl became suspicious. But after having been given the package of TNT and the so-called "suicide belt," she understood that it was a one-way street. First, Madina decided to get rid of the belt. She threw the piece of fabric stuffed with explosives into a river. She was still left with the package, however, which she had to take to the car at the filling station. She could not go back to her native parts without having carried out the assignment -- she would have inevitably been threatened with reprisal.
The Chechen president's Security Service is not disclosing the details of the operation to localize the would-be suicide bomber. Madina came into the operatives' field of vision and was detained. The girl was taken to a safe place.
Active work is currently underway in the republic to seek out and detain people involved in preparing terrorist acts and recruiting suicide bombers. Operations in the villages of Avtura, Shali rayon center, Bachi-Yurt, and other conurbations are bearing fruit. This is how Ramzan Kadyrov commented on the situation to your Utro correspondent: "The Wahhabites' tactics have changed now. The devils are having big problems with executors. Look at those who are putting fougasses or who are being forced to put on these belts -- they are 14-17-year-old children who know nothing about life. They are hunting for adolescents, including girls. The Wahhabites want to deprive Chechnya of its future. People talk about a 'trace of Palestine' in Chechnya and about 'Islamic warriors.' But there is not a gram of fighting for an idea or belief here. They are children from poor families who have lost their parents to whom they throw money, bind with blood, violate, and psychologically pressurize: 'Go and die,' they say. These are dirty methods to which there is only one answer -- the bullet. The people who are exploiting the youth of Chechnya to their own ends will be made fully responsible for it."
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