According to prosecutors, of 139 militants that, since July, had surrendered in Chechnya and undergone the check, only eight were held criminally responsible.
Photo: Yury Tutov
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Chechnya Stages Representative Surrender
Chechnya announced Tuesday the surrender of biggest group of militants since the start of the second campaign there. As much as 49 former fighters of illegally armed divisions, including militants close to Aslan Maskhadov, the late president of rebellious Chechen Republic Ichkeria, came out of the woods August 29, 2006.
According to Chechen prosecutors, quite a few amid surrendered have never held weapons actually. Of 139 militants, who yielded themselves to authorities after the July address of National Anti-Terror Committee Chief Nikolay Patrushev, only eight people are on the trial now and just one of them is suspected in grave crimes.
On Tuesday, the red-carpet action of militants’ surrender was staged in Gudermes, where a special police regiment named after Akhmat Kadyrov, the late president of Chechnya and father of Ramsan Kadyrov, is stationed. The journalists were duly invited to cover the event.
The mere appearance of surrendered guerillas was interesting. Most of them looked as if they had descended from mountains or come out of the wood long time ago, so smoothly they were shaven and so decent their clothes were. Their weapons, a dozen of Kalashnikov submachine guns and a few Mukha grenade launchers, were duly laid down nearby.
The militants were giving themselves up to Chechen PM Ramzan Kadyrov in person. “We’ve had no reliable information about the terms of appearance,” said Ali Suleimanov, who introduced himself as a former battalion commander of Ichkeria’s Army. “But we are certain today that no one intends to shoot us and that we are met as people.” Suleimanov stressed he has all reasons now to start persuading the militants, who haven’t responded to calls for grounding arms, meaning, of course, only those, who never killed or abducted the people. “The better part hasn’t fought for long, but they are hiding on fears of prosecution.”
So, despite all efforts of Nikolay Patrushev and Ramzan Kadyrov, only the people that were just related to militants, rendering services or supplying the food to them, are willing to yield. The real guerillas will surrender provided the State Duma declares an amnesty for grave crimes. But it is hard to imagine that authorities will ever agree to pardon the killing, terror acts and abductions even to end the military actions in the North Caucasus.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 30, 2006
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