Dagestan where Imam Shamil and Ghazi Mohammed were born, provoked eventual objection from some intellectuals of
Caucasus .
A joint call on to lift the siege before it entirely ruined the lives of villagers came from both Abdurrashid Saidov, who is both a member of the Moscow center of PEN, an international association of writers, and a defender of human rights, and Magomed Abdulhabirov, who is Vice President of the Moscow Center of Culture "
Dagestan .
Both Saidov and Abdulhabirov first commented on the aftermath of the siege in their initial remarks: "The Gimri
village of
Dagestan has been entirely isolated over the past three weeks from what can be called a peaceful environment. The village is under siege by soldiers who have been actively involved as part of the plans by Russian President Vladimir Putin to combat terrorism all over North Caucasus in incidents that left thousands dead. There has never been such a long and massive clean-up operation, except for , against terrorism. A clean-up campaign of this kind is put into operation in a village where both Ghazi Mohammed and Imam Shamil were born and at a time when the whole of Muslims celebrated a religious festive. The electoral commission reported only one week before the military operation began that 90 percent of the 3500 people of Gimri voted in the December 2 Duma elections for the ruling party ‘United Russia’–something which the military officers tended to view as proof for public support for the Russian president. However, the normal course of life is today absent from Gimri. The village is suffering from a tight blockade of information. The Russian army imposed daily curfews that begin at 10 pm and end at 9 am; the villagers were disallowed to work out on the fields; and neither nursery nor elementary schools are allowed to continue their educational services. Words that come from Gimri say that the villagers are running out of food and therefore trying to flee the village. The road that links Gimri to Makhackala is important because it also connects the capital city to areas like Gergebil, Hunzah, Shamil, Tliaratin, Tsutin, Botlik, Tsumadin and Ahvah. The operation under way, however, blocked the access to those areas and forced the people in those areas to use an alternative road through Levashi. This alternative road is longer, and harder to travel."
They then turned their attention to instances of kidnapping that happen endlessly: "There have been several instances of kidnapping in
Dagestan over the past few years, almost none of which ever happened without the knowledge of security forces. And innocent people die in special operations, like this one, that seem to be solely intended to create public frustration, especially after people see live footage on their televisions of the war against civilians who have nothing to do with terrorism."
Saidov and Abdulhabirov, both, voiced their formal demand for international help to solve the situation in Gimri out: "We appeal to all Russian intellectuals, all members of the parliament of the Russian Federation, the government of the Russian Federation, all defenders of human rights, all members of the parliament in civilized countries, the European Parliament, and Congress of the United States both to join efforts to end despotism in Dagestan and to influence the administration of the Russian Federation to end Dagestan’s years of suffering from the breaches of human rights. We have the impression that the upcoming presidential elections are meant to prepare a war of victory across
Caucasus . If we cannot stop this kind of despotism today, it will expand to the whole of
Dagestan some other day."
Both intellectuals put it as clearly as possible that the youth of Dagestan are seeking help to build a nice, bright future: "Religious fanaticism does not definitely play a role at all in youths’ participation in the opposition against the official regime; young people protest anything socially negative, such as bribery prevalent in educational institutions, the bureaucratic mockery of families, corruption that affects all segments of social life, and bribery in general. The nation’s youth do not see the prospects of a good, bright future, because all their hope is gone. While the youth expect to see significant change, the administration keeps over and over again to wait for the arrival of the generation who are currently enrolled as future politicians in schools of Moscow and
Strasbourg . The present socio-economic situation of
Dagestan does not seem to allow for a chance to have peace all over the country. The recent elections came as further evidence for hard-liners to hold on to: They now tend to think more firmly that they will not be able to achieve none of their goals because the Electoral Commissions are there to make choices for them."
This intellectual appeal for international help ended with these final words: "We ask you to come up with formulations that will convince the two administrations of the Russian Federation and Dagestan of the need both to end the despotism from which the Untsukul region of Dagestan has been suffering for long and to lift the blockade on Gimri as soon as possible." ÖZ/FT
