Nazran – The Saturday morning in Nazran, former capital city of Ingushetia, saw a bloody scene in which the Ingush police used violence, without the slightest hesitation to do so, against the frustrated, angry Ingush protesters out in the heart of the city.
The Ingush protesters were perfectly aware that they would definitely incur the wrath of the Russian Federation, just as it happened in Chechnya, if they had risen in anger against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Nevertheless, the man that the Ingush people still believe is responsible for whatever has happened in their country so far remains, doubtlessly, to be Putin. However, just to be on the safe side, the Ingush protesters directed their anger to their President Murat Zyazikov, someone with a background in the FSB, or the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. They even chanted an anti-presidential slogan that called for Putin’s intervention in the Zyazikov administration weakened all the more by corruption, bribery, kidnapping and executions without due judicial process.
Protesters were first discouraged from participation in the rally
Weeks of preparation for this public rally received remote support even from the Ingush Diaspora. However, the FSB took over the control of the city after it said on Friday in a statement that the resisters in Ingushetia were going to launch several "attacks" on public buildings. The FSB’s statement instantly rendered Ingushetia an area where it could readily conduct anti-terrorist operations. Its anti-terrorist operations included police raids without prior notice on homes, imposition of travel restrictions and ID checks.
The FSB even had the Muslim imams as well public prosecutors cooperate and prevent the public rally, although the religious leaders called before, during and after the prayers in mosques for participation in the rally. Gelani Merjuyev, a public prosecutor, appeared on a television channel on Friday night and warned the public against participation in the officially disallowed public rally. "Be smart enough not to be fooled into attending the officially unauthorized meeting," he said. Merjuyev also called for public obeisance to official orders to remain silent prior to the March 2 elections and accused those who organized this rally of mounting the tension.
Both Ingush Mufti Isa Hamhoyev and former Duma deputy Muharbek Aushev appeared on television to release a similar call for abstinence from the Saturday rally, as well.
Aslambek Apayev, an expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group on Caucasus and Head of the Committee on Protection of Refugees, pleaded for help from Putin to maintain the social order of Ingushetia because the public rally was only intended to protest against bribery, torture by security forces and the government’s indifference to all that: "All this is happening in a country over which you are presiding. I want criminals to be punished and this unlawfulness not to be let go unnoticed."
The people who organized this rally sent a written message to Zyazikov and the Interior Minister Musa Medov, both, telling them that they would be held responsible for possible use of violence against the protesters.
Violent intervention
Whereas thousands were expected to meet in central Nazran, it was only a group of some 500 people who met to protest the president. A special police team and the Interior Ministry’s OMON forces were already prepared to first fire in the air and then begin beating with bludgeons the protesters. This provoked an angry response from the protesters, forcing them to throw stones back at the security forces. In the meantime, the building of Serdalo, the state-owned newspaper company, was set fire to, as well. Many protesters were left injured and tens of them were put under police arrest.
Even reporters were arrested
The security forces did not allow reporters and representatives of human rights organizations to see their violent treatment of the public rally. The police arrested both reporters from Eko Moscow, Radio Liberty, Novaya Gazta and Russian Channel 5 and Yekaterina Sokiryanskaya and Timur Akiyev as the representatives of Memorial, a Moscow-based human rights organization. (Agency Caucasus)
