Suicide Terrorists Hunted in Chechnya

Scouring operations on the eve of presidential elections may make Ahmad Kadyrov's pre-election campaign more complicated
On July 22, law enforcement authorities of Chechnya prevented two acts of terrorism at once. A land mine with a remote controlled detonator was discovered in the Oktyabrsky District of Grozny. An explosive device weighing 15 kilogram was found in a residential area of the Leninsky District. A large-scale special operation was conducted to liquidate the dangerous findings. The operation was started on Monday July 21 for search of people belonging to armed terrorist groups.

The military and the police resorted to emergency measures when they discovered an explosive device of 120 kilograms of plastid in a VAZ-21099 car parked near the complex of governmental buildings. Special operations against terrorists are held everywhere in and outside the republic. During a special operation in Nazran, a BMW automobile with three unidentified men was detained. When the people were asked to show their documents, two of them put up armed resistance and the third one blew up a belt bomb and died immediately at the accident site.
According to the Interfax news agency, none of policemen suffered at that.

Senior officers of the Chechnya police don't say the recently started operations are scouring operations. "We won't block residential areas, stop the traffic in the streets or introduce troops into the streets. Together with the military we are working to find out and detain people belonging to illegal armed groups," deputy head of the Chechen police headquarters Ahmed Dakayev says. "This is connected with the increasing number of land mines that we discover (we are lucky to neutralize majority of them) and also with the intention of terrorists to activate their subversive activity." Deputy Commander of the group of troops in Northern Caucasus Nikolay Berzeitis says "this large-scale operation won't have any effect upon the everyday life of the city."

Unfortunately, promises of this kind are often broken as together with people suspected of connection with terrorists civil population is sometimes detained as well.

These emergency measures also irritate peaceful population of Chechnya; the people are dissatisfied not only with the police and the military. They will be also dissatisfied with Ahmad Kadyrov who is considered to be a protйgй of the federal center at the forthcoming presidential elections.

Recently, Aslan Maskhadov made a statement that appeared on the website of the odious news agency Chechen-Press. The leader of Chechen separatists once again called upon the international community to interfere into the conflict in Chechnya. He warned that the Chechen opposition had enough strength, finance and resolution to keep on fighting for people's freedom until Chechnya was absolutely free.

Sergey Migalin